Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Western Boone transportation report: 323,280 miles driven districtwide; EV buses show fuel savings
Summary
Transportation staff reported fleet KPIs, maintenance practices and EV bus performance: four EV routes cost about $5,179 in electricity for the school year and displaced ~11,200 gallons of diesel; the board heard recruitment and route‑planning updates and accepted the report.
Transportation director Lisa and fleet mechanic Kyle presented a comprehensive transportation update to the board on June 8 covering fleet composition, service intervals, rider counts, miles driven and EV performance.
Lisa said the district operates 17 route buses plus special‑needs and CTE runs and reported that approximately 737 students are bused daily (AM figures), with annual route miles totaling about 323,280. She described how ride time is calculated (first student on to last student off) and noted constraints such as state rules requiring door‑side pickup on state roads outside town limits that affect routing.
Kyle explained the maintenance program, inventory tracking and preventive (PM) service breakdowns that helped reduce repair costs this year. Lisa credited Kyle’s parts inventory and disciplined PM work with a roughly $20,000 reduction in repairs and maintenance compared with the prior year.
On electric vehicle performance, Lisa said the four EV routes together logged roughly 31,300 miles last school year and that the total electric cost for those buses for the year was $5,179 — about $0.14 per mile. She presented a district comparison showing that driving the same routes with diesel buses would have cost about $90 per day (per set of routes) and estimated the fleet’s EV charging displaced about 11,200 gallons of diesel, approximately $45,000 in avoided diesel spend.
"We saved about 11,200 gallons of diesel by running the EVs this past school year," Lisa said, and noted charging was scheduled to avoid utility peak charges for nearly every day this year.
The board discussed driver recruitment and retention (still a challenge despite current staffing), midday runs for special‑needs routes, and CTE transportation mileage. No formal action beyond acceptance of the report was required; the board thanked staff and encouraged continued tracking of EV performance and route optimizations.
