By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp. — During the regular Monday night meeting, the Brandon board of education voted unanimously to purchase three buses for the district.
“As you know, we got delivery in April of 7 buses, those buses replaced the ones that we were leasing, so that was a nice savings to the general fund,” said District Chief Financial Officer Jan Zeisel. “In the current bond application, we have $2.3 million set aside for new buses. The buses we took possession of, that cost us $835,625. The total for the buses that you will be hopefully approving tonight, that’s three buses, they’ve gone up a lot in price. That’s the $485,249. That leaves us $979,126.”
The three buses that will be replaced were purchased in 2014 and delivered in 2015, making them almost 10 years old.
“We have a total of 21 routes this year, 15 general ed routes and six special education routes,” said Zeisel. “And we have a total of 26 buses, so that leaves us just 5 spares, which is a little tight. A lot of times districts will have a little more than that for things like repairs or after school activities needing buses.”
The approval on Monday night was for three buses. Zeisel said the district is looking at purchasing eight more in 2025, and two more in 2027, which would replace all the buses that needed replacing until 2033. Those will be brought back to the board as needed for approval. The three buses that will be purchased are due for summer delivery.