In May of 2024, Croton Harmon school district voters approved the purchase of an electric school bus. This will be the fifth electric school bus purchased by the district. Croton Harmon was one of the first school districts in New York State to go electric, thanks in large part to the work of the Northern Westchester Mothers Out Front team.
The Northern Westchester team began advocating for this change in 2020, before there was a state mandate to do so. With a fossil fuel bus included in the budget vote that year, they raised awareness in their community about the health risks of diesel buses, and the huge climate benefit of transitioning to electric buses, which have no tailpipe emissions.
“When our members learned that emissions from our school buses made up a quarter of the transportation greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., we realized we could help mitigate the climate crisis for our kids,” said team volunteer Megan Dyer. “Transitioning to electric would make a massive positive impact for the climate, air quality, and school cost-savings.”
The team collaborated with other local climate organizations, including Croton 100, to educate the public and the school board and administration. They spoke at multiple school board meetings and participated on the district’s Fleet Electrification Task Force. In addition to air quality and climate concerns, they spoke about the positive financial impacts of electrification. To help raise awareness across municipal boundaries, In January 2022 the Northern Westchester team and Westchester Rivertowns team of Mothers Out Front co-hosted a webinar with the Westchester County Executive’s office. Patty Buchanan of Croton 100 presented a tool to calculate the total cost of ownership (called the BEST tool) to help school districts account for the long-term savings of reduced maintenance and fuel, particularly when paired with government incentives.
Local middle schoolers also teamed up with the Northern Westchester group, helping to spread the word with an electric bike raffle as a way to build excitement and support. They tabled at different locations around town, allowing them to engage with community members and local business owners, and partnered with the Catholic Church’s Care for Creation ministry to table outside the church. The students were empowered to educate the public, and also speak before the school board, about why it was important to them that the schools move away from fossil fuel buses.
The students love their new electric school buses, and had a blast naming them – EVie and Lighting McGreen.
Like any major transition, there are challenges along the way, but each new electric bus that is purchased instead of a gas or diesel bus is a step in the right direction. This latest EV bus purchase demonstrates the district’s commitment to continuing on its journey to make a healthier, brighter future for our kids.