Background Information:

In January of 2016, the United States and the State of California filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen alleging it had manufactured diesel cars sold and operated in the U.S. beginning in 2009 with emission control systems intended to defeat emissions tests. These systems allowed vehicles to emit nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution at levels that significantly exceeded the amounts allowed under the Clean Air Act. Volkswagen agreed to spend $14.7 billion to settle allegations of cheating emissions. Ten billion of those dollars were specifically designated to buy back diesel vehicles from consumers. The State of Alaska ultimately received a portion of that funding and developed a Beneficiary Mitigation Plan that allowed for Requests for Applications for Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Grants to be submitted for two separate application periods. (June 2019 - $1.7 million & November 2019 - $1.7 million)

Rachelle Goniotakis, KPBSD Transportation Supervisor, requested permission to research the grants and submit an application for new activity busses through the grant. Rachelle worked together with folks in the Anchorage Transportation Department and dedicated a lot of time and effort to the project while she continued to do her regular duties. Rachelle applied for seven (7) new activity busses in the June 2019 application period. As you can see from the attached September 12, 2019, letter from the Alaska Energy Authority, KPBSD, through Rachelle’s efforts, was awarded funding to replace four (4) school busses. During the November 2019 application period, Rachelle again submitted an application for three (3) busses. As you can see from the attached December 16, 2019, letter from the Alaska Energy Authority, KPBSD was awarded funding to replace two (2) additional school busses for a total of six (6) new activity busses. The award amount for each bus is $145,000 for a grand total of $870,000 overall. This is an outstanding accomplishment by Rachelle! With an aging fleet and a lack of funds to replace it, these busses could not have come to the District at a better time.

Rachelle is currently preparing bus specifications to be issued with a Request for Proposals (RFP) for six new busses. Once the RFP has been issued and proposals have been evaluated, we will bring a recommendation back to the School Board for formal approval.

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