Electric buses and non-school buses set to improve PGCPS bus fleet shortage

Prince George’s County’s Board of Education continues to discuss critical improvements to their school bus fleet. With tensions rising regarding child safety and accountability, the Board considers an electric adjustment. (Pixabay)

Prince George’s County's Board of Education considered an electric school bus pilot program and introducing smaller non-school bus vehicles to improve the school bus driver shortage on Feb. 10 in an operating budget work session. 

“We are moving towards a time wherein in terms of being energy efficient and sufficient, I would say that we're looking at the introduction into electric bus service,” said PGCPS Chief Operating Officer Dr. Mark Fossett. 

Fossett and his transportation task force introduced House Bill 696  to improve efficiency in Prince George’s County’s depleted school bus fleet. House Bill 696 is an updated version of last year’s House Bill 832, which was the initial electric bus service proposition. According to Legiscan, House Bill 832 was introduced on March 18, 2021 and only gathered half of the committee's votes, which eliminated hopes of efficiency for the 2021 Fall semester.

This bill would allow a local electric company to offer rebates mounting up to $50,000,000. The incremental cost of buses and infrastructure would be provided for, with no less than 25 electric school buses state-wide. Stored electricity will be put back into the grid at no compensation to the Life Safety Systems. 

“Electric buses cost probably about three times as much as the regular school bus,” said Dr. Fossett. “But there are many programs there now, whether it's grant programs that are state-funded, federally funded, that will support us in the network so we are aggressively looking to add to our fleet.”  

A conventional Blue Bird electric bus seats 70 passengers with air conditioning features, and can travel 120 miles via one electrical battery charge , but can cost up to $400,000. Although these new additions are expensive, hiring people who are not school bus drivers decreases costs for classroom training time, COMAR’s behind-the-wheel training, commercial driver license with passengers fees and school bus endorsements. 

Prince George’s County Associate Superintendent of Supporting Services Dr. Charoscar Coleman supported the newest assets of House Bill 696’s. Expanding the fleet with smaller vehicles and commercial  licensed drivers increases availability for more eligible drivers. For instance, eligible Uber or Lyft drivers could join Prince George’s County’s school bus fleet, the 12th largest in the nation. 

“The possibility of integrating non-school bus vehicles to our fleet, would allow us to lease or purchase smaller sized vehicles for smaller routes and augment the staff because those drivers would not need to hold a CDL which will allow us to recruit and retain more people to serve our children,” said Coleman.