It’s official. The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board members voted in a special Friday morning meeting to buy four diesel buses instead of five electric buses they voted to buy in November. The board also voted to table upgrading the bus garage for electric buses.
As previously reported, the special meeting came about to give time to the board to learn what was happening concerning the already approved EPA grant for electric buses. While the grant — for $1 million — was approved last year, the grant was frozen in January. The freeze was rescinded, but the money was not released. The board had until March 31 to stop the purchase without penalty and delayed the decision until the special March 28 meeting.
In addition to the EPA grant, the district had been awarded a $312,000 state grant for the EV purchase, but that went away because the EPA grant had not come in.
Upgrading the bus garage to accommodate the electric buses would have cost an additional $199,200.
“Without the federal EPA grant, we can’t, financially in good conscience, approve the electric bus purchase,” said School board Director Rashi Akiki. “The electric buses are a lot more expensive, and they only financially make sense if we get the grants.”
She added that the move to buy the diesel buses is not what the board wanted, but “We don’t have the time to decide. We need the buses for the start of the [next] school year.”
Akki said the need to commit to a bus purchase now is that the board voted to buy two fewer buses than needed last year. Being optimistic, Akki said that if the grant money is released within the next few weeks, maybe the district can get an extension and buy electric buses next year.
The vote to buy the diesel buses passed 8-0. Director Erin Talbert did not attend.
In motioning to table the garage upgrade, Akki said, “It just doesn’t make sense to do any bus garage upgrades at this time knowing that we don’t have a deadline associated with it. If for any reason we are lucky and we get these grants and we’re able to move the purchase of the electric buses to the next school year, then we can bring this motion back and do the appropriate upgrade at that time.”
The vote to table was 7-0-1 with Director Brian Schartz abstaining.
The four diesel buses will cost the school district $585,416. Director of Facilities James Whitesel said during the March 28 online meeting that the district will recoup some of that cost when it auctions off the four buses that are being replaced.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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