By KAYLA BOUCHARD, ,LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News
After hearing stories from concerned parents about excessive heat on school buses and heat-exhausted children coming home after school, the Leander ISD board took action on Thursday and voted to put air conditioning into its entire bus fleet by summer.
At the Sept. 20 meeting, the board of trustees approved an $8.1 million plan to expedite the purchase of 50 new buses and the retrofit of 60 existing buses. All 126 route buses for general education students will have air conditioning by summer 2019.
The board funded the initiative through 2017 bond money which was approved by voters last fall to cover 66 new buses – 16 bond-funded replacement buses the district recently ordered and 50 new bond-funded replacement buses to be ordered – and retrofit 60 current buses.