The Perry School District wasn’t expecting to purchase any more buses during the current fiscal year, though extenuating circumstances necessitated the purchase of two.

At the most recent School Board meeting, Transportation Director Troy Griffith presented a purchase request for two lot buses that will be ready to go right away. The reason for needing them so quickly, as opposed to specially built like normal, was because the District recently had two older buses removed from its fleet. Superintendent Clark Wicks explained, one bus hit a deer and was declared a total loss, while the other had too much rust and was deemed unfit to transport children.

Without those, the Perry fleet dropped to 15 total buses, which Wicks said is not enough for what they need. “Here’s the whole situation: we have to have buses that are up and running if we want to pick up kids, get them to school, and continue that service. So two buses for right now, (and) we will not be ordering one for fiscal year ‘20 next year. We’re doing a little up front purchasing to meet the needs this spring. Because we will have times where we need 16-17 buses in a day. We currently don’t have that.”

The school was able to get a $500 trade-in credit on the new buses, so the final purchase price will be $94,500 for one and $102,000 for the other. Griffith said the buses are largely the same as the ones the District currently uses, with a few differences that he felt were acceptable. The money to pay for the buses will come from the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL), as well as from the 1% sales tax funds. Griffith expects the buses to be in their possession by March 1st.

To learn more about the Perry School District, click the link below to listen to the most recent Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Wicks.

https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2019/02/12/lets-talk-dallas-county-2-12-2019-clark-wicks/