Earth Protect Blog

By Amy Bounds

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An ongoing bus driver shortage in Boulder Valley meant Lafayette’s Peak to Peak Charter School no longer had the option to rent buses from the school district to use for field trips and athletics.

But the 1,450-student, K-12 school didn’t want to buy diesel buses, so Executive Director of Operations Sam Todd began looking at affordable alternatives. He decided the best option was electric buses, and the school put out a bid to companies that could lease the buses. The company chosen was Highland Electric Fleets.

“We didn’t want the fumes, we didn’t want the fuel tanks and we didn’t want the noise,” Todd said.

Peak to Peak, which has about 1,450 students, unveiled its four buses on Thursday as the state’s first all-electric bus fleet.

Gov. Jared Polis, who is pushing a plan to have school districts move to all-electric fleets, praised the school’s efforts at a Thursday launch. He said electric buses are quieter, don’t produce fumes, save on gas and cost less to maintain. This change won’t just benefit Peak to Peak, but the entire community,” he said.

While Peak to Peak is leasing its buses, Polis pointed to state and federal support that can help larger school districts purchase electric buses.

At Peak to Peak, Highland Electric partnered with McCandless Truck Center to provide the buses and will manage the charging stations and infrastructure installed last summer at Peak to Peak through an Xcel grant.

Highland also helped train the school’s three new bus drivers — all parents — and will cover bus and charger maintenance and electricity costs through a full-service agreement with the school.

Along with field trips and athletic events, the buses will do morning student pickups from central locations in Lafayette, Louisville, Erie and Broomfield, reducing traffic around the campus by an estimated 118 cars. — The Denver Post contributed to this report.