With the heat index topping 110 degrees each day since Bulloch County started the 2011-12 school year Monday, it’s a hot ride home for about 40 percent of students on school buses.
    According to Paul Webb, director of transportation for the school system, 40 of the county’s 101 school buses running routes are not equipped with air conditioning. The number of students riding school buses varies each day, but Webb said
4,595 ride in the morning, 4,902 in the afternoon and 330 students are transported for different reasons in the middle of the day.
    “When we went to an early-August start to the school year a few years back, we made the commitment that all our new buses would have air conditioning,” said Dr. Lewis Holloway, superintendent of schools. “We are likely to add six new buses this year, which we would like to be more, but that’s all we can budget.”
    A 72-passenger regular education bus with air conditioning costs $85,084, Webb said. All special education students ride in buses equipped with AC and a new special education bus costs $89,134.
    The Bulloch School Board budgeted for the purchase of six school buses for 2011-12. A total of 40 new buses have been purchased since 2008 with factory air conditioning, according to Webb. Ten more bought prior to 2008 were retrofitted with AC.
    “We are going through a necessary process of achieving 100 percent of buses having AC,” Webb said.
    The oldest bus that runs a regular daily route is a 1997 model and three others are more than 10 years old.
    “The state recommends that no bus be older than 12 years of age,” he said. “In Bulloch County, we were headed towards a 10-year cycle until the economy went south.”
    For this year’s budget, Webb said the state notified Bulloch it would pay for three new buses. The School Board put six additional buses in the budget and is expected to finalize approval of the purchase by the end of August.
    “Each year in my budget I always put a request in for nine new buses,” Webb said. “But depending on funding it could be more or less.”
    So, until all buses have air conditioning, a dwindling number of students will ride to school and back home in the steamy heat of south Georgia summers. The length of the ride depends on the length of the route.
    The average time it takes a bus driver to run an entire route is 47 minutes in the morning and 48 minutes in the afternoon, Webb said. City routes take 10-20 minutes less time to run than county routes.
    “Less than five years ago, 100 percent of children rode on buses with no AC, including special education students,” Webb said. “I think we are making great strides considering the economy.”
   
    James Healy can be reached at (912) 489-9402.