Two area school districts are slated to receive new buses in the first round of Arizona’s Lower-Emission School Bus Program awards.

Miami Unified School District and the Young Elementary School District were awarded $110,000 each with which to buy a new school bus.

In a Dec. 6 statement, Governor Doug Ducey announced that 55 school districts and charter schools across Arizona were approved to buy 142 diesel and alternative fuel buses, totaling $15.9 million.

The Miami School District was notified Dec. 6 that it was approved for funding under the state’s program, said Lisa Marquez, the district’s business manager.

“The State of Arizona is strongly encouraging public school systems to scrap and replace old and high pollutant emitting school buses with modern, cleaner diesel or alt-fuel varieties,” she told the Silver Belt.

To help support school systems with this endeavor, Ducey authorized the use of money allocated from the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Environmental Mitigation Trust (VW Trust) to fund the state’s program, Marquez said.

The Arizona Department of Administration, Office of Grants and Federal Resources evaluated the school district’s application, in which it had outlined “our procurement process, proposed vendor, our method of scrapping the bus to be replaced, project timeline and our sustainability plan for our bus fleet,” Marquez said.

The Miami School District hopes to receive its new bus in the next 12 months, she said.

The Young Elementary District was also recently notified that it was approved, as well.

“It’s awesome,” said Wendy Boyse, who has worked in the maintenance and transportation department for two years.

The school can really use it and the kids deserve it,” said Boyse, who grew up going to school in Young.

With a student population of about 50 kids, Young currently has two buses — “one that we run and one that we have as a backup,” she told the Silver Belt.

The bus used on a regular basis is a 2007, which is still in great shape, Boyse said. “We take really good care of our buses here.”

When it arrives in Young, the new diesel bus will replace the school’s 1996 backup bus.

When Boyse heard about the program at the beginning of the year, she did “a lot of research” and participated in the webinar application process.

Boyse, who is also a school bus driver, has been working directly with Canyon State Bus Sales, which is building the brand-new bus.

The 48-passenger bus will be “specially made for us to suit our needs,” including mud and snow tires, as well as tinted windows because of the Arizona sun, she told the Silver Belt.

Boyse said that the Young School District is “barely going to have to add any money” for the new bus, which will probably be ready in time for the beginning of the next school year.

School districts in Pinal County slated to receive new buses include the Casa Grande Elementary District and Mary C. O’Brien Accommodation District, both in Casa Grande, and the Eloy Elementary School District.

The Mary C. O’Brien and Eloy Elementary districts will receive $110,000 to buy one new school bus each, while Casa Grande Elementary will get $660,000 to buy six buses.

In June 2018, Ducey had announced a $38 million plan to buy an estimated 280 school buses using settlement funds from the VW Trust, the Dec. 6 statement said.

Marquez said that to be eligible, public school systems had to meet the following two requirements:

At least 60-percent of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch during the 2017-18 school year.

Diesel school buses proposed for replacement must be owned by the school system, at least 15 years old, and have more than 100,000 miles.

“School systems meeting all eligibility requirements will initially receive an allocation for at least one replacement bus up to $110,000 for diesel fuel or $135,000 towards an alt-fuel bus,” she said.

As of Dec. 6, the state had received 118 applications from school districts and charter schools, resulting in requests for 362 buses at a total cost of $40.4 million.

Representing about 47 percent of total applications submitted, 55 completed and verified applications totaling $15.9 million were approved, the statement said.

A second round of awards is expected to be announced in the future, as staff continues to review the remaining applications and work with applicants to secure additional documentation.

Ducey said that finding new, innovative opportunities to increase much-needed resources for K-12 schools would continue to be a major focus of his administration.

Buying the buses will ensure that schoolchildren will be safely transported to and from school, he said.

“Schools can leverage these dollars or use cost savings from efficiencies to further update their fleets or for other capital needs,” Ducey said.

In January 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Volkswagen for violations of the Clean Air Act, after it had modified its vehicles to cheat emissions tests.

The resulting settlement agreement required Volkswagen to spend $10 billion to either buy back the vehicles or compensate the vehicle owners, as well as $4.7 billion to offset pollution from the modified cars, the Dec. 6 statement said.

Arizona will receive $57 million over the next two years.

The plan also includes money for other mission critical projects, such as supporting wildland fire crews and equipment for the Arizona Department of Transportation.