Melissa Yang, a student at Bethlehem Central Middle School was the winner of the 2023-2024 National School Bus Safety Poster Contest.
The theme this year was “Driving Safely into the Future”, and the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) released a statement on Oct. 22 expressing their thoughts on Yang’s artwork.
“Yang’s artwork skillfully captures this theme by creatively conveying an important message intended to motivate and educate the educational community. Yang emphasizes the importance of following school bus safety protocols to guarantee a thriving future for any school community. She also illustrates the past, highlighting a longstanding commitment to school bus safety over the years”
NAPT states that the poster contest is judged on safety impact, originality, artistic qualities and visual impact.
On Wednesday, Bethlehem Central School District released a statement announcing it will be participating in the 2025 NYAPT School Bus Safety Poster Contest.
Posters may be submitted under five categories:
Division 1: Grades K-2
Division 2: Grades 3-5
Division 3: Grades 6-8
Division 4: Special Education
Division 5: CAD (Computer Aided Drawing)
Division 6: Driver, Monitor and Attendant
All posters must first be submitted to and judged by the Bethlehem Central Transportation Department. A winning poster will be chosen from each division and will then be entered into the State Contest and sent to the NYAPT office. The final day for submissions will be Feb. 17, 2025.
According to NYAPT the theme for the 2024-2025 contest will be “Safety First- Safety Always”. Posters judged and selected by each chapter for entry into the State Contest must be received by the NYAPT office on or before March 1, 2025.
Marlene Martin said she often reflects on the Wendy Tremayne quote, “Start even if you don’t know how.” To Martin, it means to be unafraid of the unknown. “Or let fear of making mistakes put you off from ever starting to learn,” she continued. “I love the energy that comes from discovering new skills. One day you will look back and be able to see how far you have come.”
Martin started her career in pupil transportation 18 years ago. When her daughter was attending kindergarten orientation at Greenwood Lake School District, the school bus driver reviewed the rules of the school bus ride and mentioned the need for more school bus drivers.
“With both my daughters officially enrolled in school, I felt excited to embark on the journey to become a school bus driver, as driving is something I have always been passionate about,” Martin said. “As a bonus, I also love kids, so this perfectly blended two of my interests.”
She started as a substitute bus monitor and driver and now 18 years later she’s the head bus driver. She added that her favorite of her job is the children that transportation is able to support and the co-workers that she gets to work with daily.
“We take the time to recognize each other, including monthly birthday celebrations, often with special themes,” she shared. “As part of our [district’s] Sunshine Committee, we also support each other when a co-worker undergoes surgery, loses a family member, or is just having a rough time. It’s so important to support fellow team members.”
Her daily job duties include answering phone calls from families, dispatching drivers and vehicles for daily routes and trips, routing as needed, and driving a route. She noted that she appreciates the opportunities for continues learning.
Ron MacKey, transportation supervisor for the district, wrote in his nomination that Martin was appointed to her current position about three years ago, during which time she also obtained her 19-A Examiner Certification and School Bus Driver Instructor. He said as an SBDI, she conducts New York State Education Department Pre-Service instruction for drivers and monitors and has been a guest instructor at local Board of Cooperative Educational Services hosted basic courses.
As a state-certified school bus driver instructor, Martin helps lead trainings for both drivers and monitors. She also attends professional development seminars annually to ensure compliance and renew her certification.
Each year, School Transportation News chooses 10 Rising Stars based on nominations submitted by school districts and companies around the industry. These individuals have shown exemplary commitment and dedication in the student transportation industry and continue to demonstrate innovation in their roles. This year’s Rising Stars are featured in the November magazine issue.
“Marlene actively seeks out opportunities to learn more about the transportation industry,” Mackey wrote. “This year, she attended the New York Association of Pupil Transportation conference in July as well as a pre-conference session on active shooters on the school bus.”
Mackey noted that Martin participates in the local NYAPT chapter (the Tri-County Transportation Supervisors Association) and volunteered to be on its scholarship committee. In 2017, she was chosen as “School Bus Driver of the Year” by the Tri-County Transportation Supervisors Association in two counties.
“As her supervisor, I am honored to have the opportunity to teach her about the industry and watch her become more committed and competent as a transportation professional,” Mackey said. “What impresses me most is the ease with which she has transitioned from bus driver to the role of head bus driver. She has made this transition, complete with the additional responsibilities associated with the role, while managing to maintain personal, yet professional relationships with the drivers and monitors in the department. Her friendly disposition is key to her success in dealing with drivers, parents, school administrators and colleagues in the area.”
Marlene Martin is recognized for her commitment to continued learning.
Going Forward
Martin said she looks forward to enhancing to her skills and continuing to learn and expand her knowledge on school transportation. She noted there are a lot of parts to the job that she does not interact with, such as financial management. “In New York, we have an upcoming EV bus mandate, which is going to be a major challenge,” she said, adding that they will need to learn “about electricity as a fuel, infrastructure and financing these changes, all while running a safe and efficient operation.”
