Purchase of one electric bus, four diesel buses on LTUSD agenda Friday

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Timing seems perfect to have a fleet of electric buses for the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD), but trustees have the purchase of just one on their Friday night agenda along with the purchase of four diesel buses.

The Board's annual organizational meeting is set for December 13 at 5:00 p.m. instead of their normal Tuesday meeting. During the meeting, they will elect a new board president and clerk, and elect representatives to El Dorado County School Boards Association and Lake Tahoe Educational Foundation, and assign annual duties for the trustees.

There are also a few agenda items including approval of the 2019-20 interim budget and approval of a consulting firm that will, for free, provide a holistic analysis of the district's organizational health as they search for a new superintendent.

The purchase of electric and diesel buses comes up on the consent agenda Friday, one where there is normally little to no discussion. The district's bus fleet is an aging one with 16 of their 34 buses at least 20-years-old, with many of the buses having well over 100,000 miles on their odometers.

LTUSD was awarded a grant through the California Energy Commission (CEC) to purchase an electric school bus estimated at $269,489 plus an additional $60,000 for infrastructure costs. The minimum seating on this type of bus is 16 passengers. The District opted to obtain a 24 passenger bus for a small upgrade charge of approximately $1,000 as well as other minor upgrades of $3,600, for a cost of $4,646.19 for one electric bus.

The four diesel buses that are proposed for the purchase cost $168,515.88 each, for a total of $674,063.52 which means approximately $78,000 annually will financed over 10 years.

The Tahoe Transportation District has purchased new electric buses for its fleet. They will use the new charging stations at Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) to charge nightly.

"In accordance with the goals of the Sustainability and Renewable Energy Committee Goals the district will obtain electric buses when feasible financially and logistically," states the agenda.

Liberty Utilities is launching a $4.7M program soon that will provide electric bus and vehicle charging stations throughout their service area, free of charge to school districts and parks. Liberty Utilities would pay for all electrical infrastructure, charging stations, and permits. They have funding to deploy charging stations at all local K-12 school sites and LTCC according to John Friedrich of Liberty Utilities.

In their agenda documents, LTUSD states the electric buses cannot go on the long trips required for the South Tahoe High School sports programs (Elko, Nev.) and San Francisco Bay Area field trips. According to board documents, last year buses took students from the high school and middle school on a total of 199 trips away from South Lake Tahoe for athletics and 350 other trips. 1054 trips were made in South Lake Tahoe and out-of-town for purposes other than home to school transportation.

Nick Exline, chair of the City of South Lake Tahoe’s 100% Renewable Committee and founder of the Tahoe Climate Change Action Network, said the move to new diesel buses will keep them in the fleet for another 20 years instead of making a move to electric.

Exline said the distance trips the buses need to take could "easily be mitigated" by renting a coach when needed. He said there are ways to "fix that excuse." He plans to be at the meeting to speak.

Board member Bonnie Turnbull, an environmental and climate advocate, will be attending the meeting via phone from the East Coast.

The meeting will be held at the LTUSD Board Room located at 1021 Al Tahoe Blvd.