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Washington Unified authorizes purchase of replacement buses; board to use discretionary block grant for initial units
Summary
Trustees approved a contract to purchase replacement school buses to address an urgent shortage and approved using Arts, Music and Instructional Materials (AMIM) discretionary block grant funding for the first four buses; the district said the buses are in stock and noted several existing electric buses are no longer serviceable.
The Washington Unified School District board on July 24 authorized a contract with A to Z Bus Sales to buy replacement school buses to address an ongoing bus shortage, approving funds drawn from the district's Arts, Music and Instructional Materials (AMIM) discretionary block grant for the first purchase.
Chief Business Officer Monique Soval told the board the district needs four buses for the start of the school year and expects to purchase four more during the year. She said the buses are in stock and available for immediate delivery. The contract total is shown in the meeting record as "913,6617" (formatting in the transcript is unclear); district staff said the precise contract documents and amounts will be included in the contract record.
Board members pressed staff on funding rules; district staff and trustees said the AMIM block grant (which expires June 2026) allows operational and transportation expenses that support arts and extracurricular programs, and will not restrict the district from using the buses for athletics, field trips, home-to-school transfers and other district transportation needs. Trustees discussed Prop 28 (the state arts and music funding stream) and noted that the district now has multiple arts funding sources, reducing the risk to arts programming.
Trustees requested a future briefing on the district's electric-bus fleet; several electric buses were described as not repairable, prompting questions about fleet resilience and safety. The board approved the bus procurement by roll-call vote.
