By Danielle Smith

Leader Staff Writer

It looks like school buses powered by fossil fuels could be going the way of the dinosaur.

Oxford, along with six other school districts in the state of Michigan were awarded a grant that would allow these districts to receive electric school buses that would replace old diesel buses that no longer meet the standards the government had placed on diesel emissions.

The district will receive two electric buses. Officials are hoping for delivery in early November.

Most of the funds used to purchase the buses came from the settlement Volkswagen (VW) was a part of for violating the Clean Air Act.

The two buses cost $698,400 or $349,200 each. According to Ann Weeden, the school district’s transportation director,

money from VW is paying 70 percent ($488,880), while the district is covering the remaining 30 percent ($209,520).

Weeden said the final cost to the district for two electric buses, two charging stations and infrastructure to provide power to those stations will be approximately $231,502.

“The buses and the charging stations were covered under the VW (funds). The infrastructure is solely (the responsibility of) Oxford Schools,” she said.

“Our biggest expense is probably going to be our infrastructure . . . We had to run power out to set the charging stations and that infrastructure cost is about $20,000 . . . so total out of pocket cost for the district could be about $25,000, and that is coming out of my operating budget,” Weeden said.

Weeden explained how this all came about.

“We were approached by Howard ‘Mac’ Dashney, who is the senior advisor of the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation (MAPT),” she said. “At the time, we had a very old fleet and all but our minibuses at that time were diesel buses and they were pretty old buses. Since then, we have replaced several of them.”

After Dashney contacted Weeden, she then reached out to Sam Barna, assistant superintendent of business and operations, which eventually led to a formal presentation given to the school board during the spring of 2019. “(The school board) was very excited,” said Weeden, who has been with the district for 25 years.

In order to be eligible for this grant, school districts had to have diesel buses that were a 2009 model or older (which would not be considered “clean” buses), the buses had to be driven within the past two years, and they had to have used 850 gallons of diesel fuel in the past 12 months. Oxford met all of these requirements.

Out of the 49 buses Oxford has in its fleet, 28 of them are diesel, while the rest use gasoline. “Most of (the diesel buses) are on the road and I have several that are spares. So about four of them on any given day are spares,” Weeden said.

The oldest bus in the fleet is a 2001, which is one of the buses that will be replaced.

Another stipulation to the grant is that Weeden has to destroy the two buses that are being replaced. “When the electric (buses) come in . . .we actually have to drill a hole in the block so that the motor cannot be used again . . . the motors have to be decommissioned,” Weeden said. “Before we get our funding back, we have to have proof of that, so we have to take pictures when we destroy the buses.”

Once these new buses, built by Lion Electric Company, arrive in Oxford, Weeden said there will be training required, not only for the drivers of these new buses, but for Weeden herself and her technicians. “They are going to be different from what we have now . . . most of our full size buses are equipped with air brakes; these two are going to have hydraulic brakes,” Weeden said.

While it may take some getting used to, Weeden doesn’t think the different braking system will be a “big deal.”

Once training is complete, residents can expect to see the new electric buses on pavement closer to town as opposed to the back roads. “We want to extend the life of them as long as we possibly can and I’ve done the same thing with our newer gasoline buses. In years past, when we got new buses, they usually went on some of our longest, hardest, back road runs . . . I kind of looked at it a little bit differently, more so to extend the life of the buses so we’re continually moving our older buses to the back roads and trying to keep the newer ones (on the pavement),” Weeden said.

Weeden thinks the neighborhoods in the village will benefit substantially from the electric buses by eliminating diesel fumes. Due to their close proximity, areas around Daniel Axford and Oxford Elementary School experience the most diesel emissions. “I have 12 buses at DA and OES every day. That’s a lot . . . so I think that both of the routes that these (buses) are going to end up on are probably going to be DA and OES,” Weeden said. “Nothing is set in stone yet, but when you look at the number of buses they have there on a given day . . . once they fire up in the afternoons to leave those schools, there (are) a lot of fumes in and around those schools.”

Following DA and OES is Leonard Elementary with six buses while Lakeville and Clear Lake Elementary both have five buses that frequent their schools on a regular basis.

When it comes to distance, Weeden said that these new buses are capable of doing any bus route that she has, including out of district runs. “The buses we have ordered have a 125-mile range on them . . . The runs I’m looking at are doing about 50 to 55 miles per day, so with a 125 (mile battery life), we are looking at about using half of the battery life,” Weeden said. “These buses also have regenerative braking . . . so we are figuring we probably are not even going to use half of the life of the battery during the whole day.”

As of now, the electric buses will be plugged in to charge overnight at the end of each day. If it appears that the bus does not need to be charged as often, it may switch to every other day. The current diesel and gasoline buses in the fleet fuel roughly every other day, Weeden said. “Some of our old diesels have a 100 gallon tank. Most of them have a 60 gallon tank, so that’s a big difference . . . if I’ve got somebody that has a short route with a 100 gallon tank, they may fuel once a week, but when they fuel, they may take 60 gallons.”

However, Weeden said there is an unwritten rule where every driver fuels, or charges, at half a tank as a precaution.

When it comes to the longevity of these electric buses, Weeden said the bodies themselves can last, referring to her 2001 bus as an example. “The lifespan of the batteries, they’re saying, could be 10 years or longer before they need replacement. We’re not sure. We are hoping they last longer than 10 years,” she said.

Aside from being an asset to the environment, Weeden thinks students will be able to learn from having these revolutionary buses easily accessible, especially those students that are involved with robotics and auto shop.

“I think it is very cutting edge. It’s been almost two years in the process so it seems like a long time and it’s finally starting to really get exciting,” Weeden said.