The Bus Technology Summit and Green Bus Summit return to Reno, Nevada this July during the STN EXPO West conference.
The Bus Technology Summit begins Sunday, July 12 with live product labs presented by companies representing different facets of the student transportation space. Solutions include routing software, safety features, fleet optimization, student ridership, transportation communications and more. Attendees will select labs to attend based on operational needs and will interact with vendors to ask targeted questions and get a closer look at the technology solutions transforming the industry.
The Sunday labs will be presented by Transfinder, First Light Safety Products, Alpha Route, Geotab, Samsara, BusRight and Verra Mobility. Labs continue Monday, July 13 with SafeFleet, Tyler Technologies, School-Radio, CalAmp, Cummins/Accelera and HopSkipDrive.
Zonar CEO Charles Kriete will present a “CEO Talk” on Sunday morning to discuss the technology trends impacting the student transportation industry. The following morning, ZUM’s COO and co-founder Vivek Garg will present his “Tech Talk” to conference attendees.
Meanwhile, the Green Bus Summit will focus on green leadership that enables attendees to discover the latest advancements in sustainable transportation. A wide-range of speakers from OEMs, school districts using low-emission fuel options, and industry experts will share operational considerations, real-life experiences and tips to find the best fuel option for their operations. Sessions will be presented by Blue Bird, Thomas Built Buses, Micro Bird, the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) and IC Bus. The Green Bus Summit sessions will also be held on Sunday and Monday.
The two Summits meet for an immersive outdoor experience Sunday night at the STN EXPO West Ride and Drive/Live Technology Demo. Attendees will ride electric, propane and low-emission diesel school buses from Blue Bird, IC Bus, Micro Bird, RIDE and PERC. In addition, they will visit Zonar, Tyler Technologies, Transfinder and ZUM for more live product demos and networking with vendors for real-time discovery of solutions to take home to their districts.
The evening will include an energetic networking atmosphere with food and beverages, interactive games and a live DJ. Attendees will not only network with companies providing transportation solutions but meet other transportation professionals to have the conversations that are driving innovation in the industry.
Find the full conference agenda and registration details at stnexpo.com/west. STN EXPO West will be held July 9-15 at the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada. The conference will feature hands-on training classes including the National School Bus Inspection Training Program, educational sessions, the Transportation Director Summit leadership event, the STN EXPO West Trade Show and other unique networking events.
CONCORD, N.C. – The Green Bus Summit at STN EXPO East featured school bus manufacturers discussing products, technology, innovations and support for school districts looking to run cleaner, safer and more efficient school bus operations.
Blue Bird: EV Myth vs. Reality: What’s Actually Driving Adoption?
“We’ve taken the lead on the EV side,” declared Brad Beauchamp, EV product segment leader for Blue Bird, reviewing how the company entered the field eight years ago.
Noelle White, channel partner marketing specialist for Blue Bird, led attendees through a gamified quiz on common electric school bus myths.
Attendees correctly identified answers to questions such as what regenerative braking does (charges the battery while slowing), time required for infrastructure upgrades (six to 18 months), and how much of a total EV project cost is tied to infrastructure (25 to 40 percent).
Although cold weather reduces electric school bus range by 10 to 30 percent, Beauchamp noted that technology advances and operational techniques allow for improvements in this area.
Level 1 chargers are commonly used by most districts today, but Beauchamp recommended Level 2 chargers, which he said are best for overnight charging.
Infrastructure readiness most commonly delays electric school bus projects since the work “doesn’t stop on the first wave of buses,” Beauchamp cautioned.
Operational planning significantly shifts during the move from diesel to electric due to routes and weather, to name a few factors, Beauchamp reminded attendees.
“As you start to use [electric school buses], there is a learning curve,” he said. “On the great side for EV, a lot of things can be corrected without even leaving your yard.”
Viewing electric bus deployment as equivalent to a straightforward vehicle purchase is a common pitfall, explained Beauchamp. Instead, he said districts must consider infrastructure, utilities, load planning and route modeling early in the process. He added that data gathered from onboard telematics helps transportation directors in this crucial planning phase.
“It’s going to take a team,” he said, especially as not all aspects of electric school bus implementation happen sequentially.
In fact, the bus purchase from the OEM is “the easy part,” he quipped.
“Eighty percent of routes in the U.S. can be covered with an EV,” Beauchamp continued.
He advised putting an electric school bus on shorter routes until success is achieved, and then operations can branch out.
