Kaneland board wants to keep bus fleet

The Kaneland school board decided Monday it wasn't ready to give up owning its own bus fleet, without a detailed discussion about how to spend money in its reserves overall.

So instead, it bought 10 replacement buses, for $829,580.

The district owns 58 full-size buses. Monday, seven of them were out of commission for repairs, and the district is renting five buses for $110 a day through the rest of the school year, transportation director Jim Ogle said.

Ogle advocated leasing 30 buses for the next school year, and 28 for the year after that. Doing so would save the district about $100,000 the first year in repairs on old buses, and $250,000 a year thereafter, he said.

But owning buses gives the district financial flexibility, board member Pedro Rivas and board President Teresa Witt said. During the recession, the board reduced the number of buses it bought each year.

"It has served us well in very lean times to have that flexibility," Witt said.

That, however, led to a fleet where some of the buses are 15 years old and incurring expensive repairs, such as replacement of engines.

The vote was 4-3. Board members Cheryl Krauspe, Peter Lopatin and Gale Pavlak favored going with a lease.

A two-year lease for 30 buses would cost $739,140.

As of June 30, 2014, 43 of the district's buses had more than 100,000 miles on them. The oldest are a 2001 model that had 179,724 miles on it and a 2004 model with 181,818 miles on it.

Ogle said when the district purchases new buses, it puts them on its longest routes, to help extend the life of the oldest buses. The longest routes are about 26,000 miles a year, he said.

Before the recession, the district replaced up to eight buses a year.

It didn't buy any 2010 models, bought two 2011 models and one each of the 2012 and 2013 models. In 2013 and 2014, it bought a total of 11 buses.

Board member Ryan Kerry asked about buying 2-year-old buses. Ogle said that could be done, for about $70,000 a bus, but that the used buses wouldn't have the security cameras and the auxiliary heaters the district wants.

Adding those would cost another $15,000 per bus, making them only $3,000 less than new buses.