By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Goodrich — On Monday night the Goodrich Board of Education voted 7-0 for the purchase of one school bus for the district. At a cost of $109,721, the district will buy a 2023 Cummins diesel 77 passenger school bus. The bus is off a lease and will include a full five year warranty.
“We’ve purchased two buses each year over the past two years,” said Mike Baszler, district superintendent. “We like to keep a rotation of buses.”
A new school bus is about $159,000, estimated District Business Manager Cristal Rousseau.
Michigan school buses are inspected on a cycle beginning each Sept. 1 and ending each Aug. 31.
The Michigan State Police for pupil transportation requires the repair of all red tag items before placing that bus back into passenger service. The yellow tag indicates the number of school buses found in an unsatisfactory condition, but are safe for operation. These school buses by law must be repaired within 60 days of the original inspection date.
According to the Michigan State Police, between Sept. 1, 2021 and Aug. 31, 2022 of 22 buses in the fleet, Goodrich Area Schools had 17 passed; two yellow flagged; three red flagged. In 2022-2023 they had 19 buses in the fleet with 14 pass; four yellow flagged and one red flagged. In 2023-2024 there were 20 buses in the fleet with 17 pass; 0 yellow flagged, three red flagged.