Students step down from a school bus with green “Powered by propane” markings at the first day of school at Penndale Middle School in Lansdale in Aug. 2024. (Photo courtesy of North Penn School District)
Buses did not arrive before school year ended, says CFO.
A delayed delivery for the North Penn School District’s green fleet could lead to a six-figure bookkeeping change.
School board members heard last week about a budget transfer needed to cover a late delivery of propane-fueled school buses.
“The bus replacement plan is not impaired in any way, and the money was reserved last year. It’s not like this is new money, the money was allocated last year, just unspent,” said district CFO Steve Skrocki.
Since 2018 the district has steadily converted their fleet of diesel school buses to propane, the first of which arrived in May 2019, while allocating $1 million in the transportation department’s budget each year to purchase more propane buses. Grant funding in 2020 went into another round of propane buses, bringing the district’s total at that time to 21, all fueled from a propane station adjacent to North Penn High School.
Nine more buses were added to the fleet in 2021, an approval from the school board in June 2022 authorized conversion of the buses used by private firm First Student for district runs to propane, then in fall 2022 the district secured grant funding for seven more propane buses, before adding another eight propane buses in May 2023.
In March 2024 the district's transportation department presented a budget for 2024-25 that included the purchase of eight more buses, and said at the time that order would bring the district up to over nearly 90 percent of total bus runs on vehicles fueled by propane, and said 47 percent of the district bus fleet was propane, with the 2024-25 deliveries bringing the total to roughly 56 percent.
During the school board finance committee meeting on Sept. 10, Skrocki warned of one potential snag: a delay in delivery of several buses ordered for 2023-24, but not delivered until after the fiscal year ended.
Students walk past school buses with green "Powered by propane" markings at the first day of school at Penndale Middle School in Lansdale in Aug. 2024. (Photo courtesy of North Penn School District)"Five of the eight buses did not arrive by June 30. They arrived after June 30th, the first week of July. Three of the buses arrived in time, prior to June 30, they got charged back to the '23-24 fiscal year. The five buses, we have now paid for them, that totaled $611,000, we paid for those out of the 2024-25 fiscal year," Skrocki said.
"The problem is, we budgeted $1 million, we've now paid $611,000 out of 2024-25 budget year, without buying a bus in the new fiscal year. This will actually impair the replacement plan, if we don't do anything: we only have $390,000 remaining in the '24-25 fiscal year to buy buses. We won't be able to buy the typical eight or nine" planned in the budget, he said.
Families walk past the propane fuel tank adjacent to North Penn High School after the school's graduation ceremony in June 2024. (Dan Sokil - MediaNews Group)Staff's recommendation? Since that $611,000 was allocated in the 2023-24 budget but not spent, it could be transferred into the district's capital reserve fund, then used to cover part of the 2024-25 bus purchase, so both years end up having the full $1 million allocation.
"That $611,000 is basically just leftover money now, that was unspent from the '23-24 fiscal year," Skrocki said.
Since the new fiscal year started on July 1, finance department staff have been working with the district's outside auditor to prepare their report on the just-ended budget year, and the CFO said the delayed delivery and subsequent budget transfer is something the auditor "look at closely."
"I'm not going to be a party to any accounting trickery," he said.
Due to the delay, staff were able to secure a $2,500 discount from the vendor on each delayed bus, totaling roughly $10,000 in savings on the order. The finance committee voted the transfer request ahead on Sept. 10, and the full school board could approve the same when they meet on Sept. 19.
North Penn's school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Sept. 19 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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