JAY – School Committee members unanimously postponed a decision to buy a new bus in order to form a committee to find out if the school system needs a fourth 2006 model. Three motions were made, and two rescinded, before the board voted Thursday night.
Superintendent Robert Wall had proposed buying the bus in a lease/purchase agreement and using $14,536 budgeted for a lease payment this year to pay the first payment. Wall said he expected lease payments to be $12,500.
In June, three Jay school buses were destroyed in a bus garage fire. Initially, Wall recommended that the board buy two buses to replace those destroyed. But, once the school year began, he decided a third bus was needed to reduce overcrowding on the buses.
Insurance and reserve money was used to replace two buses before this school year began. A third 2006 bus had already been ordered before the school bus garage fire; it’s expected to arrive in mid-November.
Concerns raised by board members ranged from having four buses in the fleet that would be the same age, if a fourth one were purchased, to whether the system could get by without buying a fourth bus and using the money to offset higher fuel costs.
With four new buses, the district would be able to build up a reserve account to buy buses, Wall said. He also said several of the buses in the fleet have 169,000 miles or more on them.
The new buses bought after the fire cost $56,000, he said.
Wall also said if the money was raised as a lease payment, it couldn’t be used to offset higher fuel costs.
“We really need to look at a long-term plan,” Vice Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce said.
“We do have a plan,” Wall said. He said that after the fire, the staff had worked all summer to make sure they’d have a fleet of buses to start the school year.
Wall said the fleet was never robust, and they were looking at a plan where they could bring fuel costs down.
Redmond-Luce suggested they form a committee to look at the impact of buying a bus and whether or not they need another new one.
She said she didn’t have enough information to make that decision Thursday. Under her motion, the decision will be postponed until the December meeting.
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