Like other districts, Martin said another current challenge they face the shortage of bus drivers, especially substitute drivers. She noted that the issue complicates their efforts to ensure bus routes and trips are staffed.
“This year, we have temporarily displaced families residing outside their district, and it is crucial that we address their needs and ensure timely transportation to school,” she shared. “The calm may come before the storm, but the rebuilding comes afterward. It’s the long-term support after an emergency that’s most challenging.”
Outside of work, Martin enjoys nature, whether that consists of a walk, an early morning yoga class, lounging by the pool with a book, or going camping. Mackey added that Martin has also been a Girl Scout leader, community volunteer with the local food pantry and provides foster care for local animal shelters.
After the reelection of former President Donald Trump, clean energy advocates across the country are preparing for a White House that will no doubt pursue aggressive rollbacks of climate policies and further expand fossil-fuel production.
Now more than ever, states will need to step up and pursue climate efforts on their own to “ensure continued progress toward clean energy,” said Caroline Spears, executive director of the advocacy group Climate Cabinet.
Few states are as important as New York, which is large, Democrat-controlled — and already committed to ambitious clean energy goals. In 2019, the state passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which pledged to reach 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
“New York State can continue to lead without federal support or federal oversight,” said Mandy DeRoche, deputy managing attorney at the advocacy group Earthjustice. “We’ll continue our progress regardless, and that will happen in every state no matter what.”
But so far, the Empire State is falling behind on its climate goals. Across a slew of initiatives under New York’s 2019 climate law, regulators are missing key rulemaking deadlines. According to a July report from the state, New York will likely miss its landmark clean energy target for 2030. Right now, it’s on track to get just 53 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by that date, far short of 70 percent.
The report mostly blamed external economic factors, including supply-chain disruptions and high interest rates that led to a spate of major renewable project cancellations. Another issue is skyrocketing energy demand, largely driven by new data centers for crypto mining and AI, as well as microchip manufacturing facilities and the rise in electric vehicles and appliances.
Environmental advocates argue that faltering political will contributes just as much, if not more, to the state’s lackluster progress. Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has expressed ambivalence over meeting looming clean energy targets.
“The costs have gone up so much I now have to say, ‘What is the cost on the typical New York family?’” Hochul said in a recent TV interview. “The goals are still worthy. But we have to think about the collateral damage of these decisions.”
Missing the 2030 deadline would jeopardize many of the state’s other climate goals, including achieving 100 percent zero-emissions energy by 2040 and shuttering “peaker” fossil-gas plants that disproportionately spew toxic pollutants into low-income communities and communities of color, in addition to emitting large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide.
But missing these goals is far from inevitable. From raising energy procurement targets to leaning on public power agencies, climate and legal experts say that there’s still plenty of ways New York can make good on its clean energy pledge.
“We’re not ready to say we can’t meet the 2030 goal,” said DeRoche. “Of course, there are obstacles, but the messaging and the approach from the state should be, ‘This is a statutory obligation, and we will do everything in our power to meet it.’”
How New York could get back on track
On some level, New York’s struggles come down to a straightforward problem: The state doesn’t have enough existing or upcoming renewable energy projects to meet its goals.
About 30 percent of the state’s electricity currently comes from renewable sources, mostly from upstate hydropower plants built many decades ago.
One bright spot is that New York has already outpaced its 6-gigawatt goal for rooftop and community solar — but its targets for utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projects, which make up the bulk of its clean energy plan, remain well off-track.
To help solve this, DeRoche and her team at Earthjustice argue in public comments to state energy regulators that New York should vastly increase its renewable energy procurement targets, which set guidelines for how much clean power the state should purchase from private developers. State agencies have determined that they would need to purchase about 14,000 gigawatt hours each year for the next three years to meet the 2030 deadline, yet have recommended procuring only 5,600 gigawatt hours per year.
“The Draft Review provides no basis for setting the target so low,” her team wrote, arguing that state agencies should reevaluate how feasible it would be to procure a higher volume.
New clean energy construction should be prioritized in downstate New York, DeRoche adds, a region that houses most of the state’s population yet relies heavily on fossil fuels compared with the largely hydro- and nuclear-powered upstate areas. The state will also need to address transmission and interconnection backlogs that make it harder to connect new power generation to the grid. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed the RAPID Act to expedite that process for clean energy projects and transmission lines.
Some activists argue that the state itself should take a leading role to develop more clean energy.
Last year, an amendment to the state budget granted the New York Power Authority the ability to build, own, and operate renewable energy projects for the first time. Organizers at the grassroots coalition Public Power New York say that government leaders have yet to capitalize on the change, commonly referred to as the Build Public Renewables Act. In October, NYPA released its first strategic plan for developing renewable energy projects, proposing the installation of 3.5 gigawatts of new clean energy in the next several years.
“This is only the first tranche of NYPA renewables projects,” the report said, with potentially “further projects for consideration.”
