Hot school bus rides prompt Avoyelles School Board discussion

About the only thing that might be higher than the temperature in a school bus in August and September is the cost of equipping that bus with air conditioning.

The Avoyelles Parish School Board’s Bus Committee -- spurred by a flood of online complaints about the lack of air conditioning in the buses -- discussed the issue at its meeting this past Tuesday (Sept. 17).

“People are complaining,” board member Aimee Dupuy said. “Can we invest in air conditioning for the buses?”

Transportation Supervisor Brent Whiddon told the committee that over 50 percent of the parish’s buses are over 18 years old. Only 28 of parishes 70-plus buses are five years old or less.

He said industry experts do not recommend retro-fitting air conditioning on buses that are over five years old.

The School Board periodically purchases several new buses to replace its old ones. However, those buses do not have air conditioning.

LaSAS purchased an air conditioned activity bus out of its own funds, but the buses running the district’s 74 bus routes do not have air conditioning.

Complaints from parents focus on the long bus rides that many younger children have twice a day. Some routes are over an hour long. Most are considerably shorter.
Costs $10,750 more

An air conditioned bus under the new prices for this year would cost $102,000 -- $10,750 more than one without air-conditioning.

Whiddon said it would cost $10,500 per bus to add air-conditioning. He also cautioned that adding air conditioning to any bus over three years of age would average about $2,000 a year.

“It’s a high-cost maintenance item,” he noted. Board member Rickey Adams said he rode a school bus to Avoyelles High and Riverside Elementary to experience firsthand what the parents were complaining about.

He joked about his being “well-insulated, and I do sweat,” but added that the bus ride was not that uncomfortable.

The worst part of the trip was waiting at the school before being able to get on the road.

Adams said many of the students were wearing sweaters and coats.

He said he had pulled down a few windows around him to reduce the heat problem. He said he had to tell the boy in front of him not to put the window up.

Adams said he did not hear any complaints about the heat from students on the bus.

PROPANE BUSES

The committee briefly discussed the possibility of buying air-conditioned buses if it is successful in obtaining a grant that would pay half the cost if the new buses were clean-burning propane-fueled vehicles.

The committee was told the state grants are funded through a lawsuit settlement with Volkswagen. Whiddon said the district is exploring the possibility of obtaining a grant to buy propane-fueled buses.

Even if the reduced price to the board would make it economically feasible to buy the more expensive buses, the School Board would have to consider if it would be a good move.

“I agree you have to start somewhere,” Superintendent Blaine Dauzat said, referring to replacing old buses with air-conditioned ones, “but if you have 10-15 buses with air conditioners and 60 or so without, how do you decide who gets the air-conditioned buses?”