BUSD to replace school buses with new purchase

The Bonsall Unified School District will be purchasing a new bus and is seeking buyers for five buses which no longer meet clean air standards.

One 5-0 board vote Sept. 15 approved the declaration of five inactive buses as surplus; another 5-0 vote Sept. 15 approved the purchase of a new school bus from A2Z Bus Sales, Inc., and a 5-0 vote Oct. 13 approved the purchase of the new bus using a "piggyback" clause with the Waterford Unified School District in Stanislaus County.

The value of all five of the surplus buses was declared to be less than $1,000 apiece. One of those buses, a 1989 Bluebird with a blown engine, has been driven for more than 300,000 miles. The other four buses which do not meet California Air Resource Board standards are a 1988 Bluebird with more than 325,000 miles which has not been used since 2008, a 1990 Bluebird with more than 250,000 miles whose transmission slips into reverse, a 1990 International with more than 300,000 miles and an inoperable and obsolete wheelchair lift, and a 1995 Thomas with more than 225,000 miles which has not been used since 2008.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a National Clean Diesel Campaign which requires all school buses to adhere to certain emissions regulations. "It puts us into a place where we have to buy more buses. We don't have a choice. The buses that we have don't meet the law any more," said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

"We're looking for buyers," Cunningham said. "Some people are talking about them just as scrap."

The new bus will allow the district to serve its increasing enrollment.

"We have this new high school that's growing,"

Cunningham said.

"As we grow and develop we want to be able to serve the community," Cunningham said. "We do need to provide the bare minimum for transportation that we established in the budget."

Parents in the Lake Rancho Viejo area have requested that the district provide bus service to transport their children to Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High School. Approximately 40 to 45 Lake Rancho Viejo children would be served by the new bus in the immediate future. Because that route is shorter than other middle school and high school routes, the district will have a lower annual operating cost and the bus will also provide the district with flexibility if another bus is taken out of service.

The new bus will also provide wheelchair service in the event that the district's only other bus with wheelchair capability is in need of repairs. "It's not just to serve that area, but also we need a backup," Cunningham said.

The bus the district will purchase has a 189-inch wheelbase. The contract the Waterford Unified School District has with A-Z Bus Sales includes a "piggyback" clause allowing other school districts to purchase buses on the Colton company's list. The $174,948.09 cost of the BUSD bus includes the 8 percent sales tax as well as the $164,017.78 purchase price.