Jamestown School Board meeting (March 12, 2024)
The Jamestown School Board is calling on New York State to pause a mandate on schools to transition to electric school buses.
Board member Pat Slagle said school districts across the state are sending letters to Governor Kathy Hochul asking for the pause.
He said the buses seem like a good idea but there are a lot of unknowns, “Here, being a rural district, how are we going to get up to Buffalo in the dead of winter and not have our batteries die? Does the technology exist right now? What happens if we lose power and the bus garage can’t charge the buses overnight like we planned? Now, we have to figure out how not to have school the next day. Obviously, we’re upgrading our bus garage and diesel generators to have backups to power our electric. So, there’s a lot of questions.”
Districts can only order zero emissions buses starting in 2027 with diesel and gas buses needing to be phased out entirely by 2035.
Board President Paul Abbott said he’s in favor of moving to electric buses but this is a state mandate that isn’t ready yet, “If this is something they’re going to mandate, they need to figure out some way, as you said.. us having to go to Clarence or Williamsville North or them coming down here. We’re going to have some kind of mutual aid agreements or something. And, compatibility of different bus manufacturers; how’s that going to work? You know, we have a different manufacturer of our buses than a school up north. We get up there and chargers aren’t going to work.”
Board member Frank Galeazzo said the cost of an electric bus is $200,000 to $250,000 more than a diesel bus which is a lot of cost to taxpayers. He said he thinks there needs to be a more hybrid approach to gradually move toward a full electric fleet.
Board member Christine Schnars agreed the deadline needed to be put out further and that the state needs to provide more funding to districts to convert their bus fleet.
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