By Emily Bontrager
The Clark County R-1 School District board voted to approve the purchase of three new LION C electric school buses at their March 9, 2023 meeting. The new electric school buses arrived on Thursday, December 7 at the Clark County R-1 School Bus Garage.
LION Electric Customer Support Representative, Steve Usiak, walked through how the buses operate on Thursday morning.
The buses, which cost $375,000 each, were purchased with the help of an EPA grant.
The district also received $20,000 per bus to go towards charging stations and electrical upgrades.
According to Superintendent Ritchie Kracht, two buses will be used on shorter routes in the county because they have about a 120-mile range. The other electric bus will be used to transport students from building to building in Kahoka.
The plan is to have the buses out on the routes after Christmas. The buses will not hit the pavement yet, due to cameras that need to be installed and some electrical work that needs to be finished to get the charging stations fully running.
“We want to get the cameras in the buses before we put the kids in them and put them on the roads,” Kracht explained.
The buses will charge overnight at the charging stations at the bus garage from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
“The charging stations got installed this summer. The electrical panel to upgrade the electricity in the bus barn has been on backorder since last May. That finally came in November,” Kracht said.
Clark County is one of many schools in the area that has now purchased electric buses. Superintendent Ritchie Kracht has heard good things about the buses, and he has heard that they are saving money for other school districts.
“From talking with Andy Turgeon at Knox, he estimates between $4,000 to $6,000 per year in fuel cost, based on how much they pay for fuel and how much they pay for electricity,” Kracht said.
The new electric buses should help the school district save on their yearly cost, which according to Kracht will help free up money that can be spent in the classroom rather than on school buses.
