Transportation is a huge deal in the District, mainly because the District itself is, well, HUGE. One of the main reasons why our transportation system is leveraged to the max is because the District spans over 200 square miles — that’s a ton of real estate for a single school district.

That’s larger than our neighbors, Imlay City, Almont and Dryden. combined. It’s nearly three times larger than Oxford Community Schools.

Because of this, our buses log an astonishing 3,602 miles every school day. That’s 650,000 miles each school year.

To put that in perspective, it’s like driving from Lapeer to Monterrey, Mexico and back — every day.

Because of this, we put a ton of wear and tear on our fleet (we currently utilize 44 total buses). Without the general fund dollars to fund a typical replacement schedule, like in many other districts, we have maintained our fleet with purchases of used buses and lots of elbow grease from our incredible mechanics.

Unfortunately, you can only do that for so long.

After nearly a decade, half of our fleet is 10-18 years old and well beyond a normal replacement schedule of 8-10 years. These older, high-mileage buses are incredibly expensive to maintain and are notoriously unreliable.

As listed in our bond project rundown, our Zero-Tax-Increase Bond Proposal would provide for the purchase of 10 new buses to replace some of our aging fleet.

For more information, email Jared Field, LCS Director of Communications, at jared.field@lapeerschools.org.