In early June, Governor Doug Ducey released a $38 million plan to purchase more than 280 new school buses for low-income communities across the state, utilizing settlement funds from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust.
Holbrook Unified School District (HUSD) Superintendent Dr. Robbie Koerperich said that Holbrook submitted the grant requesting the funds to purchase four buses on Aug. 21. “The state intends to begin awarding funds in November,” he noted.
HUSD is in the practice of replacing two buses every year, which are funded by Impact Aid, money that is received from the federal government to replace property taxes that cannot be assessed to federal lands. “This year is unique in that the state is providing the district with between $220,000 to $440,000 to purchase two to four school buses using funds allocated to the state from the Volkswagen Emissions Settlement,” noted Koerperich. Ducey has allocated those funds to replace diesel school buses that have more than 100,000 miles and are more than 15 years old.
While HUSD is extremely grateful for the funds to help their aging bus fleet, it is a bittersweet proposition. “The state is offering $110,000 per qualifying bus,” said Koerperich. “But you cannot purchase buses with the specifications required to meet our needs in Northern Arizona where we contend with weather, dirt, mud, hills and mountains for $110,000.”
Each of the buses that will be purchased by the grant will require an additional $50,000 for the specifications needed to make the bus road worthy for the district. Four new buses will cost the district an additional $200,000.
“As a district we drive more than 2,500 miles a day delivering students to and from home to school. This totals more than half a million miles annually. We have students that travel in excess of 150 miles a day round trip to attend our schools,” said Koerperich.
With almost half of the students in HUSD residing on federal lands, it is easy to see where the miles add up. Approximately 350 students live on the reservation and attend the Indian Wells Elementary School, which is a HUSD school located 40 miles north of Holbrook on the Navajo Nation. The remaining 650-700 students that come from the Navajo Nation, Hopi Reservation and Petrified Forest attend school in Holbrook. Some even come from the Apache Reservation, although transportation is not provided for them.
Koerperich added, “We enroll students from 34 different communities on the reservation. Some who live in very distant communities are provided transportation by the Navajo Nation and live in the residence hall adjacent to the Holbrook High School campus.”
In January of 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Volkswagen for violating the Clean Air Act by modifying its vehicles to cheat emissions tests. The suit resulted in a settlement agreement that requires Volkswagen to spend $10 billion to buy back vehicles or compensate vehicle owners and $4.7 billion to offset pollution from the modified cars.
Arizona will receive $57 million over the next two years. The plan also includes funding other mission critical projects such as supporting wildland fire crews and equipment for the Arizona Department of Transportation.
