Multiple districts — Millions of dollars in grants from the state will help local districts clinch plans to add electric buses to their transportation fleets.
The Michigan Department of Education recently announced $30 million in funds for more environmentally friendly bus purchases, and Grand Rapids Public Schools, Kent ISD and Kentwood Public Schools were among the recipients. The state grants add to federal funding the districts received in May from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
GRPS and Kent ISD collaborated with Dean Transportation on the grant applications. Dean provides transportation services to both districts. Christopher Dean, the company’s director of innovation, said the funding “certainly makes both projects more realistic.”
Kent ISD received $2.3 million from the state for electric buses, chargers and site work. That will add to the roughly $3 million in EPA rebates to help fund the purchase of 10 buses for special-education transportation.
Mark Higgins, Kent ISD’s supervisor of finance and transportation, said the state funds will dramatically lower the prices of individual bus units.
“This brings the average costs down to $97,000 per bus after the state funds, which is in line with what a regular (diesel) bus would cost,” Higgins said.
GRPS received $1.48 million from the state for 15 EV buses on top of around $5.2 million from the EPA.
Kentwood will get around $1.5 million in state grants, which will fund four EV buses, according to board documents. The district previously received federal rebates of $800,000.
The state funding will also help cover infrastructure costs, such as work to install charging stations for Kent ISD at Dean Transportation’s 44th Street location, and GRPS stations at 900 Union Ave. NE — projects that are slated to cost around $770,000 for each district, said Dean.
The federal funding did not provide any money toward the infrastructure elements of the projects.
Infrastructure costs and requirements will continue to be evaluated, and Dean Transportation will work with districts to determine how to divide up remaining expenses.
But, Dean said, the plan is to have the EV buses on the road sometime next year.
“It continues to be our goal that electric school buses start hitting the roads in Grand Rapids during calendar year 2025,” he said. “We are continuing to work hard on the process.”
Reporter Joanne Bailey-Boorsma contributed to this report.
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