Student Opportunities and Electric Buses with Methow Valley School District
The Methow Valley School District received a grant from the Department of Ecology (WA ECY Clean Diesel Grant) and Resilient Methow is partnering with them to implement the grant!
The grant has two key goals:
Student Engagement and Opportunity - Determine the best ways to create student opportunities and vocational training in the alternative fuel/ electric vehicle and infrastructure work emerging in North Central Washington.
MVSD Bus Transition - Design a process to do a feasibility study to transition the district to electric or alternative fuel buses.
Fun fact – MVSD has the largest geographic footprint of any school district in the state, which makes it a perfect place to lead on transitioning to cleaner transportation options!
Resilient Methow is partnering with the district to support research, help identify partners with expertise in this space, help design a feasibility study, determine industry standards and skills gaps, and examine different models of student projects and curriculum that could be used. Michiel Zuidwig, a local consultant, is also partnering on the project to offer technical expertise.
This project is part of a broader effort to look ahead at the clean energy career opportunities that are emerging, and to set MVSD students up to take advantage of them. Electric school buses also have a wide range of benefits, including improving students respiratory health by eliminating tailpipe emissions, quiet operations, lower operating costs, and lowering CO2 emissions.