The Ritenour School District is getting its electric school buses after weeks in limbo.
The district had been unable to pay for buses it ordered because of a federal funding freeze the Trump administration put in place through an executive order.
Now, the district said its account has been unsuspended, and it was able to draw down the final $8.32 million to pay vendors for both completed charging stations and the final 21 electric school buses.
The district had received and paid for three electric school buses in late January, but the remainder were caught in limbo for weeks. The buses were sitting in a lot in Litchfield, Illinois, unable to be delivered because the district couldn’t access its federal account.
Last February, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded Ritenour $9.5 million to convert its entire daily fleet of school buses from diesel to electric. This was part of the Clean School Bus Program, which was funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order telling all agencies to pause funds appropriated through that law and the Inflation Reduction Act. The pause has since been challenged in court, and a federal judge directed the administration to restore funding from both laws.
At an early February event to celebrate the first three buses, the district’s bus drivers, administrators and cheerleaders popped confetti and cheered. Ritenour Superintendent Chris Kilbride was still optimistic the funding would again be available to the district.
“The uncertainty, the lack of communication, has created some frustration, but we remain hopeful,” Kilbride said then. “We entered into [this project] with our partners in good faith, feel very confident that the project will come together and the buses that the student and community deserves, that we will receive them.”
