By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The School Bus Yellow and Race Red options come at no additional cost, but the USD 428 Board of Education is going with Oxford White on three new 10-passenger vans. The Great Bend district approved the purchase during Monday's board of education meeting. Assistant Superintendent John Popp explained the need for more vehicles.
"There's a desire from our transportation department to have more for student transportation," he said. "This greatly helps our bussing people because we can send a team of eight kids and a couple of coaches in one of these and we don't have to send a bus driver for the whole day."
The district had originally looked at purchasing the vans locally but local dealers could not match the price offered by Shawnee Mission Ford. USD 428 will pay $166,353 for the purchase of three vans. Two vans will be used for student transportation and one will be used by Barton County Special Services. The district will receive a reimbursement of $44,360 for that van. Director Ashley Riley said the new van will replace an older model and make the recycling project run more efficiently.
"We did get them fixed, but that van has 151,000 miles on it and it is very old," she said. "Right now, they're using two Traverses to go around and collect recycling."
With the new van, students, an instructor, and the recyclables can all go into one van, freeing up the second instructor to continue assisting students at the high school.
By statute, districts cannot use vans exceeding the 10-person capacity to transport students. The Ford Transit vans are 12-passenger vehicles that will have two seats removed and recertified as 10-passenger vehicles. USD 428 will own the three vehicles outright and they will not be part of the fleet management program through Enterprise.