OVERLAND — Ritenour School District students and officials gathered Tuesday to celebrate the long-awaited arrival of electric school buses, a year after being awarded $9.5 million in federal funding. They had confetti poppers ready to explode and orange- and black-clad cheerleaders with pompoms.
The only thing missing was most of the buses. Of the 24 promised vehicles, delivery of 21 is suddenly in limbo after a recent executive order from President Donald Trump paused a vast swath of initiatives that have anything to do with clean energy.
From bus drivers to administrators, Ritenour officials expressed gratitude for the three new electric buses currently in the district's possession.
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But the last-minute uncertainty about the remaining buses puts its carefully planned fleet overhaul in a state of incompletion. The district owes $830,000 to a vendor for 24 charging stations that are “hooked up and ready to go,” said Superintendent Chris Kilbride — and still awaiting grant dollars to pay for them.
“This project is a little bit of a ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ at this point,” said Kilbride. “It’s frustrating but we’re still hopeful.”
Ritenour School District students and employees celebrate a new electric bus received by the district thanks to money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, during an event in Overland on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. But 21 out of the 24 electric buses promised to the district now face an uncertain future, after an executive order from President Donald Trump paused previously allocated spending on clean energy initiatives.
The rest of the buses that had originally been slated for the district are sitting in Litchfield, Illinois — waiting to see if the money designated for them through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will come through.
Meanwhile, each day without the new buses costs the district more money, since the electric fleet stands to eliminate at least 50% of Ritenour's fuel costs and 40% of maintenance costs, officials said.
If all the buses ultimately arrive, the estimated savings from the electric fleet is expected to reach $3.3 million within the next five to eight years — helping make the district “good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Kilbride said.
Ritenour’s electric buses are manufactured by Thomas Built Buses. They could have arrived several months earlier, but Hurricane Helene affected operations at the company’s North Carolina bus factory, Kilbride said.
The district has more than 3,700 students who rely on school buses to get to and from school each day.
Ritenour's current fleet is diesel, and lack air conditioning — an absence that has led to "suffering" in hot months, said Bryan Sanker, the district's director of transportation.
That was a major spark behind the district's search for alternatives, before securing the money to electrify its fleet, he said.
"The cherry on top is the fact that it's cleaner," said Sanker.
St. Louis thaws out, a high school celebrates 100 years and more. Take a look at some just one week in St. Louis. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
