The students at Big Sandy High School in front of the new Big Sandy Cruiser.
I sat down with superintendent Moore and talked about the new cruiser bus filling the bus barn and this is what he had to say. As we all know school funding is complex. There are numerous funds that can only be used for certain things. The general fund is the main fund of a school and that pays for staff salaries, benefits, monthly bills and curricular needs.
There are separate funds to deal with cost of busing students, technology costs, retirement, and bus depreciation. The bus depreciation fund is a permissive levy fund that allows a district to depreciate buses and collect money to replace them in the future. Bus depreciation typically run on a 7.5 year schedule which allows us to have adequate funding to replace a bus every seven and half years if needed.
We have been properly managing our bus depreciation funds over the past few years to ensure we have adequate funds to keep our bus fleet safe and current. The previous cruiser bus had served the district for over 10 years but had reached the point of having an astronomical amount of repairs done to it or replacing it with a newer model. The trustees have chosen to replace the cruiser with a newer model.
The new bus is 45 feet long and almost 12 feet tall but with a 46 feet turn radius. Big Sandy's expert bus drivers will have no problem weaving through city traffic and negotiating tight spots. It seats 56 and a driver with six TV screens to entertain and a bathroom to keep folks comfy.
With overhead and undercarriage storage a large amount of gear can be brought along to the football games, ski trips, spring break in Corpus Christi or whatever plans are made for the new beauty. This beast has a 222 gallon fuel tank and is powered by a 415 HP C-13 Caterpillar diesel engine with a 12 speed power-shift automatic transmission.
Big Sandy schools acquired the Motor Coach Industries bus from Bouma Truck sales out of Great Falls and Choteau. Cat Graphics in Great Falls did an awesome job on the graphics. Previously the bus was used as a private charter bus in the south so this winter will be drastically different than a trip to Disney World. It is a beautiful machine Big Sandy should be proud to have.
