The Cost Of Going Green Hits Home

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Water Valley School District Transportation Director Craig King has quite the reputation as a negotiator, fixer and penny-pincher. My familiarity with his skillset comes from attending many school board meetings. I have heard school officials joke more than once that they were going to take King with them when purchasing their next vehicle. It sounds like when the deal is done, the seller is almost ready to pay King to take a good school bus off their hands.

King maintains the school’s fleet of buses, and anytime a replacement is needed he searches far and wide for the best deal. But even King is struggling to find a good buy on a couple of used diesel buses the district needs. One problem with the used school bus market is the influx of electric buses.
Sounds crazy, but in 2022 the federal government doled out almost a billion dollars to 389 school districts across the country for the purchase of electric buses. The cost – an astounding $395,000 each. This included nine school districts in Mississippi, with neighboring Calhoun County receiving almost $10 million dollars for 25 buses. Grenada County received $790,000 to buy two buses.

Part of the deal was that for each electric bus funded by the federal government, the school district was required to take a working bus off a route and make it inoperable – as in drill a hole in the engine block. That means 95 school buses were destroyed in Mississippi.

Apparently the roll-out of the Thomas Built electric buses powered by Proterra (Proterra filed for bankruptcy last year) has been extremely problematic. Many of the new buses had glitches and problems ranging from complete battery failure to minor bugs as soon as they were delivered. The massive battery costs almost $90,000.

Randy Goodwin, the school district’s business manager, explained the predicament to school board members during a meeting last week as he reported on King’s difficulty finding used buses. Goodwin also said that Calhoun County finally had the first five of 25 electric buses running just in time for the last week of school. Some of these electric buses were delivered months and months ago. The buses have an operating range of 135 miles, according to Thomas Built Buses.

“Any used bus that comes available that we used to get for $10,000 or $15,000 are now going for $40,000. They don’t stay there for a day,” Goodwin told board members.

Goodwin said a new “bare-bones” diesel bus costs around $125,000 and can take up to a year lead-time to get one. King has been looking since January for at least one used school bus and possibly two.

Goodwin joked that King would quit his job if the district officials ever decide to purchase electric buses for the Water Valley School District. I think we need to send King to Washington D.C. A dose of frugality and common sense would be a welcome change!