Andrea Johnson, an organizer with the New York City chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, a member group of Public Power New York, called that number “measly.” Public Power New York is rallying for the authority to commit to 15 gigawatts of new clean power by 2030, an amount based on research commissioned by the group.
Expanding clean power at a faster rate would fulfill NYPA’s responsibilities under last year’s expanded authority, which calls on it to build projects when the state falls short on its climate mandates, Johnson said. “When the private sector fails — and the private sector is failing — the state needs to step in and actually fill the gap.”
Leveraging NYPA can also allow New York to meet its climate goals at a lower cost, Johnson said. As a nonprofit, public institution, NYPA can access more favorable financing. It also owns and builds transmission lines, allowing it to plan for both energy generation and distribution at the same time, she said. NYPA is also required to provide utility bill credits to low- and moderate-income households for any clean energy produced from its projects.
Beyond building more clean energy, the state should also take steps to ease growing power demand, including strengthening building efficiency standards and accelerating the installation of heat pumps, said Michael Gerrard, faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
That includes addressing the rapid growth of crypto mining and AI electricity use and its effects on residents, said DeRoche. State officials noted that those rising energy demands have made it far more difficult to reach clean energy targets. But agencies have policy tools available to understand and reduce unabated growth — and they should start with making sure that discounted electricity rates for cryptocurrency and AI companies aren’t being subsidized by residents, DeRoche said.
Offshore wind’s uncertain future
Any effort to accelerate New York’s adoption of clean energy will need to grapple with challenges in the offshore wind sector, a cornerstone of the state’s strategy that is likely to face even more setbacks under the incoming Trump administration.
New York aims to install 9 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035, but in the past four years, inflation, high interest rates, and supply-chain issues led developers to pull out of contracts in the state.
That challenging economic environment is now improving, however, according to Atin Jain, an offshore wind analyst at the energy consulting firm BloombergNEF. As inflation has started to ease and interest rates have begun to come down, “We have probably passed the worst of it,” Jain said. State officials have been quick to respond to the industry’s economic pressures, he added, expediting auctions to renegotiate previous agreements and adding language in contracts to allow for inflation adjustments.
Two new projects, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1, with 924 and 810 megawatts of capacity, respectively, are currently moving forward in New York. The 132-megawatt South Fork Wind farm went live in March off the coast of Long Island.
But Trump’s reelection casts a new uncertainty over the industry. Trump has vowed to stop offshore wind development “on day one” and to “terminate” the Inflation Reduction Act. If those declarations end up translating to real policy, then offshore wind, which relies heavily on federal tax credits and requires federal approval and permits to build and operate, could suffer — in New York and beyond.
Still, New York has enshrined a legal mandate to decarbonize its economy — meaning no matter the headwinds, the state has an obligation to follow through, DeRoche said.
“We hear from the governor that the CLCPA is the nation’s leading climate law,” said DeRoche. “Well, it’s only the nation’s leading climate law if we’re implementing it.”
An East Irondequoit Central School District school bus transporting 10 Aquina Institute students was purportedly hit by a bullet, reported RochesterFirst.
The incident reportedly occurred on Monday morning, when the school bus was travelling along route 104 and two of its windows were shattered.
According to the news report, both the school district and Aquinas said the bus had been struck by a bullet and confirmed that there were no reported injuries at the time of the incident. However, New York State police said the school bus was hit by a projectile.
New York State Police are reportedly continuing to investigate the incident and its asking anyone with information to contact them.
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. -Mohawk Lifts, a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty lifting equipment, announces a new Lifting Table. Now capable of lifting up to 2,500 lbs.
Engineered to accommodate transmissions or diDerential repairs and auto EV battery service.
On the bustling mornings of Northport, New York, Kayla Soliman’s heart would race as she stood at the edge of the driveway, eyeing the big yellow school bus.
The second grader, just 7 years old during the fall of 2022, struggled with anxiety after watching her younger sister, Kelsey, get sick during the school bus ride home in Suffolk County on Long Island. Despite her mother Lindsey’s efforts, nothing seemed to ease Kayla’s fears. For an entire school year, Kayla avoided the school bus ride, her trepidation growing with each passing day.
But one person saw her struggle and decided to help.
Margaret Hall, affectionately known as “Miss Margaret” by her young riders, had been driving for contractor Huntington Coach for seven years and knew the importance of making each child feel safe. Sensing Kayla’s hesitation, Hall didn’t just sit back. She began to offer small gestures—a warm smile, reserving a seat in the front row, gentle words of encouragement.
“We need to be proactive in having a good attitude, helping their day start off correctly,” Hall explained.
Inspired by Kayla’s story, Hall decided to take her approach a step further. School Transportation News asked Hall what led her to write her children’s book “Why Does My Heart Go Thump When I See The Bus?” Margaret’s son David Hall provides the illustrations.
“Through the months of trying to help and encourage Kayla to return to riding the bus, the story formed in my mind, and I had to write it down,” she shared.
