Clay School Board Approves School Bus Piggyback Bid With Overton Schools

Clay County School Board approved a “piggyback bid” from Overton County Schools.

Chair Benji Bailey said the bid will be used to purchase a 78-passenger bus for almost $116,000.

“If we were going to do it on ourselves we would have to write the specs and do the bid like we would anything else,” Bailey said. “So they have basically done the leg work for us. And they have put their order in for this bus, and it was acceptable to our folks.”

Bailey said they try to buy a new school bus every year. He said three years ago the school system got a grant from Volkswagon for three buses. He said they were able to purchase two buses in one year, and decided to skip last year.

Bailey said it’s important to purchase buses in a rotation schedule. He said if you purchase too many at one time, it will hurt your budget in the future.

“We did need a larger bus this year in our rotation,” Bailey said. “So I think this was one of the only bids out there that we could’ve piggy-backed off of instead of doing all the specs and everything ourselves.”

Bailey said that average school bus prices use to sit in the $70,000 range. He said once the Volkswagon grants were introduced, that price tag went up to about $90,000 two years ago.