Inflation has surged over the past year, in part due to higher fuel costs. As of October 15th, the price of a single gallon of diesel is $2.75 more than this time last year.
The Washoe County School District (WCSD) is pulling additional funding from their general fund and say that by the end of this fiscal year, they are projected to spend an additional $1.5 million on diesel for their school busses.
“It's a tremendous operation. We run a fleet of over 300 school busses, transporting students safely to and from school every day,” said Adam Searcy, Chief Operating Officer for WCSD. “Our fleet drives nearly 20,000 miles every day. Of those busses, about 80% of them run on diesel. And about 20% of them run on propane, actually. We have two all-electric school busses.”
The school district does not anticipate any impacts to services like cutting bus routes. However, they say at a certain point cuts will have to be made elsewhere if prices continue to rise.
It is important to note, WCSD does not have to pay taxes on their fuel, and they have their own pumps at their bus yard to fuel up. They go through a bidding process to pick their supplier and be as cost effective as they possibly can be.
“We're also always looking for efficiencies, always looking to optimize how we deliver the services without reducing or compromising what we do,” said Searcy.
As mentioned, the district is running two electric busses but right now, our areas infrastructure doesn't have the proper support to change over completely.
Legally -- the Washoe County School District does not have to offer transportation services at all as there is no law requiring it. Despite that, they say the benefits outweigh the cost.
“It's about establishing, reducing, and eliminating that barrier of access,” said Searcy. “We certainly have distance thresholds, walk zones, we call them. But we are doing so many things, including safe daily transportation to and from school for our students to help ensure that they can get to school safely and have that important experience at school.”
WCSD also notes that they are hiring for bus drivers currently, and almost always, to continue to provide this service to the community. A link to apply can be found here.
The gas prices referenced in this article are attributed to AAA. To check current averages, click here.
