School & District News
With the new all-electric activity that joined LCPS’s fleet Monday are Superintendent Brent Williams, right, Transportation Department head Cindy Bruner and retired Transportation Department director Anthony Mitchel, who secured nearly a half-million dollars in grant funding for the bus and its charging station.
Quiet as a golf cart, one of only two all-electric activity buses in the state has rolled into Lenoir County as LCPS continues to modernize its fleet with an eye toward efficiency and a cleaner environment.
Unveiled Monday, the bus and the charging station that provides its “fuel” were funded by a $481,469 state grant and brings to about $1.7 million the grant funds that have allowed LCPS’s Transportation Department to replace older diesel-fueled buses with new, more efficient diesel-, propane- and electric- powered buses.
“I think our kids are going to be excited,” Superintendent Brent Williams said at the unveiling. “It certainly has the ‘cool factor’ with kids. They want to see what the electric bus is all about. Adult do, too. It’s really exciting to that degree. But for us, it’s just a matter of adding another layer of resources to Transportation.”
The bus will be housed at the district’s bus garage, where the charging station is located, and will be made available to all schools for field trips, chiefly in Lenoir County. The bus has an average range of about 150 miles.
“It is good for the environment, the cost is down, it does not need oil changes and the maintenance costs will be down,” said Cindy Bruner, who leads the Transportation Department. “The emissions (level) is the big thing because there will be no emissions.”
The electric bus could go into service as early as this summer for students taking part in LCPS’s several summer learning camps.