Many students who ride the bus to school in the Marana district will be a lot more comfortable this year.
The district has 31 new "green diesel" buses, all with air conditioning, and several older buses have had air conditioning installed.
"On the first day of school, we will have 43 of our 69 large route buses equipped with air conditioning," said Tamara Crawley, the district's director of public relations.
Special-needs and trip buses have always had air conditioning, she said.
The cooling feature is a good thing, said Tawnya Caldwell, who's starting her first year as principal of Desert Winds Elementary, 12675 W. Rudasill Road. Her son, Zachary, who will be 12 on Aug. 9, is going into the seventh grade and will be riding the bus for the first time.
"Of course we want our kids to have air conditioning," Caldwell said.
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Plus, it might improve kids' conduct.
"I do hope that it helps behavior so they won't get so irritable. We all get irritable when we're hot."
The district will buy 60 more buses by August 2013 - 28 next year and 32 the year after that.
The buses and air conditioning are being paid for with part of a $43 million bond voters passed in 2010. "Student transportation" is getting $12.3 million of that.
Once all 91 buses are purchased, "We anticipate an approximate five percent savings in fuel as well as savings on repair costs," said Crawley, the district spokeswoman.
Along with better video cameras, the new buses have a safety feature called "no child left behind." Bus drivers do a walk-through of their bus at the end of every day to make sure no students are still on the bus. The new system requires them to push a button indicating they've inspected the inside of the bus. If they don't push the button, the horn will honk and lights will flash.
a look at the fleet, by the numbers:
133
Size of fleet
96
Buses used each school day
31
New buses
100
No. of routes
12,700
No. of students in MUSD
6,600
No. of students bused every day
111*
No. of drivers
11,200
Miles buses travel each day
550
Size of district, in square miles
* Not including four open positions
Source: Marana Unified School District
Contact Regional Editor Tiffany Kjos at tkjos@azstarnet.com or 807-7776.
