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PSS down to 11 school buses
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Posted on Aug 12 2008
The five new buses the Public School System ordered will not be on island by the start of the school year, leaving PSS with just 11 buses for the entire Saipan district.
The new buses should arrive on or before Nov. 30, PSS bus team leader Steven M. Pangelinan said.
“But as soon as we get them on island we’ll send them out there,” he said.
The PSS Pupil Transportation Division recently took four buses offline because of their “exterior and interior deterioration,” he said.
The move means PSS will start the school year with fewer buses than it did last year —11 this year compared to 15 last year.
“We’ll be alright as far as the opening,” Pangelinan said.
He said after the first week of school he would get a better idea of the number of students that need to be picked up.
The shortage means middle and high schools routes will double back, a plan that took place last school year. With the price of gas going down, Pangelinan said he anticipates the monthly fuel costs to remain the same as last year, even with more doubling back of routes.
PSS spends an average of $15,000 to $18,000 a month on unleaded and diesel fuel.
Three elementary schools—Dandan, William S. Reyes, and Koblerville—will continue to go without bus service because of the shortage, he said.
“It’s pretty much the same as last year,” he said.
Pangelinan said he hopes to offer bus services to the three schools by December or January.
Ideally, Pangelinan said, he would like to have 25 to 30 buses in operation.
“That would pretty much put me where I can service the whole island,” he added.
The five new buses are coming from the mainland, and federal funds are paying for the approximately $114,000 per bus cost, Pangelinan said. PSS purchased new buses in 2005 and the beginning of this year.
Pangelinan said he hopes to have the bus schedule for the 2008-2009 school year ready by Monday.
