PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — A school district here recently approved $14.8 million for a fleet of new school buses for the 2019-20 school year, according to Community Impact.

In a meeting on Dec. 20, the Pflugerville Independent School District’s board of trustees approved the purchase of a fleet of 159 buses from Rush Bus Centers. (The district previously worked with school bus contractor Durham School Services.) The purchase marks the first major use of funds from the district’s $332 million bond that was approved during the 2018 general election, according to the newspaper.

The new fleet of buses features safety improvements such as seat belts, security cameras, and radio communication functions with district police officers, according to the newspaper. The sales contract with Rush Bus Services also includes a 5-year catalog budget, which will allow the district to order spare parts as needed.

Ed Ramos, the chief operating officer for the district, told the newspaper that the new buses will be gasoline-powered and that the district had not planned to include alternative-fuel buses, given the timeline of the purchase. However, Ramos added that the district could potentially look into purchasing alternative-fuel buses in years after 2020, in cases where the district may have to buy additional buses using maintenance and operations tax revenue.

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