The Gloucester Board of Supervisors allocated nearly $1.4 million in CARES Act funding to county schools to purchase new buses and Chromebooks during an online meeting Tuesday.
This year, the board received $6,575,280 from the state to spend on qualifying expenditures, such as Gloucester’s business recovery program and the meal program through Bay Aging. Gloucester’s Superintendent of Schools Dr. Walter Clemons approached the board with the qualifying request for $1,397,332 to pay for 12 new buses and 250 Chromebooks with equipment.
The division plans to purchase two special education buses, four 65-passenger buses, and six 77-passenger buses. The request qualifies, said Clemons, because the addition of new buses would allow for fewer students per bus, increasing the effectiveness of social distancing, as well as reducing the ride time for students.
The topic of new buses has been ongoing for some time now, and using CARES Act funding for the buses would allow the county to pay the lar...