LYNCHBURG, Va. – A brighter, cleaner future is coming to Lynchburg City Schools with the help of millions of dollars in federal funding.
The district received a $9.8 million grant from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which democratic Virginia Senator Tim Kaine supported.
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“It’s going to be good for the environment, good for the school board budget, and also you will see Lynchburg as a leader in the commonwealth on this,” said Kaine.
With the money, the district will purchase 25 new electric school buses, replacing a third of their current fleet.
School officials say the electric school buses will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We spend about a million dollars on fuel right now. It will save us about, we think, $250,000 to $300,000 a year,” said Lynchburg’s Deputy Superintendent Reid Wodicka.
While in Lynchburg, Senator Kaine also held a roundtable discussion with parents and teachers about what kind of challenges they’re facing.
One of the biggest problems discussed is attracting and retaining teachers and other school staff, which is what Senator Kaine’s new proposed bill, PREP Act, is aiming to address.
“The PREP Act is about how do we train the next generation of teachers,” said Kaine.
“We have a lot of classroom aids that are great, but aren’t full teachers, maybe because they lack a credential or they haven’t completely finished their degree. Can we go to our classroom aids and say, ‘Can we create incentives for you to finish the credentials and then you will be a full time teacher?’ That would be an example of the kind of things that we want to do,” he said.
The electric school buses are expected to arrive and be put to use by late fall.