“Figure out what your long-term strategy will be,” he said.
When districts purchase an electric school bus with federal funds, they are required to decommission and scrap an old diesel bus rather than keep it as a spare, Beauchamp cautioned. He advised planning for scalability, not simply pilot projects.
Lastly, he reviewed EPA Clean School Bus program updates, noting that state and local funding opportunities also help keep electric school bus projects afloat. He advised performing preventative maintenance on both the bus and charger.
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Brad Beauchamp, EV product segment leader for Blue Bird, speaks at STN EXPO East 2026.
IC Bus: Leveraging Technology Solutions for Efficient Fleet Management
Matt Milewski, market segmentation director for IC Bus, reviewed how First Student announced last September that it was outfitting its fleet of 46,000 school buses with Samsara technology.
Jason Kierna, vice president of information technology for First Student, spoke to the company’s customer-focused motivation rather than just adding technology for its own sake.
“We’ve got thousands of customers and all of them want to use technology in a different way and that’s why it’s more about the process for us than it is about the technology,” he said.
He explained how the new AI-powered HALO offering combines vehicle inspections, driver coaching, AI cameras, predictive analytics, and more to improve safety for students and transparency for parents.
“Parents today are expecting more objective evidence when incidents occur,” agreed Scott Jobe, head of public sector strategists for Samsara.
He noted that AI is “maybe not the best when you deal with human interaction or conversation, but when it comes to objectivity, we think of AI as like a force multiplier.”
Kierna elaborated that hazard alerts or safety behavior remediation that HALO provides, can help school bus drivers proactively self-correct so a reactive supervisor conversation is unneeded. He added that some First Student drivers now refuse to drive a bus without the technology.
Kierna related an incident in which a bus was struck at over 60 mph and said the driver would have been injured if she had not been wearing her seatbelt, which she had just put on properly due to the AI powered camera’s alert. Jobe added that another district saw a reduction in risky behaviors by drivers, illegal passing incidents, bus crashes and maintenance costs due to the AI technology.
“What does safety mean to your organization?” Kierna rhetorically asked the audience.
Milewski emphasized IC Bus’ support for what Jobe termed a “frictionless experience” in technology integration for school district and bus contractor clients. Kierna reiterated the commitment of all three companies to overall safety for students.
Kierna underscored that empowering drivers and lobbying for safety initiatives are two of the many aspects that are directly related to the effective gathering and leveraging of data.
“Integrated technology is the future,” Jobe agreed. He shared a pothole detection feature in development, in which information gathered via onboard cameras, bus location and G-forces the bus undergoes can be sent directly to cities for repair escalation.
“We have so much data that we can turn into real actionable insights,” he said.
In answer to an attendee question on staff who may struggle with technology, Kierna said the AI assistant helps put things in plain language for users.
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Matt Milewski, market segmentation director for IC Bus.
Jason Kierna, vice president of information technology for First Student.
Thomas Built Bus: Let’s Talk Fuels – What Legislative Uncertainty Means for School Transportation
Mark Childers, direct sales and technology sales manager for Thomas Built Buses, reviewed current challenges and uncertainty surrounding fuel choice. “You’ve got to make some decisions,” he said.
“Where we stand today is that in 2027 all of the manufacturers are subject to EPA’s low NOx rule, so that is the new multi-pollutant criteria rule that’s going to deal with NOx and particulate matter that is coming in 2027,” explained Alissa Rector, policy advisor for Thomas Built Buses parent company Daimler Trucks North America. “Even though EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations have been rolled back in 2027, we are still subject to the existing greenhouse gas phase 2 standard at [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] NHTSA so there’s not a lot of change that you’re going to see on the greenhouse gas side compared to where we are today.”
Jim Ellis, director of pupil transportation for Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia, has 600 school buses and is receiving 25 electric buses in July. When managing his bus fleet, he said he must balance getting the best bang for his buck with environmental concerns for cleaner air.
“I think that the key lesson is to just know change is going to continue to happen and just continue to take one step at a time,” declared Brittany Barrett, deputy director of operations and implementation for the World Resources Institute. She advised staying on top of fleet data, so it is easier to pivot and make decisions.
Rector discussed the differences between local pollutants like NOx, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter, as opposed to greenhouse gases like carbon and CO2 which enter the atmosphere.
Whitney Kopanko, vice president of school bus sales and marketing for Sonny Merryman, noted that the Thomas Built Buses Virginia dealer has put 300 electric school buses on the road. She spoke to dovetailing student transporter priorities of getting students to and from schools with community and regulatory pressure for cleaner air.
