WOODSTOCK — Two Upper Valley school districts have been awarded around $1.2 million each to electrify their school bus fleets.

The White River Valley Supervisory Union and the Windsor Central Unified Union School District are among the recipients of the first round of funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, which was created through the $5 billion investment for low-emission school buses written into the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The grant, which is for $1,185,000, includes $60,000 for building out charging infrastructure. The remaining money goes towards purchasing three buses, which cost around $350,000 apiece.

“I want to celebrate this exciting news, and thank Geoff Martin from Two Rivers Regional Ottauquechee Regional Commission for all of his assistance in helping us in securing this grant,” WRVSU Superintendent Jamie Kinnarney wrote in his regular newsletter on Friday. The district he oversees includes the Upper Valley towns of Chelsea, Tunbridge, Strafford, Sharon, Royalton and Bethel.

The regional commission also assisted Windsor Central in the application process.

“There’s a lot of unknowns for us, because this is our first venture into electric,” James Fenn, Windsor Central’s director of finance, said about the grant, which the district applied for in June. “But it’s really pretty exciting.”

The money from the EPA puts Windsor Central one step closer to the low-emissions campus goals it has outlined for the new high school and middle school building it will be constructing in Woodstock, likely beginning in 2024.

The shift toward charging infrastructure instead of diesel fuel “shouldn’t” change the bus routes for Windsor Central, Fenn said.

“Our belief is that these buses, even in the coldest weather, will cover 80 to 100 miles a day without recharging,” Fenn said. The district has selected three of eight total routes for the electric buses. Two of the routes go through Woodstock, and the other goes out to Barnard.

The district — which includes Woodstock, Barnard, Bridgewater, Pomfret, Reading, Killington and Plymouth — plans to install the charging infrastructure on the campus itself.

The EPA received around 2,000 applications from all 50 states requesting close to $4 billion for over 12,000 buses. The 2022 rebate program will fund approximately 2,500 school bus replacements.

An electric bus costs more than three times what diesel buses typically do — which is why the EPA’s no-strings-attached grant helps — but over the life of an electric bus, schools might save as much as $36,000 in fuel costs. Annual greenhouse gas emissions from electric buses are approximately 97% lower than their diesel counterparts.

The White River Valley and Windsor Central districts will work with Butler’s Bus Service, which they both currently contract from, for mechanical support.

“Part of the implementation process is seeing what we need to do in order to get people certified and able to work on the electric portion of the vehicles,” Emo Chynoweth, vice president of Butler’s, said. “But obviously we can work on the body. It’s the same old school bus there.”

Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.