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Baton Rouge School District Awarded $19.6M for Electric Buses

East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools will use the money to buy 50 new electric buses, in addition to the 19 it bought last year, plus charging stations. They may take a year to manufacture and deliver.

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(TNS) — As it seeks to modernize its fleet, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system received welcome news last week that it has been awarded money to purchase 50 new electric school buses, all equipped with air-conditioning.

The $19.6 million grant will supply not only new electric buses — in addition to the 19 electric buses the school system landed a year ago — but also pay for new charging stations and training for school employees to support the expansion of the district's fledgling electrical power infrastructure.

The original 19 electric buses, which arrived in late December, took nearly a year to manufacture and deliver; the 50 new buses are expected to follow a similar timetable. And the school system may be in line for even more electric buses in the future.

Old buses, many in disrepair, were a key factor aggravating the student transportation crisis that marked the start of the current school year in Baton Rouge. These buses typically lacked air-conditioning, which made things worse for drivers and children during the sweltering months of August and September — only a third of the roughly 700 buses in the fleet currently have air-conditioning.

East Baton Rouge purchased or leased dozens of new buses in response to the crisis. Other school districts — including Ascension and Lafayette parishes — have voted recently to retrofit most or all of their old buses with air-conditioning.

East Baton Rouge's 50 new buses represent about half of a larger federal grant obtained by The Lion Electric Co. Lion is supplying 97 electric buses to five districts in Louisiana and Texas. This Canadian-based electric school bus manufacturer has been producing school buses since 2016. Its newest buses for the U.S. school market are being built at a new plant in Joliet, Illinois.

Monique Scott-Spaulding, a district administrator, said the East Baton Rouge Parish school system is installing charging stations as well as other infrastructure at its Sharp Station bus yard, work that should be complete by mid-to-late February.

Once on the road, these electric buses won't be able to run every route. Each bus can run a maximum of 125 miles on average, holding up to 71 passengers each. That's not long enough for the buses running the longest routes in Baton Rouge. The plan is to use electric buses on shorter, direct routes.

Scott-Spaulding said the grant does not cover everything and that the school system "will need to fund infrastructure improvements to house and install additional (Electric Vehicle) technology."

The school system currently has no mechanics on staff trained in how to maintain EV technology. Scott-Spaulding said Lion Electric is planning to train Baton Rouge mechanics and the company will provide ongoing support from its facilities in Illinois and Florida.

She said EV technology has advantages over conventional vehicles.

"A motor and a battery pack are the primary components," Scott-Spaulding said. "Reportedly, the EV motor has faster acceleration, reduced emissions, more efficiency as well as no oil combustion engine, which is environmentally friendly."

East Baton Rouge is one of 11 Louisiana school districts that qualified for the latest round of new electric school buses. East Baton Rouge and Morehouse, which is receiving 30 electric buses, are the only districts adding the new electric buses to their in-house fleet. The other nine awardees are a mix of traditional and charter districts serviced by private bus companies.

For instance, Cincinnati-based First Student Inc. won $15.7 million that will finance 40 electric buses for three of its Louisiana clients: Jefferson Parish schools, Central Community schools and New Orleans-based Collegiate Academies. Collegiate is receiving buses for Collegiate Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge and two of its New Orleans schools, Livingston Collegiate Academy and Rosenwald Collegiate Academy.

Another company, Highland CSB 1, won $31.1 million that will pay for 91 electric buses. They will supply clients in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, including five charter schools in New Orleans.

The money is coming from the $5 billion Clean School Bus Program, which is being administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Congress authorized the funding as part of the infrastructure law it approved in fall 2021. The grant pays to replace existing school buses with zero-emission or low-emission models.

"This funding means more electric buses and fewer carbon emissions, improving air quality for students and their communities," U.S. Rep. Troy Carter of New Orleans said in a press release. "Investments like these are why I voted for and helped craft the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Let's get moving, Louisiana!"

©2024 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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