Thanks to a federal grant and rebate program approved by Congress, McCall-Donnelly School District Superintendent Eric Pingrey expects to slash his district’s transportation budget and reduce the district’s environmental impact.
The McCall-Donnelly School District is receiving $3.95 million through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s clean school bus program for 10 new electric school buses. Funding also covers the infrastructure and charging stations for the buses.
“Our interest comes first and foremost as a cost savings to our taxpayers,” Pingrey said in a telephone interview. “It was also appealing in that it wasn’t a hard grant to write. It wasn’t a hard application process.”
The buses are on order, and Pingrey hopes they will arrive at his school district in March or April.
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The move will begin to allow McCall-Donnelly to replace its fleet of 60- to 70-passenger diesel buses with 10 new zero-emissions electric buses. Currently, the district runs between 10 and 12 routes, has three activity buses and a couple of spares, Pingrey said.
Faced with what he described as skyrocketing fuel costs over the past few years, Pingrey expects the savings to be significant. Due to the increase in fuel costs, Pingrey said his district is only reimbursed by the state for about two-thirds of its transportation costs. Cost estimates vary, but Pingrey said transitioning to the new electric buses could decrease the cost of running a bus from about 50 cents per mile under the diesel fleet to 8 cents per mile under the new electric fleet.
“We hope this gets us to a net zero with the state so we’re not taking away from other areas to fund transportation,” Pingrey said.
The district serves about 1,400 students in portions of Valley and Adams counties.
Funding for electric school bus program provided by bipartisan infrastructure law
Funding for the clean school bus program comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (often referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in November 2021.
The law authorized the United States Environmental Protection Agency to offer $5 billion in rebates over five years to replace existing school buses with new zero-emission models.
During the first year of the program in 2022, the Genesee Joint School District in Idaho also received almost $1.2 for three new electric school buses.
Eleven other Idaho schools applied for funding for clean school buses but were put on a waitlist.
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Now, schools in Idaho and across the country can apply for the second year of rebate funding. The 2023 clean school bus rebate application period is open through Jan. 31, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s website. The agency expects to notify applicants if they are selected in April.
Ryan McGoldrick, a program director with Conservation Voters for Idaho, is encouraging Idaho schools to apply for the rebates because of the health, environmental and budget benefits. McGoldrick met with groups of high school students and school district transportation officials about the clean school bus program and said both groups shared concerns over aging diesel buses and expressed support for new zero-emission buses.
When McGoldrick talked with students about riding the bus, for example, he said one of the most common memories they shared was breathing diesel bus fumes as they waited in line to board the running buses.
“One of the most obvious benefits to me is student health. The health of the students, staff and drivers,” McGoldrick said in a telephone interview. “It’s a uniting issue. No matter who you are, if you are affiliated with a school, this is something people care about whether you’re a high school student in Boise or a fleet manager from a rural part of Idaho.”
McGoldrick hopes the State Department of Education will submit a statewide application for funding this year that could result in larger grant investments and allow rural school districts to sign on to the state’s application.
McGoldrick also wants to remind school districts that applied unsuccessfully last year to apply again this year.
Pingrey, the McCall-Donnelly superintendent, said the clean school bus program has been well publicized and several superintendents from other school districts have asked him about the program and application process.
“You are going to see a lot more of this, especially when it comes to cost savings across the state,” Pingrey said. “Our board was excited about it and thought it would be a great idea any time you can save the taxpayers money and run a more efficient operation.”
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