AMHERST — Each morning and afternoon this spring, nearly half of the Amherst students provided transportation to the elementary and regional schools are boarding electric-powered buses.
For the passengers, the ride to school is much quieter and tends to be smoother than inside a conventional diesel-powered bus, creating a calmer environment that can benefit special needs students, officials say.
These electric buses also offer air conditioning on the warmest days, and the health benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions, including cutting down on the incidents of pediatric asthma.
On Tuesday morning, the school district celebrated bringing these new buses into the fleet with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting that brought out school and town leaders, and officials with Highland Electric Fleet of Beverly, to the Amherst Regional Middle School parking lot. There was also a brief trip offering the experience on the bus, with Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman getting on and waving from a window before it took off.
With the installation of three new 60-kilowatt charging stations outside the middle school completed in February, the district put the leased buses into service.
Herman said she sees the project as a “deeper definition of care” and a modeling of systems for the whole child.
The schools, she said, also view the electric buses as aligning with educational values, thoughtful solutions, bold actions and committed partnerships.
“The future is not something we enter into, it is something we create,” Herman said.
Last June, the district received a $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for the charging infrastructure. That grant was on top of a $600,000 grant in 2024 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which allowed the schools to add the three new electric school buses using money from the Clean School Bus Program created in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The district runs 10 full-size buses, with one preexisting electric bus, and the remaining six diesel.
Michael Gallo O’Connell, director of operations for the schools, said hitting 40% of the fleet as electric is a milestone, representing a clear commitment to students and a sustainable future. “This is just the beginning,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell also noted this fits with the Amethyst Brook Elementary School, which is under construction and will be a net-zero building with geothermal heating and cooling.
O’Connell said there are anticipated savings from buying less diesel fuel.
While the district contract with a transportation vendor to handle Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett pick ups and drop offs means those students don’t get to ride the electric buses to and from school, secondary students do get the experience on field trips.
“This is a fantastic relationship and we’re looking forward to expanding our electric vehicles for our current and future students,” said Amherst Regional School Committee Chairwoman Sarahbess Kenney.
Stephanie Ciccarello, the town’s director of sustainability, said the school buses fit with the zero-emissions fleet policy. Each diesel bus removed means eliminating 50 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere, or the equivalent of taking 30 to 60 passenger vehicles off the road.
“This is fantastic to see where we’ve come to the point where we can replace diesel buses with electric,” Ciccarello said.
Matt Stansberry, Highland’s senior vice president of market development, said the company’s mission is to make the benefits of electric vehicles more accessible.
“This is another practical step that fits into daily operations and sets a foundation for the future,” Stansberry said.
Over the long term, electric buses also offer durability due to fewer moving parts, and the cost to power is likely to be less, as electricity typically has more stable pricing than diesel, Stansberry said.
O’Connell said leasing is the most affordable way to enhance the fleet, as electric buses cost about twice as much as diesel.
Previously, in 2016, Amherst was one of three Massachusetts communities, along with Concord and Cambridge, that received funding to participate in a pilot project to purchase and test electric school buses.
