Youngstown schools’ aging fleet compounds bumpy financial ride

By Harold Gwin

Some of the reserve buses kept in the fleet are more than 20 years old.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district has been intent on cutting spending over the last couple of years, but it may soon have to spend some big bucks on pupil transportation.

The district is in need of new school buses, Treasurer William Johnson has told the school board’s finance committee.

“At some point, we need to address that problem,” he said, advising that the bus fleet is aging.

Committee member Lock P. Beachum Sr. urged caution, warning that spending money on buses will add to the district’s general-fund deficit that is expected to run about $10 million this year.

Youngstown has a fleet of 75 buses.

Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent of school business affairs, said there are some old ones, a few dating back to 1983 or 1984 that are kept in reserve as spares.

Vehicles manufactured in the mid-1990s make up the bulk of the fleet, he said.

All of the buses are certified by the state for use in transporting schoolchildren.

Every school bus in Ohio must undergo two annual detailed safety inspections by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, one scheduled before the start of school in the fall and a second, random check during the course of the school year.

It’s a “no defect” inspection, which means nothing can be wrong with the vehicle.

The state used to provide funding to districts to help buy new buses but ended that practice last year, making things difficult for districts such as Youngstown that are in state fiscal emergency with their finances being controlled by a state oversight commission whose primary interest is to see spending reduced.

Youngstown has been in fiscal emergency since 2006, and that’s the last year it bought a bus, purchasing just one vehicle.

The district bought six in 2004 and three in 2003, DeNiro said.

Johnson said the average life of a school bus is generally considered to be 10 to 12 years, and Youngstown should probably be replacing its fleet at the rate of four or five vehicles annually.

At the current cost of about $75,000 per bus, it can be an expensive proposition, and the cost is only going to rise.

Johnson said the price of buses is expected to grow to about $100,000 over the next few years, with much of that added expense due to increased pollution controls.

Youngstown has been able to cut transportation costs and could tap some of those savings to replenish its fleet, he said.

Termination of a bus garage lease and moving the fleet to the district’s outdoor parking lot on Teamster Drive will save about $300,000 a year, and an additional $300,000 to $400,000 in annual savings should be realized with a recently negotiated special-needs transportation contract, according to Johnson.

The district needs to show the state fiscal oversight commission that those savings are real and that it would be a sound business decision to spend some of those savings on new school buses, Johnson said.

gwin@vindy.com