CAZENOVIA — During the Nov. 20 Cazenovia Central School District (CCSD) Board of Education meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business/School Business Official Thomas Finnerty provided an update on the steps the district has taken so far to prepare for the upcoming transition to an all-electric bus fleet.

New York State has mandated that all new school bus purchases must be zero emission by 2027 and all school buses on the road must be fully electric by 2035.

Finnerty reported that he and a few other district administrators met with a grant writer the previous week to start the process of developing a request for proposal for a shared garage and electric vehicle charging infrastructure feasibility study.

CCSD has been awarded $25,000 in state funding to support the study.

The school district, the Village of Cazenovia, the Town of Cazenovia, and the Town of Nelson will use the funding to explore opportunities to consolidate bus and highway garage infrastructure and resources. The study will also examine the feasibility of shared electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

“We are going to commission a study looking at what services might be practical for us to share,” said Finnerty. “Would it be a charging facility only? Would it be nothing? Would it be a facility where we could charge and do repairs and maintenance to these electric vehicles? So, we are really at the beginning stages of [determining] what is really possible.”

The funding was awarded through the NYS Local Government Efficiency Program, which provides technical assistance and grants for inter-municipal projects targeting shared opportunities, cost savings, and the delivery of efficient, quality services.

The application was prepared on behalf of CCSD by Lauren Lines, executive director of the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association.

The grant requires a minimum local match of $25,000.

“The district and the [municipalities] would have to put up $25,000, and the state pays $25,000,” Finnerty said.

Finnerty also informed the board that the district commissioned a company to conduct a study of the CCSD bus routes to determine the types of buses that will be needed, the battery capacity they will require, and the charging infrastructure necessary to power the buses to operate on a daily basis.

Prior to that study, Finnerty asked National Grid to conduct an evaluation of potential transportation facility sites.

“They thought at that point that our current facility had a suitable amount of electricity,” Finnerty said. “Keep in mind, it’s on State Route 20, so there are lots of big power lines.”

Finnerty added that the district also considered the Fenner Fields location for a potential new facility. However, because it is on a smaller road, National Grid did not think the site was anywhere near ready in terms of the electricity available.

Once Finnerty provided National Grid with the study of the CCSD bus routes, the utility company took another look at the two potential sites.

“Now they feel that on the utility side, so on National Grid’s side of things, there would need to be about $500,000 of improvements to be able to give us, at our current site, the amount of electricity that we would need,” Finnerty said. “If anybody has dealt with National Grid at their own homes, they like to push those charges back onto the homeowner, so that $500,000 charge would be the district’s responsibility, even though it’s on National Grid’s side. For Fenner Field, on the other hand, where we have 90 acres of land that we can develop, it’s more in the neighborhood of $10 million to $12 million in improvements that would be needed to provide the electricity necessary to charge all the buses that we have. So, we know there is a need for improvement at both locations.”

He added that given the cost of the improvements necessary at Fenner, he thinks the district needs to figure out what can be done at its existing facility.

In other news

BOE member Ron Luteran announced that a lot of effort has been dedicated to getting the high school auditorium lighting system “up and running 100 percent.”

“I’m very, very excited to see that auditorium up and running with lights,” he said. “We still have a few things left to do with sound, but it’s tremendous the progress we’ve made in the last few days.”

During his report, Superintendent Christopher DiFulvio said he had the opportunity to attend the CCSD Jr. High Drama Club production of “Disney’s Frozen Jr.” at the beginning of the month.

“It was excellent, so congratulations to all of our students that acted, that did stage crew, [and] our high school students that helped out,” he said. “. . . And, as Mr. Luteran was alluding to, the lighting should be even better for our high school show, so I’m looking forward to that this spring.”

The superintendent also commended Dan Snyder for his exemplary work as a CCSD bus driver.

“As some of you are aware, I ride the buses, and today I road Dan Snyder’s bus,” DiFulvio said. “I don’t always comment, but I wanted to comment today because I think what I saw from Dan was really special. Not only does he know every kid’s name, but he also knows every parent’s name. Just watching the relationship between Dan and the students he transported today was nothing short of remarkable, so thanks to Dan and to all our bus drivers for all that they do to start our students’ mornings off right.”

The BOE scheduled a Dec. 5 public hearing on the district’s capital improvement vote, which will be conducted on Dec. 12, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., in the middle school auxiliary gymnasium.

Voters will be asked to consider a proposed capital project consisting of the removal and replacement of the roofing system at Burton Street Elementary School, the removal and replacement of natural gas fired hot water building heating plants and all associated components at Burton Street, and the replacement of select building automation controls at Burton Street and the Emory Avenue Complex.

The Dec. 5 public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

Cazenovia Central School District Board of Education 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.