Kirtland Schools uses grant to reduce cost of buying four new buses

Everyone likes to get a good deal when buying a new vehicle and school districts are no exception.

So it’s no surprise that the Kirtland School District was pleased to use a state grant to significantly reduce the cost of buying four new school buses.

The Kirtland School Board on May 29 approved $125,000 in matching funds to be used in combination with a $225,633 Ohio Environmental Protection Agency grant to purchase four 72-passenger buses. Those new buses, which will be bought from Cardinal Bus Sales in Lima, Ohio, are expected to be delivered by early winter, said Schools Superintendent Bill Wade.

Kirtland School District received an Ohio EPA Diesel Emissions Reduction Grant to help fund the purchase. The district was among 52 applicants requesting more than $25 million in grant funding when it applied for the program in 2016. Kirtland Schools earned one of 29 grants awarded for a total of $12 million, and submitted one of only 11 school bus projects funded, a 2017 district news release stated.

In that same news release, district Transportation Director Sheila Dikowicz said the new buses will replace buses that are 14 to 21 years old. These older buses will be permanently disabled and scrapped as specified in the grant, reducing high emissions produced by older buses.

“The Diesel Emissions Reduction Grant will allow the district to buy four new school buses for the price of one and a half buses,” Dikowicz said. “The new buses offer durability, better fuel economy, meet emissions standards and provide additional savings to the district by reducing repair and maintenance costs on the older buses being replaced.”

Ohio Diesel Emissions Reduction Grants are supported with federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds allocated to Ohio by the Federal Highway Administration.

Although Kirtland School Board announced the grant award and authorized the school bus purchases in January 2017, the final steps to complete the acquisition weren’t taken until the panel’s May 29 meeting. The year-and-a-half delay was due to a variety of federally funded initiatives — such as Diesel Emission Reduction Grants — were put on hold until a federal waiver for the Buy America requirement was issued.

These Buy America regulations had mandated that steel, iron and other manufactured products in vehicles purchased with federal-aid funds be produced in the United States.

In April of this year, the Federal Highway Administration issued a blanket waiver of the Buy America requirement for federal-aid funds for state projects, including the Diesel Emission Reduction Grant program, said Dina Pierce, Ohio EPA media coordinator for the state office’s Northwest and Southwest districts.

“After the waiver was issued, the funding was released for school bus replacements and other projects,” Pierce said.

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