For Kayla, Hall’s gestures, and eventually the book, made all the difference. When Hall handed the girl a draft of the book, it marked the moment Kayla decided to step onto the school bus again.
“I got emotional,” Kayla’s mom Lindsey recalled.
“Kayla has now been an encouragement to her fellow-riders,” Hall proudly added.
Hall’s book has since become more than just a story—it’s a tool helping children across Long Island, New York, confront their fears. Hall has sold thousands of copies, many of which are distributed to local school districts free of charge. It’s an initiative that underscores a simple yet profound truth: A bus driver’s role goes beyond transporting students. It’s about guiding them through moments of uncertainty.
Brendan Clifford, vice president of operations for Huntington Coach that is owned by Beacon Mobility, reflected on the impact of Hall’s work.
“Our drivers represent the heart of Huntington Coach and consistently go above and beyond their job description to support the students and families we serve,” he said. “We are grateful for Margaret’s willingness to apply her talent of writing children’s books to lift up students dealing with bus anxiety and are hopeful her story will reach more kids to enrich their riding experience.”
Hall reflected on how her approach has impacted her riders over time.
“Kayla has been on my bus for three years, and in the last two years, I have seen her learn how to cope. Now, as a fourth grader, she takes the initiative to encourage others,” she explained. “Most students love to ride the bus, but those who are apprehensive often lose that feeling when greeted with a friendly smile, encouraging words, and a joyous atmosphere.”
For Hall, and drivers like Wing Hang Chiu of nearby East Williston, New York, the work is personal. Chiu, a school bus driver trainer for Beacon Mobility company Dell Transportation, often speaks with Chinese American students in their native Cantonese and Mandarin. He said he knows how important it is to build trust and familiarity.
“They open up and talk to me a little more,” he said, understanding that even a short interaction can set the tone for a child’s day.
Whether it’s offering a friendly face or taking extra time with nervous children, Long Island’s school bus drivers — and their peers nationwide — do more than drive. They provide a safe space, especially crucial in an era where anxiety is on the rise. As Shari Lurie, senior director of mental health services at epilepsy care center Epic Long Island, noted, “It’s not uncommon for kids to not want to take the bus. Having someone who is friendly and warm can make all the difference.”
The feedback Hall has received from her efforts and her book has been overwhelmingly positive. She shared with STN, “A school counselor has already put the book to use this year with an apprehensive student. A 12-year-old facing anxiety over taking the bus for the first time found the facts presented in the book helpful in facing his fear.”
Hall also noted, “A safety manager stated that ‘Margaret and David are ambassadors for the school bus industry.’ Kayla wrote a note last year, saying ‘Thank you for helping me when I really needed it.’”
Hall’s efforts have rippled beyond her Northport route. Her children’s book is now a staple in various districts, including Sachem Central, where hundreds of copies have been distributed. Each book, like each ride, offers a chance for children to feel seen, heard, and safe.
“It’s fun to be a bus driver. You get the opportunity to show people you care,” Hall said, smiling as she watches Kayla, now a confident 9-year-old, board the school bus without hesitation.
When asked what advice she would give to other bus drivers and schools to help students overcome bus-related anxiety, Hall offered this: “As the first and last face seen on a child’s school day, it is important that bus drivers put a smile on their face, meet students with a friendly greeting, and present an atmosphere of joy and safety as they ask their students to be seated and buckle up.”
Schools, she added, “can include facts about some of the issues that lead to anxiety in the bus drills performed throughout the year.”
The wheels on the school bus may have kept turning for East End Bus Lines, but behind the scenes, the company was on a collision course with disaster.
What started as a desperate attempt to salvage a failing business ended with John Mensch pleading guilty in federal court to a multimillion-dollar bank fraud conspiracy that could put him behind bars for up to five years.
Mensch, a seasoned businessman known for running a network of school bus operations across Long Island, stood before U.S. District Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury earlier this month and admitted to orchestrating a complex scheme referred to as check-kiting that drained nearly $10 million from two unsuspecting financial institutions. The elaborate ruse, which spanned from 2017 through 2018, used East End Bus’ privileged banking status to create an illusion of liquidity, enabling Mensch to keep his business afloat even as it was financially sinking.
“Rather than take lawful steps to wind down his failing businesses, John Mensch resorted to criminality,” stated Breon Peach, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “He tricked two banks into advancing him millions of dollars that his company never had or ever had a chance of repaying.”
Mensch’s downfall began when East End Bus Lines, facing mounting debt and dwindling cash flow, leveraged a risky strategy to keep the fleet running. The company held expedited check-clearing privileges with multiple banks, allowing it to access deposited funds almost instantly—long before the banks could verify that the checks were backed by real money. Exploiting this loophole, prosecutors said Mensch engaged in a dizzying game of financial ping-pong, bouncing checks between East End’s various accounts to create a mirage of solvency.
