Youngstown schools to spend nearly $2M for new buses

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district will spend nearly $2 million to replace 37 buses in its aging fleet.

The buses — 30 from 2007 and seven from 2005 — are being bought from Community Bus Service Inc., Youngstown.

Harry Evans, district chief of operations, said the district’s fleet includes 70 buses and more than 30 of them are more than 20 years old.

Many have 240,000 to 300,000 miles on them and breakdowns are frequent.

“Some days we don’t have any spare buses,” Evans said at a school board meeting today.

The buses being purchased from Community Busing are equipped with digital video recorders and global positioning system devices.

Another 22 DVR and GPS devices are also part of the $1.97 million total price. They will be placed in 22 of the district’s current buses.