Hartford Public Schools are one step closer to getting a fleet of electric school buses.
At their monthly Board of Directors’ meeting on July 25, Connecticut Green Bank officials unanimously approved a $1 million loan to the Hartford Board of Education and Autumn Transportation, the bus contractor of Hartford Public School system, to acquire 25 new electric buses by 2030.
In addition to this loan, Autumn Transportation was awarded a $9.7 million grant through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program and $837,000 in funding through the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), according to CT Green Bank’s Senior Manager for Clean Transportation, Kevin Moss.
“First and foremost, this is an opportunity to unlock close to $10 million in investment in Hartford, which I think is really exciting in a moment where I think federal investment is really uncertain,” Moss said. “Furthermore, I think that this is just a great chance to get to get some momentum going with Hartford public schools with school bus electrification.”
Hartford is recognized as a low-income community and also meets the state’s environmental justice criteria for the 2030 electric school deployment goals. Almost 79% of students in Hartford Public Schools qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
Hartford also has environmental factors Green Bank officials hope this loan will help address: 16.8% of children in Hartford have asthma, which is more than twice the national average of 6.5%. In Connecticut, 12.3% of kids have asthma.
“You can see that reflected in air quality data there as well, related to nitrogen oxide and diesel particulate matter,” Moss said.
When comparing nitrogen dioxide and diesel particulate matter in the air with other places in the state, Hartford ranks in the 96th and 80th percentiles, respectively.
“We see a really strong public health and community impact opportunity with this investment,” Moss said. He later said, “We see the opportunity to do a lot of good with this 25-bus deployment.”
Autumn Transportation may be open to future collaboration with the Green Bank. According to Moss, officials have expressed interest in working with the Green Bank to further expand its electric bus fleet in the future.
“We hope this is just the first step in terms of working with both Autumn and the Hartford public schools,” he said.
The East Hartford Public School District officials have also struck an agreement with the Green Bank for funding to expand their own electric bus fleet.
Dattco, the school bus company that is contracted with the East Hartford Public School District, received a $400,000 grant from the EPA Clean School Bus Program to acquire two electric school buses. On top of that, Dattco has secured $80,000 in supplemental funds from DEEP for this program.
The Green Bank unanimously voted to enter a $1 million contract with Dattco where Dattco will make “mortgage-style payments” over a five-year period to pay back the loan, according to Moss.
Like Hartford, East Hartford has high rates of poverty and childhood asthma. Around 60% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals in East Hartford, and nearly 20% of children in the area have asthma, according to Moss. When compared to the rest of the state, East Hartford falls within the 89th percentile for nitrogen dioxide in the air and the 70th percentile for diesel particulate matter.
“I think this is an example of us trying to make our electric school bus investments in an area, in a community where it will hopefully make the most difference,” Moss said.
Moss hopes that the agreement with East Hartford could be a launching point for agreements in other school districts in the state.
“We really see this as a great opportunity to begin working with Dattco… they’re one of the largest bus operators in Connecticut,” Moss said. “We just see them as a really key stakeholder to begin partnering with.”
In addition to East Hartford, Dattco works with school districts in Bloomfield, Coventry, Cromwell, East Haddam, Plainfield, Plainville, Thompson and Middletown, among other places in Connecticut.
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