Sulphur Springs Union School District officials have announced plans to acquire a handful of new propane buses for the next school year as well as for several upcoming school-related events.

During Wednesday night’s board meeting, the transportation department for the school district spoke about how a purchasing agreement to replace three pre-1994 diesel school buses by fall of 2019 was not going to be fulfilled.

However, to meet the requirements stipulated by a grant given to them by the South Coast Air Quality Management District to purchase the new vehicles, they looked to another option available to them.

Through the process of finding a new vendor, they found buses that not only met the emission standard, but that also gained new amenities along the way.

The new buses can feature an in-bus camera system, LED lights, seats a total of 75 students and the cleaner burning propane engine system, said Gretchen Bergrstrom, assistant superintendent of business for the district. And, even with the new features and change of vendor, the district plans to incur no new penalties.

Danielle Cuevas, transportation manager for the district, and Manny Rubios, SSUSD mechanic shop operator, said the new propane buses would be able to handle some of the more aggressive slopes within the district routes.

Additionally, the staff of the SSUSD announced a number of upcoming events for the district and district parents.

On Wednesday, April 17, the district is planning to host the fifth annual STEAM Expo at Fair Oaks Ranch Community School. The district plans to showcase the work done by students from all nine district schools in engineering, coding, robotics, art and more, according to SSUSD officials.

Beginning March 28 at Fair Oaks Ranch and going until May 1 at Canyon Springs, all school sites will honor Super Achievers who met or exceeded the standard on the 2018 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, the statewide system of assessments that measure student progress in different subjects.

And on April 25 from 6 to 7 p.m., all nine schools’ GATE program students will hold their annual GATE Night event, where students who worked on differentiated GATE projects that display their content knowledge, critical thinking skills, technology skills and creativity skills, will showcase their abilities to friends and parents.

For more information about upcoming SSUSD events visit their website at https://www.sssd.k12.ca.us/.