Vienna High School receives $600K grant for electric school bus

VIENNA, Ill. (KBSI) – A new grant program from the U.S. Department of Energy is sending $178 million to American schools to increase energy efficiency and improve student health programs.

One of the schools awarded funding is Vienna High School.

“Of all the applications that were selected for funding, and our coalition was selected for funding,” said Dean of School Systems Phillip Hosfeldt.

He added that 20 different schools in Illinois were selected to receive $15 million of that funding. Vienna receives around $600,000 to plan for a micro-grid.

“Let’s make a small grid of solar panels, a battery, a charging station, and a bus, that can be a separate emergency little system,” said Hosfeldt.

Dean of Instruction Rebecca Guest says this helps them better teach students what they can do to take care of the planet they live on.

“Our job as a school is to teach students and teaching them to be good stewards of the environment and teach them to be progressive,” said Guest.

School officials say a new electric bus along with other projects is a leap into the future of environmentalism for Vienna high school.

“I think we have a responsibility to take care of our planet, and not just for us but for those future generations,” said Guest.

The buildup for the new micro-grid is underway and leaders at the Vienna School District hope to see the project finished by September.