ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The Ritenour School District’s long-awaited plan to replace its fleet of aging school buses with EV buses is back on track after previous concerns that a federal funding freeze might derail the change.

On Friday, the district announced it now has access to the federal account that is holding grant funds for the EV school buses. As a result, plans for its electric school bus fleet are no longer suspended.

Last year, Ritenour applied for a $9.5 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Clean School Bus Program. The district was approved for the grant and had already used $1.2 million to buy three new buses, along with charging infrastructure.

However, on Jan. 29, Ritenour was unable to access the remaining grant funds. The school district says this was due to federal funding freeze recently imposed under an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Ritenour was looking to access the funds to pay vendors for work, and the funds that were frozen were intended to acquire 21 more EV buses and install 24 charging stations.

After weeks of delays and uncertainties, the district was able to draw more than $8 million in EPA grant funds on Friday to move forward with its EV bus plans.

“We had remained optimistic that the funds would be released and that we would be able to get to the finish line with our electric bus project,” said Ritenour Superintendent Dr. Chris Kilbride via a news release. “Although it was frustrating that the funds had been suspended, in the end, we are happy that we will have 24 electric school buses that were promised as part of the EPA grant and that no local funds were used.” 

The EV busses and charging equipment will soon be delivered from Litchfield, Illinois to Ritenour’s bus depot in Overland, Missouri.