Here’s how it worked: Mensch would draw checks from one of East End’s accounts, even though it was empty, and deposit them into a second account at a different bank. The receiving bank, unaware that the check was bound to bounce, would make the funds immediately available to East End. Before the check could clear—and the fraud exposed—Mensch would repeat the process, this time pulling bad checks from the second bank and depositing them back into the first.
It was a high-wire act of deception that fooled the banks into thinking there was real money in East End’s accounts. Each false transaction gave the company just enough breathing room to keep paying bills, covering salaries, and operating.
“This wasn’t just a simple case of writing a bad check,” said FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy. “This was a calculated, high-stakes scheme to defraud his own business partners,an elaborate fraud that siphoned millions of dollars out of legitimate institutions and into a sinking ship.”
As Mensch’s scheme grew bolder, so did the stakes. By the time it unraveled in September 2018, East End Bus Lines had racked up nearly $9.6 million in fraudulent transactions. But it wasn’t just the money. Mensch’s deceit temporarily stabilized an already shaky company, masking its precarious financial state from creditors, customers and employees.
The collapse was sudden and devastating. When the fraudulent trail came to light, the banks were left holding the bag, and Mensch’s empire crumbled almost overnight. The fallout has rippled through the Long Island community, with drivers, administrative staff, and school districts scrambling to adjust.
“This type of scheme doesn’t just hurt banks, it destabilizes the community,” said Patrick Freaney, special agent in charge for the U.S. Secret Service in New York. “The funds Mensch stole were used to cover up years of mismanagement, threatening the livelihoods of his employees and the safety of students who relied on East End’s services.”
As Mensch awaits sentencing, he faces not only the prospect of years behind bars but $9.6 million in restitution to the two victim banks. His actions also sparked a broader investigation into whether other executives at East End Bus Lines knew of or assisted in the fraud.
The case, led by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, has been hailed as a victory for the financial crimes unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The prosecution, handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony Bagnuola and Adam R. Toporovsky, is part of a broader effort to clamp down on white-collar crime across the region.
“This prosecution sends a clear message,” U.S. Attorney Peace concluded. “Those who exploit financial systems to prop up failing businesses and deceive the public will be held accountable.”
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Brooklyn community is on the brink of a transformative change, as the electrification of school buses and medium-heavy duty trucks promises to drastically reduce emissions, eliminate noise pollution, and lead the charge against climate change. Student transportation and electrification leader, First Student, along with Con Edison, one of the world’s largest energy delivery systems serving New York City and Westchester County, are spearheading this electric revolution. Through the launch of their innovative demonstration project, a smart energy hub will be deployed to support the speedy and cost-efficient electrification of school buses in the neighborhood. This groundbreaking project will deliver a scalable, cost-optimized solution that addresses economic barriers for medium- and heavy-duty fleet electrification, showcasing how to achieve ambitious electrification goals and paving the way for a brighter, greener future.
This novel demonstration project will also include a fleet of 12 electric school buses for Brooklyn schools. The electric buses will be topped with solar panels and will replace diesel buses at First Student’s location on Malta Street. The panels, along with solar arrays on the rooftop of the facility, will create a unique energy generation, battery storage and power delivery system.
The demonstration project positions Brooklyn at the core of a revolutionary approach to expand the capabilities of power grids in cities. This project has the potential to boost local grids while simultaneously storing and generating clean energy, and then delivering that power at moments when and where it’s needed most. It is also a potential cost-saver for rate payers. By using above-ground infrastructure, this approach eliminates the need for complex, expensive, construction-heavy projects and allows for quicker deployment speeds for future improvements.
For this project, First Student will deploy its innovative First Charge solution, a trenchless power deployment approach. First Charge reduces construction costs by at least 30% and enables a more efficient deployment, even in cold winter climates or where trenching would be disruptive to residents and businesses. This First Charge solution will also make it easier to upgrade the charging system for future deployments, adding flexibility and efficiency for vehicle electrification build outs.
The project surpasses traditional vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, creating a new era of power sourcing: Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X). V2X goes beyond simply plugging electric school bus batteries back into the grid, expanding instead to include the capacity to direct electricity delivery where it is needed. In summer months, when the buses are idle, and energy needs soar, or during emergencies, the smart energy hub significantly increases capacity, generating additional power for Con Edison.
“Harnessing electricity from First Student electric school bus batteries to create an emissions free smart energy hub that can serve a community during peak demand while turbocharging America’s fight against climate change is truly revolutionary,” said First Student CEO and President John Kenning. “First Student’s unparalleled battery storage capacity and pioneering First Charge technology solves an immediate need in many American communities: affordable, clean electricity supply that expands the capabilities of existing power grids. We do this all while providing a better experience for students by putting more electric buses on the roads, creating a safer, more enjoyable ride that’s healthier for kids and better for the environment.”
The demonstration project in Brooklyn comes as school bus electrification gains momentum nationwide. First Student has approximately 2,000 electric school buses under contract in school districts across the U.S. and more than 360 EVs deployed. The company co-designed the system using several advanced charging technologies that can deliver megawatts of power instantaneously, enough to power 5,000 houses for a year to Brooklyn, New York.
