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“School districts need to understand their state specifications and the processes for spec’ing a school bus for their needs and not listen to somebody who’s trying to do a bill of sale,” Kenney said. “Tey also have to un- derstand federal requirements and national standards, so there are three layers.” Too often, he continued, school officials
and transportation directors have a bad habit of specifying new buses like they always have without checking out the latest technology. “Tey shouldn’t continue to do what they’ve been doing for years because it costs them money and us money — all of us,” said Ken- ney, who is chair of the Body Chassis Writing Committee for the National Congress on School Transportation, which will reconvene in May 2015. “Tey need to research and be aware of what technologies are out there [to] save money in the long term.” While 2002 is the average model year of
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school buses in Washington state, Kenney said regional and state officials aim to short- en these life spans. “Our legislature is committed to keeping the fleet up. Tis helps keep the mainte- nance prices down,” he added. Rich Robins, transportation director for
the rural Indiana district North Miami Community Schools, said the state legisla- ture’s decision in 2010 to allow school district officials to tap allocated bus-replacement funds for other purposes has completely altered his bus replacement schedule. With 24 school buses, Robins said it has
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Supplier Council Member 24 School Transportation News March 2013
been challenging to provide service to a growing special-needs population. In light of this mandate, he stressed that school districts should receive enough funding to transport these students safely, especially smaller districts like his that have to “pour money” into a 12-year-old bus just to pro- vide proper maintenance. Before the legislative change, Robins noted his maintenance costs were minimal because he kept buses for 10 years: seven years on routes and three as spares. “Now the state says we have to keep them for 12 years,” he said. “We probably have 100 miles of gravel road, and our blacktops are pretty rough, so our buses take a beating. We need to replace our buses more often because of that, so it really puts a damper on it.”
‘A MIXED BAG’ Robins said he purchased five 2010-mod-
el-year buses at once because he saved $24,000 on two of the buses that the local dealer wanted to move after funding fell through for the original buyer.
“I jumped at that because I thought it would
be more cost-effective,” he recalled. “Tat was prior to the 12-year change. Down the road, that’s going to be a problem. I’ll have five buses that are 12 years old in the same year.” Robins expressed concern about the amount of money required to keep 12-year- old buses up and running on routes of up to 350 miles per day — particularly for fuel. “We’ve had to look at ways to save money,”
he said. “We implemented a five-minute idling rule and that saved us about 1 to 1.5 miles per gallon, which is a pretty good savings. We extended our service intervals to 3,000 miles instead of 2,000. I don’t want to go any longer because of the safety issue.” Angelo Balesano, transportation coor- dinator at Glastonbury (Conn.) Public Schools, would be happy with a fleet averag- ing 12 years of age. Currently his fleet is “a mixed bag” with the oldest bus approaching 18 years. While he was disappointed when the school board didn’t approve a more aggressive bus replacement schedule — six per year instead of four — he said he under- stands the district has limited resources. “Tere is a new security initiative they
have to fund that was passed by the town council. We’re located about 45 minutes from Newtown (home of Sandy Hook Elementary),” Balesano explained. “So I get it. Te board has been very supportive … I’m happy they are letting me replace four buses a year.” Last year, the board approved increasing annual bus replacements from three to four, and Balesano said he would try again next year for another increase. “Typically we buy four a year. If we
increase it by two, we could turn it over in eight or nine years. If we don’t, then we’ll never turn it over. We’re trying to do it in increments,” he continued. “With new buses, you’ll get better gas mileage and not have to spend as much money on maintenance and repairs, especially on body work.” Superintendent Dale Fortner of Wad-
sworth (Ohio) City Schools said his district hasn’t been able to make any new purchases for the past few years due to budget con- straints. “We have some fixed costs in union
contracts and other commitments that make our budgeting even more challenging. As many districts have done, we have put off purchasing replacement buses and decided to repair the ones we have,” said Fortner. “Tis is a short-term fix, and eventually repairs and upkeep become too expensive in the long run.”
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