Bethlehem Central School District in Delmar, New York has installed power shutoff boxes for its incoming five electric school buses, but delivery of the charging units was delayed.


home accident that occurred two days after he was interviewed for this article. In Monroe, North Carolina, Union


County Public Schools dedicated its brand- new 27,087-square-foot transportation center in October 2020—complete with a two-ton bridge crane—but infrastructure for electric buses wasn’t in the mix there, either. The state’s sixth-large school district was focused on replacing a facility outpaced by its exponential growth as part of the Charlotte metro. “We’ve scratched the surface on


electric buses, but don’t have any immediate plans to run any,” shared Transportation Director Gregory Denton. “The infrastructure needed would be significant for charging buses and the current cost of electric buses is almost three times the cost of diesel. Never


30 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2022


say never, but at this time, there are no immediate plans to expand our fleet using electric buses.” Denton noted that he and his staff will


study the federal infrastructure bill and may consider a purchase if federal funds make such a decision cost competitive. “Charging buses won’t be free, so it will be interesting to see how much difference there is in running and maintaining electric buses versus our current diesel fleet,” he said. The Humble (Texas) Independent School District, which serves a suburb north of Houston, broke ground on its $11.7 million, 23,000-square-foot North Transportation Center in November 2020 and opened its doors last August. Director of Transportation J.P. Burd pointed to issues with the area’s challenging weather


667


The number of electric school buses that were built over the past year, according to vehicle


manufacturers, or about 2% of the


total production.


(For the production period Nov. 1, 2020 – Oct. 31, 2021)


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