The Snohomish School District is now the owner of an electric school bus! The Electric Type C Conventional 71-passenger Blue Bird school bus was purchased with the help of a $300,000 Department of Ecology grant. The bus was delivered in mid-January and will begin on its daily routes in the coming days.

The electric bus is expected to travel up to 120 miles on a full charge. The district plans to use the bus on south-end routes that support Valley View Middle School, Little Cedars Elementary and Totem Falls Elementary students (approximately 80-miles per day).

The total price of the bus was $391,210 (there is no sales tax on an electric bus). Of that, $300,000 was funded through the grant.

The district’s current bus fleet just surpassed the 50% mark for alternative-fuel vehicles! 50 school buses in the fleet are powered by gas, propane or electricity, and 47 buses are powered by diesel fuel.

The last school bus purchased by the Snohomish School District was delivered in May 2021. It was an 81-passenger propane-fueled bus. Our cost was about $151,000 plus sales tax for a total district cost of about $165,000.

School districts receive state transportation depreciation funds to pay for the cost of school buses.Those funds can only be used to replace or make major repairs to a school district's existing bus fleet.

The Snohomish School District covers an area of 128 square miles. District school buses travel about 1,060,000 miles per year. In a typical school year, about 8,600 students are transported to and from school every day.