The school board has recently received a proposal from a company called Kerlin Bus Sales to apply for Drive Clean Indiana, a grant given to certain schools based on many factors. This grant would help the school corporation pay for two new electric buses. The current cost of an electric bus is $450,000; the grant would reduce the cost by 93%.
The decision made by the school board was not unanimous, however. One member abstained from the vote.
This grant was not recommended for all Orange County schools, and according to Ryan Lisek, Program Director for Drive Clean Indiana, Paoli was selected to apply for the grant because the school was in such a rural area.
According to Superintendent Greg Walker, Paoli was recommended to apply for the grant by a company called Kerlin Bus Sales because of the qualifications they have for said grant.
As for the project, Drive Clean Indiana aims to distribute 100 buses to many schools across Indiana.
“The project that we had applied for was the 2023 Clean School Bus Grant Program. We applied as the Indiana Clean School Bus Consortium for 100 clean school buses: 86 Electric School Buses and 14 LPG Buses for a total project cost $41,614,854.00,” said Lisek.
According to the Drive Clean Indiana website, The Clean School Bus Program will provide over $4 billion over the next four years to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models. The goal of the Clean School Bus Program is to educate Indiana schools on the benefits of cleaner fuels, reduce emissions, save operating costs and prepare them with information on the various upcoming funding opportunities, while providing safe transportation for school children.
If the school is awarded the grant, the current buses will be kept for future use. They will be used as field trip buses or for any other transportation they are needed for.
As for a timeline, Paoli can expect these buses sooner rather than later if they receive the grant. Lisek stated that the school can expect to learn more information around November or December 2023.
