Brick Schools Seek Grant For Electric Buses

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township school district has applied for a $5.7 million state grant seeking to buy electric school buses.

The grant application, approved at the Board of Education meeing Jan. 16, is seeking to replace 20 diesel fuel-powered buses with new electric buses.

Brick Township has more than 100 buses in its fleet. Buses are not allowed, under state law, to be used for longer than a specific time, in most cases 15 years.

The electric buses would reduce emissions produced by the district's bus fleet, which will continue to provide busing to children even amid the state school funding cuts because Brick residents voted 5,724 to 3,990 in April 2007 to approve permanent funding for courtesy busing.

The grant request, for $5,696,445, would include the difference in price between the cost of a new electric buses and diesel buses, along with the installation of charging pedestals that can charge four buses at a time.

The zero-emission buses are estimated to reduce 17.1 tons of nitrogen oxide and 0.75 weighted tons of particulate matter over the 15-year life of the new vehicles, an estimated financial savings of millions of dollars, according to the grant application.

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