“New York’s children and families deserve clean air, which is why we are proud to partner with First Student to launch more electric school buses on our streets,” said Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud, director, E-Mobility, Con Edison. “Con Edison will continue to make critical investments in clean energy so that every New Yorker can have a higher quality of life and thrive in communities free from the harmful impacts of pollution.”
“EQT is proud of First Student’s work toward accelerating the realization of a clean energy future,” said Neha Jatar, Managing Director at EQT Group. “First Student’s revolutionary approach toward harnessing advancements in grid technology for school transportation and applying them to other verticals is transformative. We are committed to investing in companies like First Student that are creating the technologies of tomorrow, today.”
“Beyond providing healthy, clean transportation for kids, electric school buses represent an opportunity to build energy resilience in communities which is critical in the face of natural and other emergencies,”said Sue Gander, Director of World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative. “By leveraging solar panels and integrated charging technologies, electric school buses can act as giant, mobile batteries, able to store and discharge clean power when not being used for transportation. We’re eager to see this project between First Student and Con Edison bring stronger, more resilient grids as well as a clean ride for kids to Brooklyn, NY and serve as an example for others.”
This demonstration aims to prove how communities can build a critical bridge to planned grid modernization while providing backup power to grids. If needed, the Smart Energy Hub is also capable of supporting emergency services and hospitals, including HVAC, power and lighting.
The technology will allow for significant organizational growth at First Student, building upon the company’s operations in 43 states and in partnership with more than 3,000 utilities. It will create new pathways for First Student to deliver more energy storage nationally.
“Our company leads the industry in moving students, and now we are showing the world how to move electrons. We’ are proving that a scalable, cost-effective microgrid is possible, and doing it using bus batteries that otherwise would be sitting dormant,” said Alex Cook, chief engineer, First Student. “We learned from successful trials in multiple other deployments that combine First Student’s innovative charging infrastructure solution with unique energy storage options and dynamic load management software that can deliver a microgrid that is reliable and puts money back into the communities we serve.”
“We couldn’t do this without great partners who value innovation and who, like us, prioritize students’ wellbeing and their futures which means safer rides to school and safeguarding our planet. We thank Con Edison and Bechtel for their commitment to this project and for seeing the potential safety, community and global benefits of using solar power and school bus batteries to do more than just take kids to and from school every day,” said Kevin Matthews, head of electrification, First Student.
The implementation of this innovative charging technology is part of First Student’s larger electrification goals. First Student has made a commitment to transition 30,000 fossil fueled school buses to electric by 2035.
About First Student:
As a leading school transportation solutions provider in North America, First Student strives to provide the best start and finish to every school day. With a team of highly trained drivers and the industry’s strongest safety record, First Student delivers reliable, quality services, including full-service transportation and management, special-needs transportation, fleet electrification, route optimization, and scheduling, maintenance, and charter services with a fleet of more than 45,000 buses.
About First Services:
First Services, a division of First Student, is focused on providing customers with all of First Student’s expert transportation services without a full-service transportation contract. Services provided include routing, maintenance, special needs training, and fleet electrification, including the deployment of First Charge, the containerized, above-ground modular charging solution that decreases costs and speeds up EV deployment.
About Con Edison:
Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. [NYSE: ED], one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $15 billion in annual revenues for the year-end 2023 and $68 billion in assets as of June 30, 2024. The utility delivers electricity, natural gas and steam, and serves 3.7 million customers in New York City and Westchester County. For financial, operations and customer service information, visit conEd.com.
A student with autism was allegedly refused transportation to and from school after videos of a bus aide hitting the student were discovered, causing the girl to miss two days of school a week, reported Times Union.
The student’s mother, Felecia Powers, is filing a lawsuit against the Lansingburgh Central School District, located north of Albany, New York, contractor First Student, the bus driver, and the aide after reporting concerns for her daughter’s wellbeing onboard the bus. The 16-year-old student reportedly attends a day school in Massachusetts that requires a 70-minute bus ride each way. Powers told news sources that her daughter has a mental age of 1 1/2 to 2 years old and wears a five-point harness in her bus seat.
Officials reportedly found footage from January showing a bus aide hitting the student twice, while she was strapped in her seat. The aide claimed the student struck her first.
Powers met with a new bus driver and aide who were assigned to her daughter’s route, but she told local news that she didn’t feel confident that the behavior would not be repeated and expressed renewed concern for her daughter’s safety.
Following the lawsuit filed by Powers, First Student stopped taking the student to school. Powers reportedly drove her daughter for the remainder of the school year, and Lansingburgh CSD provided a different bus company for the summer.
The superintendent for Lansingburgh, Dr. Antonio Abitabile, reportedly did not know First Student would no longer be transporting the student until a week before the start of the current school year. But he stated that the district is working with First Student to resume bus service. The district has also reached out to other bus companies in the area but has not yet found transportation for the student as of this report.
