The Gainesville and Hall County systems are among them.
“We have until FY25 to order 5,” Gainesville schools spokeswoman Joy Griffin wrote in an email. “We have ordered 2 and they will be delivered in January. They were ordered in the Spring. We were aware of the delays due to a large number of funds being available to school districts at one time.”
As far as Hall County is concerned, spokesman Stan Hall said “We ordered 12 transit buses last December. We’ve been told they will be delivered in the fall of 2024.”
Georgia Trend/State Affairs reports that statewide, in 2022, the Georgia Department of Education allotted 1,747 new school buses to public school districts across Georgia at a cost of $153 million. It was the largest state spending on new school buses in over a decade.
But as of September, only 485 buses had been delivered to school districts, according to the department.
A shortage of parts and labor issues have slowed production at the three big school bus manufacturing plants in the U.S.: Blue Bird, Thomas Built and IC.