HOOVER, Ala. (WBRC) – Hoover City Schools welcomed 13 new air-conditioned buses this week and hope to have AC in all buses in the coming years.
Stepping into the triple-digit heat Wednesday was no joke and there’s plenty of hot months ahead. Luckily, the school system is preparing now to keep their students cool while riding to and from school.
The 13 new buses are 2023 Blue Bird buses equipped with AC and seven more will arrive in a few weeks.
Hoover City Schools spent nearly $2 million to invest in the comfortable buses.
It’s $25,000 extra to add air conditioning onto each bus so to help save some money, the district will be retrofitting 31 of their existing buses with $7,500 AC units.
Sherea Harris-Turner, HCS PR Specialist, says even more are coming next year.
“The school district is very fortunate to be able to have the funding to have this in our budget to purchase these additional AC-equipped buses,” she said. “The 2023 capital plan that was just approved by the Hoover City school board in June, this month, there is additional funding for 20 more school buses.”
The new AC-equipped buses will be put to good use this coming fall.
“Our students and drivers will start the 2022-2023 school year with 51 air-conditioned buses, which is half our regular education bus fleet,” said Jeremy Bradford, HCS director of transportation. “Based on our current plan, all of our buses will have air conditioning within a few years.
The special needs buses are being used for summer school transportation right now and they all have air conditioning.
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