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PSS: 8 new buses on their way
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Posted on May 08 2005
The perennial problem on the shortage of school buses will soon come to pass.
Public School System associate commissioner for administrative services David M. Borja said Friday that eight school buses are on their way to the CNMI this coming school year.
Borja said three 66-passenger capacity school buses would be delivered to his office in August and another five 66-passenger capacity school buses are on the way that would be handed over to the school system this coming September.
“But among the five new buses [this September], one will go to Rota and one to Tinian,” said Borja.
He said only a total of five new regular buses would be utilized by his administration for everyday school bus operations on Saipan. Currently, PSS has nine operational buses but eight of the buses were found vandalized last month. Borja said they might discard old buses that are too costly for PSS to maintain.
The three buses were bid out by the school system last year. Borja said Triple J Motors won the bid to supply the three new school buses, which costs the school system at least $283,000.
Mid-Pac Micronesia, a division of Bisnes-mami, Inc., won the second bid for the five new school buses. The buses cost at least $90,000 each.
Borja said the rules for the upcoming buses would still be the same, which are prohibitions on chewing of betel nut, graffiti, ripping of cushions, and others. He said PSS has always been strict about the rules and there is no need to assume that his office would be stricter this time due to earlier reports of vandalism.
Due to the cost of the buses, Borja said he wanted to tell students that in education nothing is ever free and when they cause damage to the buses, it ends up as additional maintenance and repair costs for PSS. He said he is appealing to the students to take care of the buses for their own sake.
The PSS bus drivers also expressed earlier that they also appeal to parents and families to have some discussions with their children not to do harm to the buses and to respect the school buses.
