News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County School System will spend $695,030 to purchase seven new buses.
Putnam County Superintendent Jerry Boyd said the new buses do not come equipped with seat belts.
“There’s still a lot of discussion around seat belts. Some district have made a decision to phase in seat belts, so they have some buses without seat belts and some with seat belts,” Boyd said. “There’s still debate about the effectiveness of seat belts, especially in the event of a fire, which is one of the more common problems on buses that causes a quick evacuation.”
The Putnam County Board of Education approved a bid for the buses during Thursday’s night’s board of education meeting. Several board members questioned whether the vehicles would come equipped with seat belts and air conditioning.
Boyd said the district decided against air conditioned buses because of increased costs.
“In my understanding, it’s about $25,000 a bus to add air conditioning to each bus purchase. That would add 25-percent more to each bus,” Boyd said. “Would air conditioning on buses be a good investment? I don’t know. It’s a big expense for the period of time that we really need it, which is essentially the month of August.”
School officials monitor temperatures during extremely hot days. Boyd said other interventions could be explored to address buses without air conditioning.
“We may need to explore coolers on the bus so we know on those days that we have access to water,” Boyd said. “Maybe there’s some other ways to keep the buses cool when we don’t have AC.
Boyd said students do have the ability to lower the windows on buses. In addition, a top hatch can be opened to allow more air flow through vehicle.
The school system will purchase 5, 78-passenger buses for $104,226 and 2, 45-passenger special needs buses for $86,950. The funding comes from the capital projects and general purpose schools funds.
