BETHEL — Routine rotation and decommissioning of school vehicles, put on hold as COVID hit, is now back on track as SAD44 begins to look to sell some of its old school buses. “Busses and district vehicles get pulled after so many years of service through a combination of mileage and state inspection requirements,” said Mark Kenney, superintendent of schools. Some of the buses are being decommissioned because they are “more than 15 years old,” according to Kenney.

Part of the problem is that during COVID, new vehicles could still be acquired, while there weren’t steps being taken to cycle out and sell old ones. “We started to accumulate a decent amount of surplus vehicles,” said Kenney. Some of those vehicles found an alternate use for a time, including being used as storage. These vehicles are now no longer necessary, as the district now has storage containers. “Having them sit down at the Telstar property and take up space to me doesn’t make sense,” Kenny explained. “I would love if somebody can use them.”

Another reason for the recycling of old buses comes from a change in transportation types. There has been a rise in the usage of vans for transportation. “Minivans are easier and more cost efficient,” said Kenney. ‘We used some of the COVID funds and budget money to increase our van fleet.” That, along with the lack of requirement of a bus driver’s license, has led to a switch towards minivans instead of minibuses.

Many of the buses are still in good condition. “The money to fix it up is not worth it for us, but it might be for someone else,” said Kenney. The current hope is to use the funds from selling the buses for replacements and maintenance costs on those that remain. “We have more buses than we need. The money would go back into the account to help with replacement vehicles,” said Kenney.

“We’re trying to build up some coffers a little bit so we don’t have to use taxpayer budget money all the time to cover these things” If the buses end up failing to sell, the secondary plan will be to sell them for scrap metal, as long as they are no longer taking up space in the Telstar parking lot.