Powers’ attorney told local news that the district’s attorney has communicated that they are aware it is the district’s responsibility to provide transportation but still working on it. The news report said that Powers is currently driving her daughter to school on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. She works the other two days of the week. She says her daughter wants to be in school and that she is frustrated by the delay in transportation service.
Waterloo Central School District in New York won a Top Transportation Teams award at STN EXPO West this summer. Transportation Supervisor D’Allah Laffoon discusses recovering from COVID-19-era operations, fostering teamwork, planning for electric school buses, starting school, and dealing with the driver shortage.
As low-income households face the dual burden of weather extremes and high energy costs, energy efficiency is an increasingly important strategy for both climate mitigation and lower utility bills.
Passive House standards — which create a building envelope so tight that central heating and cooling systems may not be needed at all — promise to dramatically slash energy costs, and are starting to appear in “stretch codes” for buildings, including in Massachusetts, Illinois, Washington and New York.
And while some builders are balking at the initial up-front cost, other developers are embracing passive house metrics as a solution for affordable multifamily housing.
“We’re trying to make zero energy, high performing buildings that are healthy and low energy mainstream everywhere,” said Katrin Klingenberg, co-founder and executive director of Passive House Institute-U.S., or Phius.
Klingenberg says the additional work needed to meet an aggressive efficiency standard, is, in the long run, not that expensive. Constructing a building to passive standards is initially only about 3%-5% more expensive than building a conventional single family home, or 0%-3% more for multifamily construction, according to Phius.
“This is not rocket science… We’re just beefing up the envelope. We’re doing all the good building science, we’re doing all the healthy stuff. We’re downsizing the [heating and cooling] system, and now we need someone to optimize that process,” Klingenberg said.
Phius in practice and action
A Phius-certified building does not employ a conventional central heating and cooling system. Instead, it depends on an air-tight building envelope, highly efficient ventilation and strategically positioned, high-performance windows to exploit solar gain during both winter and summer and maximize indoor comfort.
The tight envelope for Phius buildings regulates indoor air temperature, which can be a literal lifesaver when power outages occur during extreme heat waves or cold snaps, said Doug Farr, founder and principal of architecture firm Farr Associates.
Farr pointed to the example of the Academy for Global Citizenship in Chicago, which was built to Phius standards.
“There was a really cold snap in January. Somehow the power went out [and the building] was without electricity for two or three days. And the internal temperature in the building dropped two degrees over three days.”
Farr said that example shows a clear benefit to high efficiency that justifies the cost.
“You talk about the ultimate resilience where you’re not going to die in a power outage either in the summer or the winter. You know, that’s pretty valuable.”
There is also a business case to be made for implementing Phius and other sustainability metrics into residential construction, such as lowered bills that can appeal to market-rate buyers and renters, and reduced long-term maintenance costs for building owners.
AJ Patton, founder and CEO of 548 Enterprise in Chicago, says in response to questions about how to convince developers to consider factors beyond the bottom line, simply, “they shouldn’t.”
Instead, he touts lower operating costs for energy-efficiency metrics rather than climate mitigation when he pitches his projects to his colleagues.
“I can’t sell people on climate change anymore,” he said. “If you don’t believe by now, the good Lord will catch you when He catch you.
“But if I can sell you on lowering your operating expenses, if I can sell you on the marketability, on the fact that your tenants will have 30%, 40% lower individual expenses, that’s a marketing angle from a developer owner, that’s what I push on my contemporaries,” Patton said. “And then that’s when they say, ‘if you’re telling the truth, and if your construction costs are not more significant than mine, then I’m sold.’”
Phius principles can require specialized materials and building practices, Klingenberg said. But practitioners are working toward finding ways to manage costs by sourcing domestically available materials rather than relying on imports.
“The more experienced an architect [or developer] gets, they understand that they can replace these specialized components with more generic materials and you can get the same effect,” Klingenberg said.
Patton is presently incorporating Phius principles as the lead developer for 3831 W Chicago Avenue, a mixed use development located on Chicago’s West Side. The project, billed as the largest passive house design project in the city to date, will cover an entire city block, incorporating approximately 60 mixed-income residential units and 9,000 sq ft of commercial and community space.
Another project, Sendero Verde, located in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, is the largest certified passive-house building in the United States with 709 units. Completed in April, Sendero Verde is designed to provide cool conditions in the summer and warmth during the winter — a vast improvement for the low-income and formerly unhoused individuals and families who live there.
Barriers and potential solutions
Even without large upfront building cost premiums and with the increased impact of economies of scale, improved technology and materials, many developers still feel constrained to cut costs, Farr said.
“There’s entire segments of the development spectrum in housing, even in multifamily housing in Chicago, where if you’re a developer of rental housing time and again … they feel like they have no choice but to keep things as the construction as cheap as possible because their competitors all do. And then, some architecture firms only work with those ‘powerless’ developers and they get code-compliant buildings.”
