Bus Briefs

Indiana’s Pete Baxter will chair the 15th NCST
INDIANAPOLIS — Pete Baxter, state pupil transportation director in Indiana, has been named general conference chair for the 15th National Congress on School Transportation (NCST). Leeds Pickering, Wyoming’s pupil transportation director, was selected vice chair. Baxter succeeds Charlie Hood, Florida’s state pupil transportation director, who was named chair of the Interpretation Committee. Hood spearheaded the 14th NCST, which was held last May in Warrensburg, Mo. The 15th NCST will be held in 2010, again in Warrensburg.
Hybrid-electric bus project gains $840,000 grant
RALEIGH, N.C. — A program aimed at promoting the use of hybrid-electric technology in school buses has secured a grant of $840,000. Officials at Advanced Energy, a non-profit agency running the Hybrid Electric School Bus (HESB) project, said the funding will be used to help purchase 20 hybrid-electric school buses from one of the three major bus manufacturers. The grant was one of 11 awarded to various projects by the State Technologies Advancement Collaborative. For more information on the HESB project, see the "Hybrid-electric emergence" segment of the NAPT conference coverage in this issue.

Bus driver helps nab student with gun
LOUISA, Va. — A 16-year-old who carried an unloaded gun on a school bus was arrested after the driver alerted authorities. Officials said that another student told the driver about the gun, and the driver pulled to the side of the road, pretending that the bus was having mechanical trouble. The teen was charged with possessing a handgun on school property and possessing a concealed weapon, both misdemeanors.
Source: Charlottesville (Va.) Daily Progress, 11/11/05