AUSTIN, Texas — On Wednesday, city officials, Austin School Board members and Austin Independent School District (ISD) Superintendent Pat Forgione gathered at a local middle school to unveil the district's new plug-in diesel-electric school bus.

The district, which is the first in the state to purchase IC Corporation's hybrid school bus, secured funding for it through grants from Advanced Energy, Austin Energy and the EPA's Clean School Bus Program of Central Texas.

"This is one more way the district is working in the community to help keep the environment clean and safe," said Forgione. "This also sends an important message to our students, who we want to model good environmental behavior."

Austin ISD had been working with Advanced Energy and IC Corporation for two years to develop the vehicle's prototype. To test its efficiency, school officials will be required to complete mandatory quarterly performance reports and compare them to the performance reports for new, traditional school buses.

The conventional buses and the hybrid bus will also be tested on the same routes so that the variables (such as road conditions) will be identical.