HOOD RIVER — Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn began with an exciting update at the Oct. 26 Hood River County School District school board meeting: The potential for electric buses and necessary infrastructure in the next few years.
Rich Polkinghorn
The New Building Institute is applying to the U.S. Department of Energy for the grant. If the grant is awarded, it would provide two electric school buses, requisite infrastructure and energy storage capacity to create a micro-grid resilience hub in the mid valley, potentially at Wy’east Middle School.
“For the past couple of years, HRCSD, along with the Hood River Energy Council, Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, the Energy Trust of Oregon, Bonneville Environmental Foundation and the New Business Institute have been in ongoing discussions about the potential for two projects: Electric school buses and solar storage/microgrid resilience for the Hood River Valley,” Polkinghorn said. “Last school year, you may recall the board approved a grant submission to be awarded funding for the procurement of an electric school bus; we did not receive that grant.
“However, the conversation around creating power grid resilience and electric school buses has continued,” he said.
The district submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy last spring, seeking encouragement to apply for the grant that would provide two e-buses and required infrastructure, which it received mid-October. The grant was due Nov. 4.
“HRCSD is not the agency that will submit the application, therefore not requiring board action,” Polkinghorn said. “However, I wanted to make you aware that this is a project that I do support, as it benefits the district and our community while requiring no financial obligation from the district — only the commitment to utilize the equipment and infrastructure, and regularly report as to how the implementation is functioning.”
During the Nov. 9 meeting, Polkinghorn updated the board, telling them the grant had been successfully submitted by New Buildings Institute.
At the Oct. 28 meeting, Polkinghorn said that the timeline for application review is approximately six months and that if it is successful, it is expected to take up to two years for full installation and implementation.
Board members expressed excitement over the potential for e-buses.
“I was really excited to hear about the electric buses,” said Board Chair Corinda Hankins Elliott. “And I just read … that the government just gave a bunch of money for electric buses, so who knows how long that will take to get out … I’m excited that we’re already applying for another grant before that. That’s wonderful, and I know this has been ongoing — I think we talked about this two or three times, and had some middle school students come and talk to us about getting electric buses.”
“Exciting news about the electric buses, the potential for that,” said Board Member Brandi Sheppard. “I know it’s a few years out, but I’m excited to hear more about that in the future.”
“Great news and thank you superintendent for updating us on the microgrid and electric buses — that’s definitely something we’ve been working on and everyone in the community, I think, wants to see that,” said Board Member Julia Garcia-Ramirez. “It’s been a project that has taken some time, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about it, and hopefully get that going.”
During the Nov. 9 meeting, Polkinghorn said, “I want to thank our partners at the New Building Institute for their work on the grant, and the other partners that have committed time and resources to completing the grant, and if successful committed to partnering to bringing the project to life.”
Those partners are Hood River County Sheriff Emergency Management, Hood River Electric Co-op, Hood River Energy Council, Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, Bonneville Environmental Founda-ion, Electric School Bus Newsletter, Forth, Oregon Clean Power Co-op, Pacific Power, and PAE Engineers.
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