BISD ROLLS OUT FIRST BATCH OF NEW THOMAS BUSES

By Juan Montoya
Officials with the Brownsville Independent School District rolled out the first batch of 72 new buses the school board voted to purchase earlier this year.
The arrival of the new Thomas buses from the manufacturer's plant in Raleigh, North Carolina, is the start of the replacing the 300-bus BISD fleet which transport some 27,000 students daily, more than half of the total district population.
Included in the first batch delivery were 12 special needs buses at a cost of $95,000 per unit. Another 42 regular buses at a cost of $85,000 per unit are also starting to arrive. An additional 12 regular buses will also arrive later in the year for a total of 72.
According to a BISD press release, the $6.4 million school bus upgrade was approved by the board of trustees last May. The district is also implementing an automatic bus replacement schedule to ensure a continual upgrade of the entire 300-school district bus fleet over the next few years.
The most notable thing students will notices when they board the buses  will be the carrier racks which will allow them to place their backpacks when riding the buses. The buses also feature the latest digital video surveillance technology which will allow district officials to monitor student behavior and prevent and discipline instances of bullying.
Another safety feature of the buses is the sloped hood that gives the bus operator a clear view of pedestrians and students who may be walking or standing in front of the bus.
Once received, personnel with the BISD Transportation Department will ,subject the new vehicles to a thorough inspection before they are entered into the district’s fixed assets inventory. They will then register them, acquire license plates and insurance. No bus will be placed into service until it is fully equipped with a radio, camera, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, and other important safety equipment.
Meanwhile, in response to the two October bus fires involving buses manufactured by International Corporation, a subsidiary of Navistar, Inc., district officials worked with two product integrity specialists dispatched from Chicago, Illinois by Navistar, Inc., to determine the cause.
BISD also hired a mechanical engineer with expertise in this area to make an independent assessment of the cause of the bus fires. No official written report is available for release at this time.
District drivers receive training on first aid and evacuation techniques. In addition to regular vehicle maintenance, BISD bus drivers complete a multi-point inspection before and after running their routes every day.