With the first day of classes less than a week away the fastest growing school district in B.C. is facing a seat shortage on school buses.

More than 300 students are still on the waiting list in the Sooke school district.

The district was anticipating roughly 3,200 students to need rides, but so far more than 3,500 students have signed up.

“Our first step is to make sure we maximize all of our routes, go through our waitlist quickly to get all those kids on the buses, and then find out if we need to add capacity,” said Jim Cambridge, the district’s superintendent. “From that point we go to the board and see if we can get more funding if required.”

This is the first year where there is no fee to take the bus.

The district says there will be stand-by buses for the first week to pick up any kids left behind.