But subsidies, such as federal low income housing credits, IRS tax breaks and resources from the Department of Energy also provide a means for developers to square the circle, especially for projects aimed toward very low-income residents.
Nonetheless, making the numbers work often requires taking a long-term view of development, according to Brian Nowak, principal at Sweetgrass Design Studio in Minnesota. Nowak was the designer for Hillcrest Village, an affordable housing development in Northfield that does not utilize Phius building metrics, but does incorporate net-zero energy usage standards.
“It’s an investment over time, to build resilient, energy-efficient housing,” he told the Energy News Network in June 2023.
“That should be everyone’s goal. And if we don’t, for example, it affects our school system. It affects the employers at Northfield having people that are readily available to come in and fill the jobs that are needed.
“That’s a significant long-term benefit of a project like this. And that is not just your monthly rents on the building; it’s the cost of the utilities as well. When those utilities include your electricity and your heating and cooling that’s a really big deal.”
Developers like Patton are determined to incorporate sustainability metrics into affordable housing and commercial developments both because it’s good business and because it’s the right thing to do.
“I’m not going to solve every issue. I’m going to focus on clean air, clean water, and lowering people’s utility bills. That’s my focus. I’m not going to design the greatest architectural building. I’m not even interested in hiring those type of architects.
“I had a lived experience of having my heat cut off in the middle of winter. I don’t want that to ever happen to anybody I know ever again,” Patton said. “So if I can lower somebody’s cost of living, that’s my sole focus. And there’s been a boatload of buy-in from that, because those are historically [not] things [present] in the communities I invest in.”
A former William Floyd School District bus driver was arrested after he was caught with child pornography, reported Patch News.
According to the news report, 71-year-old Guenther Mayrhofer of Mastic Beach was charged on Aug. 15 after the Troop L computer crimes unit, community stabilization unit, forensics investigative unit, along with the New York State Police executed a search warrant and arrested Mayrhofer.
A district’s spokesperson told local news reporters that the moment Mayrhofer’s arrest was known, he was decertified as a driver for the district.
New York State Police reportedly began an investigation into the possession of child porn based on a cyber tip generated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.
According to the article, on the day of Mayrhofer’s arrest police seized items from his residence including cell phones, tablets, laptops, hard rivers and other media storage devices, such as SD cards and USB flash drives.
Mayrhofer was reportedly processed at the state police barrack and charged with six counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and six counts of possession of a sexual performance by a child. He was awaiting arraignment Friday at Suffolk County First District Court.
A Syracuse City School District school bus was struck by a bullet on Wednesday afternoon, reported Syracuse News.
The incident occurred at about 2:37 p.m. when the school bus was transporting four students along the 400 block of Highland Street.
According to the news report, the bullet went through the front of the bus then hit the radiator. The bus was immobilized and towed away. No injuries were reported at the time of the incident.
Police stated via the article that the bus was not the intended target and that whoever shot the bullets must have been standing on the side of the road. Mutiple casings were recovered at the scene.
The students’ parents were notified of the incident, and the children were transported home safely.
The incident remains under investigation and police are asking that anyone with information about the shooting should contact them.
Another $200 million will soon be headed to school districts that must meet a state mandate to purchase electric school buses starting in 2027.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the second round of $500 million available to school districts and bus contractors on Monday. The first round of $100 million was announced last October. The New York School Bus Incentive Program (NYSBIP) distributes the funds, which are part of the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air and Clean Jobs Environmental Bond Act approved by voters two years ago. NYSBIP provides support for the purchase of electric buses, charging infrastructure or fleet electrification planning as public schools transition to zero-emission technologies.
Administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), NYSBIP provides incentives to eligible school districts and bus fleet operators purchasing electric buses. The funding is available on a first-come, first-served basis with funding covering up to 100 percent of the incremental cost of a new or repowered school bus. Also available are vouchers that can help offset the cost of installing Level 2 or DC fast chargers. All New York school districts also qualify for funding for fleet electrification plans.
“Paving the way for zero-emission school buses not only cleans our air, it protects the health and wellbeing of our students,” Gov. Hochul said in a statement. “With increased funding for schools to transition to clean transportation options, we are reducing harmful emissions and pollution, helping to ensure that both students and residents are breathing clean, fresh air and enjoying healthier environments to live, work and do business.”
All new school buses purchased statewide as of Jan. 1, 2027, must be zero emissions. All school district and contractor fleets must also be 100 percent zero emissions by 2035. The NYSBIP defines zero emissions as electric or hydrogen fuel cell school buses, though only the former are currently available.
Priority districts identified as high-need school districts and disadvantaged communities are available to receive larger funding amounts.
Since NYSBIP’s launch, a press release states that more than 75 school districts, 51 located in disadvantaged communities, have applied for funds to purchase 350 buses. Almost half of the state’s districts are working with NYSERDA to create Fleet Electrification Plans, and to date 250 districts have already started developing plans. More than 100 districts are in the process of applying for fleet planning in coordination with their local BOCES districts, the release adds.
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