The school’s 125 route buses travel around 9,000 miles a day, get extremely low gas mileage
If you think $70 is a lot to fill up an automobile these days, imagine owning 154 buses.
That’s the problem the St. Charles Parish Public School System faces every day as they struggle to meet the rising cost of gas and diesel while bringing thousands of students to school across the parish.
The school district has 125 route buses and 154 total buses that average about $213 per fill-up. Each bus can hold 60 gallons of either diesel or gas, and most average about 72 miles per day. If you combine the total for all the route buses, those yellow caravans are traveling about 9,000 miles around the parish each school day.
80 percent of those buses take diesel, while the other 20 percent take gas. Currently, the gas buses get around three miles per gallon, due largely to the constant starting and stopping that is required when dropping students off at scheduled stops. The diesel buses get between nine and 11 miles per gallon, though diesel usually costs 45 cents more per gallon.
Because of the rising costs, the school system now expects to spend $850,000 in fuel charges this year. The interim budget originally allotted $600,000, but was revised by more than 40 percent last week.
On May 8, gas prices jumped nearly 3 cents overnight to a new national record of nearly $3.65 per gallon. Diesel prices also rose by .9 cent to match a record national average of $4.25.
It’s widely expected that the average price of gas will soon rise to as much as $4 a gallon this summer.
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