district logs about 1,500 extracurricular trips during the school year. The district operates its own bus transportation system and employees about 67 drivers and monitors. As a property-wealthy district, the district does not receive transportation funding from the state, therefore, CISD charges a bus rider fee to transport students. “Bus transportation is still the safest, most economical way for students to get to and from school,” says Wrehe. “The new buses will help the district provide reliable transportation services to our Dragon families.” During their year-long review, the Capital Needs Planning Committee (CNPC) heard presentations from the Transportation Department on current bus and vehicle inventories, fleet age, route counts, student rider trends and the pros and cons of buying diesel buses. Prior to the bond purchases, all of CISD buses were at least 10 years old. School officials say all the recently purchased buses meet the new legislation regarding three-point seatbelts, have safety vision camera systems and a five-year warranty. The new legislation requires seat belts on all newly purchased buses after September 1, 2017. School officials say they assigned the new buses with seat belts to routes for the youngest riders and will continue to phase in the new buses for secondary students over the life of the bond.
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