Lakeland approves $2.1M bus bond submission

The district approved the submission of a $2.1 million bus and vehicle bond at the March 12 School Board meeting, ahead of the annual public hearing on the budget and the Board of Education election on May 19.

Voters in the Lakeland Central School District will then have the opportunity to vote on the proposition on that date.

The resolution notes that the measure would authorize the purchase of school buses and vehicles for an amount not to exceed $2,131,000, with funding subject to voter approval. 

The funding would cover 66 new gas buses, 20 large passenger vans, 30 standard vans, one SUV and three trucks, including two plow trucks. The purchases would replace aging vehicles that are no longer usable, Superintendent of Schools Karen Gagliardi said that the district tends to consider phasing out old vehicles at the end of ten years.

The new purchases would not include electric vehicles this year, Gagliardi said. The district owns one electric vehicle, but it has been used as a trial, she said.

New York State has a mandate to electrify buses by 2035. Gagliardi said the board hoped the state would change its deadline.

The New York School Bus Incentive Program is a statewide initiative approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022 and given additional funding in 2025. The legislation requires all new school bus purchases to be electric from 2027 and mandates that all school buses on the road in the state be fully electric from 2035. The state first allocated $500m to this initiative, followed by an additional $100 million in July 2025.

At the meeting, Gagliardi said a feasibility study raised concerns about whether electric vehicles would have sufficient infrastructure within the district.

“It’s really based on the infrastructure. It’s not so much purchasing buses and getting buses, it’s then the surrounding areas,” Gagliardi said.

She added that there are concerns about the ability to charge electric vehicles beyond school property.

“Not just on our own property, but if you’re sending a bus from point A to point B, it’s that infrastructure piece,” she said.

The state deadlines appear to remain in place.

“There’s no movement on the state deadlines. Yet,” she said. “We are hoping for that.”