Big Spring ISD board finds budget cannot fund three-point seat belts for buses, orders formal report to TEA

At its April 13 meeting, the Big Spring Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously that the district's budget cannot support buying school buses equipped with three-point seat belts as required by Texas Transportation Code §547.701(e)(1).

Trustee Tonya Becker moved that "the Board find and determine, based on the information and presentation by Administration, that the District's Budget cannot support purchasing buses equipped with three-point seat belts," and asked that the superintendent or designee prepare a formal report under Texas Transportation Code §547.701(f). Bert Otto seconded the motion; it carried 5–0.

Administration presented a follow-up report (Jeff Perez), laying out the current fleet counts and estimated retrofit prices. After the presentation, Trustee Bert Otto moved to accept the report prepared pursuant to §547.701(f), affirm the budget finding, and direct the superintendent to submit the report to the Texas Education Agency and take any actions required by Senate Bill 546; Jesse Salazar seconded the motion and it passed 5–0. The motion directs the report to include: counts of buses that (A) are not equipped with seat belts, (B) are equipped with two-point seat belts, and (C) are equipped with three-point seat belts, and the estimated cost to equip each bus not already fitted with three-point belts.

The board record does not include dollar figures or specific retrofit-cost totals; the motion requires the administration to supply those estimates to the board and to TEA in the forthcoming formal submission.