Sonoma Valley to boast largest electric bus fleet in county

By the time Sonoma Valley’s school children hop onto buses on the first day of school on Aug. 19, the district will have the largest electrical school bus fleet in Sonoma County. Nine new electric buses will be transporting the district’s 1,600 students daily from home to school and back in the 2019-2020 school year.

“We are really the test market in Sonoma County,” said Stacy Ledou, the transportation manager for the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. “People are watching to see which buses we’ll order and we’ll be inviting other districts to come drive our buses to try them out.”

Assistant Superintendent Bruce Abbott said he was excited that the Sonoma Valley Unified School District was “leading the county in this direction.”

The buses feature a slew of new safety features – the two most notable are a GPS bus-student tracking program, and video camera that includes a rear backup camera, a dash mount camera and a camera inside the bus.

The buses are also cleaner and quieter, says Ledou. They will have bright blue bumpers so the public knows they are a little different when they approach.

A typical home-to-school bus route averages 70 miles per day. The buses need six to eight hours to obtain a full charge and are plugged in immediately after a route. And Ledou said that air conditioning would dramatically lower each bus’s travel range, so there will be heat, but no AC on the new buses.

According to Abbott, each new electric bus costs around $420,000, but the nine buses have been acquired by SVUSD at almost no cost to the district. Ledou is an experienced grant writer.

“Each grant is different in terms of the process and requirements but we have had great success so far getting the funds we need to begin the process of converting our fleet,” he said.

The California Air Resources Board voted to invest $130 million from the Volkswagen “Dieselgate” settlement to purchase zero-emission buses, including school buses. One of the grants that Ledou applied to accessed those settlements funds.

SVUSD has chosen industry stalwart Blue Bird as its bus vendor for its first large order.

While its electric buses are more than twice as expensive as traditional school buses, Blue Bird promises lower maintenance costs. There is no need for engine oil changes, and no transmission or engine to maintain.

And the school district will enjoy a significant ongoing fuel savings, although Ledou said he would be unable to estimate the gas savings until the vehicles are in place.

“We will need to change our routing to get the most fuel efficiency out of the vehicle,” he said. Parents can expect that sometime in the fall, their child’s bus route will change. Ledou plans extensive communication with district families at that time.

Only three of the nine buses will be in action at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. Ledou’s efforts to get the buses out on the routes are being stymied by both manufacturing backlogs at Bluebird and the extensive driver training needed.

Ledou’s team needs time to educate both the drivers and school families about the new buses. Most notably, the new buses all have seatbelts and students will be required to use them. But will the responsibility for kids to buckle up fall on the drivers?

“We are still working on those exact details,” Ledou said.

For families who wait to hear the familiar rumble of the school bus before flying out the door, the new buses will take some getting used to.

“The buses are silent so families won’t hear them pull up,” Ledou said. The district may decide to employ a noise generator option – a tone like an ice cream truck – that can come on as the bus slows to a stop.

The District is applying for grant funding to cover additional infrastructure costs, including a new micro-grid dedicated to charging the district’s electric vehicles. Ten charging stations will be installed in the bus yard. Charging of buses will happen during non-peak grid hours as much as possible.

“I am excited to be on the cutting edge of this technology,” said Ledou. “Other districts are watching what we do, what buses we buy.”

Currently there are 22 school buses and nine vans used for SVUSD student, athletic, field trip and special education transportation.

While the state is mandating that all school buses be electric by 2035, Ledou said that SVUSD will hold onto a handful of conventional buses for as long as he can.

“Electric buses work great for home school routes but they aren’t great for field trips and athletic team transportation,” he said, referring to the typical 110 mile range driving limit.

The buses that Sonoma does retire will be used in partnership with the sheriff and fire departments for emergency response training (prior to being destroyed and shredded as required). Ledou has reached out to the drama department at Sonoma Valley High with the hopes that it can help to create a program to teach students how to avoid and prepare for a mass casualty vehicle incident using the old buses.

Email Lorna @ lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.