The movement to 'Go Green' has been sweeping school campuses in the Perris Union High School District (PUHSD.) It began with the students and their highly successful campaign to bring recycling to their schools, and has inspired the District to implement more environmentally sustainable practices with everything from cleaning supplies to how students are transported to school.
"Our students are really into the environment, and we are led by our students and official District leadership," said Anna Hamilton, the purchasing agent for PUHSD and the project coordinator for the District's new CNG facility. "Students started recycling projects in their schools, and the District wanted to take this environmental movement further. When we were buying new buses we thought, well, why aren't we trying to save the environment with that as well?"
The MSRC provided PUHSD with $225,000 in Clean Transportation Funding to help build a new CNG fueling facility with 12 dual-time fill posts for its fleet of 23 CNG school buses, for which the MSRC also contributed funding in the amount of $1.38 million. The station, located at the District's maintenance yard, also has a publicly accessible dispenser.
The total project cost for the facility was $632,541, which included the cost to upgrade the entire lot and surrounding area to accommodate other vehicles that may be larger than the buses. The facility had its grand opening ceremony on December 2, 2010.
"Building the CNG station was just the natural thing to do - it made sense to do it," remarked Anna. "Doing something for the environment was the main reason we built it."
The District uses about 3600 gallons of CNG per month to fuel its buses. Currently, the District does not have other vehicles that run on CNG, but it is looking at making the switch to CNG as its vehicles age-out and new vehicles are purchased. The publicly accessible dispenser has not had a lot of use yet - although the number of public vehicles fueling up there has doubled. Anna expects this will build as they do more marketing and outreach about the public pump.
PUHSD has about 10,000 students and transports its students with a fleet of 49 school buses in total, including its 23 new CNG buses. The District owns the buses, but they are operated by Hemet Unified School District. In fact, Hemet USD was instrumental in getting PUHSD to apply for MSRC funding.
"We heard about the MSRC through Mike Fogerty, the Transportation Director for Hemet USD," Anna explained. "He is one of the MSRC's biggest fans."
Anna seems to share Mike's feelings. "The whole MSRC process was great. Cynthia and Rachel are amazing and are so helpful and patient. They do this every day, and I was new to this whole process, so it was wonderful working with them."
Anna believes that MSRC funding is very important, given our dependence on fossil fuel and the state of the economy particularly with respect to public agencies. "The cost of fuel is so high that school districts cannot afford these costs right now in our economic environment. The costs are only going to get higher," she lamented.
"Another reason funding these types of projects is so important is the environment. We have to get kids to-and-from school safely. If we have to run these buses, why does there have to be a consequence to the environment?" she asked.