Minneapolis rolls out electric school buses, and students who pushed for them get test ride

Fifth-grade students at Whittier International Elementary School in Minneapolis piled onto the electric school bus for a short ride through the neighborhood, a field trip that grew out of a letter-writing campaign they staged urging district leadership to buy it.

"We listened," Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams said. Diesel-powered buses "are not the future of transportation. Sustainability is something we can't afford to ignore."

An Environmental Protection Agency grant from its Clean School Bus Program and Highland Electric Fleets was a big impetus, too. Last year the district bought two electric school buses that are just now arriving in Minnesota. Whittier students went for a test ride on one Tuesday, before the buses are put into service this summer.

The EPA grant is allowing the district to buy two more electric buses, which cost between $320,000 and $400,000. The buses, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner Katrina Kessler said, will give students a "clean and cool new ride" and add to the state's small but growing fleet of electric buses.

In 2020, the MPCA launched a pilot to try electric school buses in Minnesota. Over the past few years, 10 buses powered exclusively by electricity have been put in service, and 22 more are on the way, Kessler said.

The state has a goal of reducing greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050 and funding electric school buses is part of the work, Kessler said.

Through its curriculum, Whittier students are challenged to take action to make the world a better place, Principal Anne Wagemaker said.

As part of a "Sharing the Planet" unit last fall, teacher Alex Lange had his students brainstorm ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels and slow climate change. The discussion rolled around to buses, which is how about 70% of the student body arrives to class each day.

"What do you ride every day?' Lange asked the students. "Who makes changes? The superintendent. Let's write a letter."

At a press event on Tuesday, student Luis Obando read aloud his letter asking the district to buy the buses.

"We believe this is important because it is good for the environment," Obando read. "Another reason is that it reduces CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the air. If not reduce the CO2 that we have in the air, it will hurt the glaciers. Also that was the disappearance of polar bears."

Sayles-Adams called the student letters "well researched."

After all the speeches were done, the moment students had been waiting for finally arrived. It was time to go for a ride.

"Call my mom," student Brooke Henderson yelled out the window as the bus pulled away from curb. "Tell her I am on an electric school bus."