The last two Elk City Public School superintendents have tried multiple methods to replace ECPS’s aging bus fleet.
After all, some of the buses were more than twenty years old. In fact, current ECPS teachers and administrators rode on some of those buses themselves as students.
Finally, last year, solutions were found. After one failed bond issue, the ECPS school board voted to approve purchasing new activities buses. Current ECPS Superintendent Sparks also found grant money to aid the venture.
But, voters took to the ballot box last year and overwhelmingly voted to replace the old buses.
On Tuesday, those five buses will be delivered to Elk City. The buses are all route buses and will primarily be used for transporting students to and from school.
“Last week, my wife and I were driving by El Reno, where Midwest Bus is,” Sparks explained. “I spotted that a bus in their yard said Elk City on it. My wife said that I was seeing things, so we turned around. Sure enough, it said Elk City. I called the guy and asked if our buses were in, and he said that they were. He had just been waiting on a transport to deliver them.”
Sparks was elated to learn that the five buses would be delivered this week.
Each bus is a 72-passenger bus. “First thing is obvious in that we won’t have to spend more on maintenance than the old buses are actually worse or worry about kids being stranded on the side of the road,” Sparks explained. “But, there are so many upgrades. A lot has changed in twenty years. These buses have much better driver visibility, but there are also signal alerts for other vehicles around when they are driving. The drivers will also get alerts if a student walks behind or in front of the bus in a blind spot. They also have a safety button at the back of the bus that requires the drivers to physically walk to the back of the bus so they can turn it off. This is called the ‘No Child Left Behind’ feature. Our drivers have always done this anyway, but it is an extra safeguard to ensure we know that no student is left on board when the buses are parked.”
Additionally, Sparks says the new buses have better fuel efficiency.
“As we did with the new activities buses, we will post photographs on social media. We will also allow the community to see them before school starts. Look to our social media to know when,” he said.
