CAZENOVIA — On May 17, the Cazenovia Central School District Board of Education (BOE) continued its discussion regarding New York’s commitment to electrify the state’s entire school bus fleet by 2035.
The approved state budget includes a mandate requiring all new school bus purchases to be zero emission by 2027 and all school buses on the road to be electric by 2035.
BOE member JoAnne Race initiated the conversation by requesting that the electric bus issue remain on the board’s radar.
She noted that she has received inquiries from community members regarding the funding that might be available to facilitate the transition to electric.
BOE President Dave Mehlbaum announced that the April 27 edition of the Cazenovia Republican inaccurately quoted Assistant Superintendent/School Business Official Thomas Finnerty as stating that the May 17 school vote included a proposition for the purchase of three “diesel engine” buses.
“In fact, there are not diesel buses being purchased or proposed,” Mehlbaum said. “. . . Unfortunately, the Cazenovia Republican added the word ‘diesel,’ inaccurately, which then spawned somebody to write a letter to the editor asking people to vote down buses.”
According to Mehlbaum, the district has been replacing its diesel buses with “much cleaner” buses for at least four years; all three buses on the May 17 proposition are gas.
Mehlbaum suggested that the transition to EV buses be discussed in facility committee meetings early on, since the district’s current facilities lack the necessary charging infrastructure.
“If we were to approve three EV buses tomorrow. . . they are going to sit like a monument out on Route 20 because we don’t have charging stations for them, which cost upwards of $200,000 to $300,000 a piece,” he said. “We would need to do a capital project — plan one, vote on one, design one. So, we are probably a year to two years out from a capital project — which would ultimately raise people’s taxes — before we could even consider buying electric buses, which cost four times the amount. . . I would love to go forward and push for EVs, but unfortunately, we are not there yet. It’s definitely a conversation we should start.”
Mehlbaum proposed that a discussion of the district’s infrastructure needs be included on the agenda for the July facilities committee meeting.
The committee will then report to the BOE during its next public meeting.
Finnerty next informed the board that, at the suggestion of a taxpayer, he started looking into hybrid buses earlier that day.
He explained that he reached out to the district’s transportation supervisor, who immediately reached out to the district’s bus providers, including New York Bus Sales and Leonard Bus Sales.
According to Finnerty, Leonard Bus Sales responded, via email, to say that they do not have any hybrid buses available because the focus is now on electric buses.
“You can’t even get hybrid buses now because of the state mandate to go to electric,” Finnerty said. “She did make the comment ‘If you were to plan infrastructure today, it would take you about two-plus years in order to complete it before you could place a bus in your fleet. Ordering the bus is the easy part.’”
Superintendent Chris DiFulvio then announced that National Grid has already been contacted and is planning to work on an assessment of the district.
In the meantime, DiFulvio has volunteered to serve on a committee with some OCM BOCES (Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services) superintendents to investigate electric buses/infrastructure further.
He has also volunteered to be part of a statewide group related to electric buses.
Later in the discussion, Finnerty clarified that he is in support of the transition to electric buses for the sake of the environment, and that his intention is simply to inform the board that there are going to be hurdles.
He also announced that on May 25, he, the director of facilities, the director of transportation, and bus mechanics will be attending an event in East Syracuse where they will be able to see an electric bus and learn about the infrastructure needs.
The board also discussed potentially electrifying other district-owned vehicles and contemplated whether the district will qualify for funding to help with the transition to electric buses.
“I’ll keep you informed, and we will make informed decisions,” said Finnerty. “That’s what we do.”
Finnerty later commented that based on the district’s “2030 And Beyond” long-range facilities plan, the next planned project is a bus garage.
“Timeline-wise, we would be looking at a vote to approve that project a year from December, so December of 2023,” he said. “The timing really couldn’t be better for us as far as we might have enough information at that point to be planning infrastructure for electric buses, etcetera.”
At this point, Finnerty stated, the district can afford about a $5.5 million project tax neutral.
“But that was pre-electric bus infrastructure, so it will be interesting,” he said. “But the timing is good, I think.”
CCSD BOE meetings are usually held at 6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month. Meeting dates are listed on the district website and the school calendar. For more information, visit cazenoviacsd.com/board-of-education.
