New school buses will soon be rumbling along the roads of Cobb County, thanks to a Thursday night vote by the school board. But a majority of the county’s buses will still be out of compliance with school board policy.
In Cobb County, the rules say school buses should be replaced after ten years. But 707 of the district’s 1,115 buses are more than a decade old. In fact, 180 of them are more than 16 years old, according to school board documents.
There was no dissent Thursday night when school board chairwoman Kathleen Angelucci called the vote to purchase125 new buses. Of those, 100 will be standard 72-passenger buses. Another 25 will be 48-passenger special needs vehicles.
Parent Dylan McGee’s two children both ride the bus. He applauded the decision to update the aging school bus fleet.
“Oh, it’s very important, yeah. If they told me I’d have to pay two more cents in sales tax, I’d do it. It’s that important,” he told WSB’s Pete Combs.
McGee won’t have to pay two more cents in sales tax. Approximately $10 million of the money for new buses will come from the SPLOST IV penny sales tax initiative already in place. Another $926,640 will come from the Georgia Department of Education. The new buses should start hitting the road in December, with completion of the roll-out slated for spring 2015.