School Board Votes To Apply for Bus Replacement Grant

The Putnam County Board of Education is looking to add more ozone friendly school buses.

Board members have voted to apply for TDEC’s School Bus Replacement Grant.

Putnam County Schools Superintendent Jerry Boyd said the grant would reimburse the school system for purchasing buses that utilize DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid).

“We have 13 eligible buses within the window of the grant that we could seek to address,” Boyd said. “We may not be awarded enough grant to do all 13 buses, but whatever the amount, we would proceed with rolling out those buses that we could.”

Money for the grant comes from a settlement agreement with Volkswagen after the company’s 2015 emissions cheating scandal.

The grant application indicates that eligible buses can be replaced with any new diesel, Alternate Fueled, or All-Electric vehicle. Boyd said the school system would like to replace the vehicles with new diesel.

“There are a lot of other long-term or hidden costs to totally transition to propone or electric,” Boyd said. “I think that’s longer-term planning and I don’t know if we could meet those long-term planning needs and sustainability of transitioning to electric or hybrid with just this grant.”

Putnam County Transportation Director Kim Bradford said 13 of the county’s 84 buses do not run off DEF, which is an additive to reduce emissions.

The school system would pay up front for the bus replacement costs and be reimbursed up to 50-percent of the cost.

Bradford said it would cost about $1.3 million dollars to replace all 13 buses, meaning the school system would receive about $675,000 in grant funding.

The grant application must be submitted by December 14th.