Horry County Schools approves purchase of 20 new buses

Horry County Schools snagged 20 new school buses Thursday that should hit the road in time for the 2015-16 school year.

The Horry County Board of Education voted unanimously to purchase the buses during their regular meeting Thursday night after asking the district to increase the number of buses by ten, in order to replace some of the decades-old fleet sooner. The district originally planned to buy 10 new buses for a total of $840,000.

“It was a great opportunity to invest in new buses with unused funds from the previous year,” said Neil James, district 10 representative. “When we found out we had buses older than the national average, we wanted to take action.”

The total costs of 20 new buses, to be ready by the 2015-16 school year, is $1,680,000, according to John Gardner, chief financial officer for the district. All the buses will be funded through the general fund, and the board also has planned to replace 10 buses during the 2015-16 school year, Gardner said.

In May 2014, the district authorized the purchase of 10 new buses at $840,000; the district bumped up that purchase to 20 buses earlier this month in order to replace more of the decades-old fleet sooner. Horry County Schools also looked into propane-fueled buses for energy efficiency, but those would increase the cost of each bus by $13,350.

“It’s really not cost-benefit to order propane-fueled buses right now,” Gardner said.

Propane-fueled buses would require special filling stations which the district does not have access to as of now, Gardner said. The district would also need to retrofit old buses to make them propane-accessible, but Gardner said the district could research the issue further before buying new buses next year, as planned.

“It’s hard to justify spending almost 16 percent more when there’s other challenges the district will face with propane buses,” James said.

The district needs new buses because of the wear and tear on decades-old buses, Jim Wright, director of transportation for the district, said. The extreme age of some buses – some from 1987 – occasionally cause operational problems for the district. Sixteen buses will be used for regular transit, and four will be used as activity buses.

The district owns 59 activity buses and 40 transit buses. There are 303 state-owned buses in use in Horry County, but state regulations require those buses cannot be used for students within one and a half miles of a school. Horry County Schools must use their own buses to transport those students, Wright said.

Every bus is inspected during the summer and maintenance staff fixes any problems, Wright said. The age of the buses, however, necessitates repairs throughout the school year.

The district has spent about $76,000 on bus work orders since August, Wright said. There have been 586 bus work orders since August. About $34,000 is spent on annual repairs, so replacing the older buses will cut down some of the costs, Wright said.

“Typically, a new car doesn’t break down as much as an old one,” James said.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Horry County Schools approves purchase of 20 new buses."