By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
As early as December, an electric school bus will be added to the Big Sky School District fleet.
In May, the school district received a $345,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Bus Rebate Program after its own students advocated for the change in a January 2024 board meeting. A group of three Lone Peak High School seniors—Libby Coltea, Frieda Fabozzi and Addy Malinowski—spurred the change through their presentation to the board about the environmental benefits plus long term savings of electric school buses.
Eight school districts in Montana were awarded funding to go electric in the 2024 round: East Helena, Bozeman Elementary and Anderson Elementary, Livingston Elementary, Stanford, Lone Rock Elementary-Stevensville, Alberton and of course, Big Sky.
According to the EPA, electric school buses offer reduced greenhouse gas emissions, cleaner air and a quieter environment for passengers, and reduced maintenance costs. And in a state holding the lowest recorded temperature in the contiguous U.S. at -70F, the logistics lend themselves well: electric buses still operate in frigid conditions.
In Havre, about 30 miles from the U.S. northern border with Canada, Allen “Woody” Woodwick with Havre’s Blue Pony School District thinks it’s a no-brainer to include electric buses in school routes.
Havre earned a grant from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to acquire two electric buses in 2022 at an 85% reduction in cost. The buses began regular routes in January 2023.
“The drivers like them a lot,” Woodwick said on the phone with EBS. “They are exceptionally quiet. You can hear the kids talk about you. There’s no oil changes. There’s no transmission flushes … They’re pretty maintenance-free.”
Woodwick spent 15 years as a bus driver, and in the last five years he’s worked in the shop taking care of the school district’s bus fleet and overseeing the building, maintenance, custodial operations and transportation as an assistant supervisor. Almost two years after transitioning to electric buses, Woodwick reported savings that sliced per-mile costs in half compared to diesel, better mechanic operations like doors opening and closing in subzero temperatures and a perk for drivers: a remote start so that drivers arrive to pre-warmed buses in the mornings and afternoons.
“With the grant funding opportunities right now, that is the perfect way to experiment,” Woodwick said, noting the upfront cost differences between electric and diesel buses, about $375,000 and about $170,000, respectively. Federal funding helps cut down the extra cost of electric buses.
In Big Sky’s case, federal dollars will fund $345,000 of the $375,000 total. The remaining $30,000 will come from the school’s usual bus budget.
The Big Sky students who pushed the initiative, with help from mentors Barbara Rowley and Lizzie Peyton at Big Sky SNO, received assistance in applying to the grant from Harlow’s Bus and Truck Sales, the company which will eventually provide the bus this year.
Peyton said it took a lot of research into the proposal and application to see how an electric bus would work for Big Sky.
“For me, it was all the front side of understanding and learning what the other school districts were doing, making sure it was viable, making sure we were able to debunk the myths … making sure we have a clear understanding of the capacity that the bus has,” Peyton said. She described a trio of cost, environment and health benefits as a “win, win, win.”
Electric buses will require a charging station, which will be located at a transportation facility near the school. In Havre’s case, non-electric buses remain the main mode of transportation in longer trips like athletic events which require coach buses to other towns in its conference, and electric buses are used primarily in fixed routes for school pick-up and drop-off.
Big Sky School District Superintendent Dustin Shipman said that putting the electric school bus to use will be a learning experience.
School districts approach the funding of bus depreciation differently. As an electric bus paid by federal money packs on miles, the school district will need to decide how to effectively plan for maintenance costs and the eventual replacement as the value of the bus depreciates on a schedule that works for the district, according to Shipman.
Shipman commends the work students put into the proposal.
“This was a grassroots effort by a group of students partnering with Lizzie and Big Sky SNO,” Shipman told EBS. “What always sticks with me about kids and students who really go after something is their passion and their awareness around how to make their community, first of all, and the world a better place.”
For Malinowski, who presented with her peers Coltea and Fabozzi, the experience was exciting.
“Our school takes pride in being at the peak of excellence,” Malinowski said. When she realized that other school districts, even ones Lone Peak battled in sports, were ahead on implementing cleaner buses, she hoped to support a more eco-friendly approach to transportation in Big Sky.
“I think it’s really empowering,” Malinowski said. “It just feels good to leave my mark on the school and feel like I made it a better place.”
She hopes the effort will inspire future students to take action on issues important to them. More than 300 miles away, Woodwick is so satisfied with the electric buses that he’s looking at ways to get more for Havre schools in upcoming funding cycles.
