Albemarle County Public Schools to receive electric school buses

Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) are getting two new electric school buses, but unlike the vehicles themselves, they are not staying quiet about it.

On Friday Nov. 5, ACPS co-hosted an event with Generation180 to showcase the model of the new electric school buses that will be joining their fleet “most likely midway through next school year,” according to Jim Foley, director of transportation for ACPS. 

The addition of the electric buses is a part of Albemarle County’s Climate Action Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower environmental impact in the county. Currently ACPS’ fleet of 220 school buses travels an average of over 14,000 miles a day, and while the current diesel buses are around one third of the price of an electric bus, they cost significantly more in terms of fuel and maintenance costs, while also producing greenhouse gases. 

Albemarle County’s funding for the electric school buses was provided through a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) grant, originally announced by Governor Ralph Northam last August. Part of the funding for the grant will go towards creating infrastructure for charging the buses and other electric vehicles, and requires that the new electric buses replace older buses that do not meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) diesel engine requirements.

Louisa County Public Schools (LCPS) will also be receiving two new school buses from the DEQ grant besides the two it received in January from Dominion Energy’s school bus grant. “We did something we’ve never done before, which is that we ran those buses with 30 day paper tags,” said Deborah Coles, director of transportation at LCPS. 

“Last year we ran those buses on a shorter route because we weren’t sure what would happen … This year the new buses we’re getting will be running substitute routes, where we don’t know where they’ll be ahead of time,” said Coles.

“We have five transit systems in this community with their own buses,” said Diantha McKeel of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, “The next step that we need to take is to start thinking about how we can reduce the number of those buses, for efficiency’s sake, as well as the type of buses we have. I am thrilled Albemarle County is putting a pole in the ground and saying ‘we are going to be purchasing electric buses.’”