School buses at Alisal Union School District goes green

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- School buses at Alisal Union School District are turning green in an effort be environmentally friendly.

The district has five school buses as part of its fleet and is looking to add more buses by the end of the school year.

"Electric busses are nicer because they're quieter, especially in, uh, early morning route hours," said Roy Flores, a bus driver.

So far the Alisal Union School District has the most electric buses compared to other districts based in Salinas. They have five for now, but by the end of summer, seven of the buses will transition to electric.

"We want to be, conscious of taking care of the environment, but a big reason that we go after electric school busses," said Jim Koenig, Superintendent of the Alisal Union School District.

There are some downsides to going green, the district says the vehicles have low mileage.

"Range is a problem, not a problem for daily routes, but it is a problem." Koenig said. "It's something we have to deal with in terms of planning field trips," .

Koenig told KION that electric buses cost twice as much as diesel but thanks to grants, the money did not come out of the school district's pocket.

"Every one of our electric buses has been paid for 100% with grants from the state or local agency or maybe the federal government," Koenig said. "But we have turned we've been very aggressive in making sure that we go after, every grant for school busses that we think we are reasonably eligible for,"

Koenig said that the money for the buses came from a hybrid and zero-emission truck and bus voucher incentive project.

This funding helps replace buses from 2007 or older with electric buses.

The school district tells me although driving an electrical bus is not too different from driving a diesel bus drivers are still trained before taking off.