She and Ellis agreed that it’s crucial to provide numbers and data to stakeholders during decision-making processes.
WRI provides helpful tools and resources, Barrett informed attendees. Kopanko added that AFLEET suite from the U.S. Department of Energy can be used to compare fuel types. Fuel choice is a hyper localized decision based on what each district needs, she stated.
Though most school buses currently run clean diesel and will continue to, Rector prognosticated that the future will be mixed fuels with interesting developments in hydrogen. “Any future roadmap is going to have a lot of different options on it,” she declared.
Diesel fuel doubling in price due to the war in Iran is currently juxtaposed with conversations on propane or electric implementation, said Ellis.
While changing fuels may look tempting, Kopanko advised considering availability of alternative or drop-in fuel, infrastructure needs, driver and mechanic training, and the extra accountability involved in abiding by rules for government subsidies.
Barrett said electric buses have the range to meet 90 percent of the routing requirements for districts she works with, but infrastructure is the biggest question mark. “It’s not insurmountable but it requires a plan,” she said.
She praised Sonny Merryman’s electrification project with Dominion Energy in Virginia.
Panelists advised working closely with dealers, gathering all available fleet operation data, considering urban versus rural needs to determine what type of bus goes where, taking part in vigorous training and education, and keeping abreast of the rapidly changing regulatory landscape.
They also answered questions from attendees on electric school bus range, charging time, battery degradation and V2G.
(Left to right) Alissa Rector, policy advisor for Daimler Trucks North America, and Brittany Barrett, deputy director of operations and implementation for the World Resources Institute, speak at STN EXPO East 2026.
CONCORD, N.C. – After a day of Bus Technology Summit and Green Bus Summit sessions, Sunday was capped off with a high-energy, racing-inspired Technology Demonstrations and Ride & Drive + Reception held in the NASCAR Cup Series Garage and the Quarter-Mile Oval Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Attendees enjoyed a lively networking reception featuring dinner, drinks and entertainment.
CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday featured themed sessions as part of the Bus Technology Summit and Green Bus Summit at STN EXPO East. Vendor and supplier companies presented live or hands-on demonstrations of their technology suites, products and service offerings, as well as panel discussions on cleaner school bus options.
Afternoon sessions covered first-responder coordination, school bus attendants, streamlining team communication, and NHTSA’s latest research on illegal passing.
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Anthony Jackson, transportation director for Bibb County School District in Georgia, speaks at STN EXPO East 2026.
Registration is now open for the STN EXPO West conference, an innovative six-day training and networking event by School Transportation News taking place this summer in Reno, Nevada.
STN EXPO West brings together student transportation leaders to have conversations that are making the difference in the pupil transportation industry. The conference and trade show is scheduled to begin July 9 at the Peppermill Resort with a four-hour seminar providing modules on school bus and transportation security response from law enforcement officials. It concludes July 15 with a special half-day seminar taught by renowned industry trainers Dick Fischer and Pete Baxter, both National Association for Pupil Transportation Hall of Fame members.
STN EXPO West Overview
Other exciting experiences return this year, including the Transportation Director Summit, an exclusive leadership event that begins July 9 at the Peppermill and continues July 10 at the picturesque Chateau at Incline Village at Lake Tahoe. The Ride and Drive event in conjunction with the Green Bus Summit and Bus Technology Summit are on July 12. The STN EXPO Trade Show “Wonderland of Ideas” opens the evening of July 13 to expose attendees to the technological and green solutions needed to optimize their operations. The Trade Show continues the morning of July 14.
First, keynote speaker Bruce Turkel will deliver an impactful presentation July 13 on how to cut through the constant information overload and how to market your communication to stand out in the crowd.
Michelle Atwell, chief of safety countermeasures for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, also joins the STN EXPO West agenda to highlight federal actions taking place to combat illegal passing of stopped school buses.
Other special training opportunities include the National School Bus Inspection Training Program, “So You Want to Be a Transportation Supervisor?” and hands-on wheelchair securement classes. Educational sessions will break down the pressing issues that face the student transportation industry and provide practical solutions and strategies, including the use of AI, lap/shoulder seatbelt research, budgeting and employee culture.
Save $200 on main conference registration with the Super Early Bird special pricing, only available through April 10, 2026. Learn more about unique experiences and stay tuned for more agenda updates at stnexpo.com/west.
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