Transportation
Electrifying our Fleet
San Luis Coastal Unified School District is a relatively mid-sized district with 7,500 students, but our geographical region is rather large. It ranges from Northern Pismo Beach to Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo. Avila Beach, Los Osos, and Edna Valley are also included in our boundaries. Though not required by law, our School Board recognizes the need to assist students in getting to school and has fully supported our transportation department. Our schools of choice - Pacheco, Teach, and Baywood - would not survive without this support.
We currently transport over 1,000 regular education students and 200 special education students each day. We have a fleet of 35 school buses, 32 diesel gas powered, 2 CNG (compressed natural gas), and 1 electric. These buses traveled 439,256 miles in 2023-2024, roughly 2,000 miles a day.
We recently applied for an Air Pollution Control District grant to obtain 10 new electric buses, as well as the needed infrastructure upgrades that will be necessary to incorporate these electric vehicles into our fleet. Last year, we also began electrifying our fleet vehicles, acquiring two new all electric Chevrolet Trax vehicles.
We are focused on moving both our vehicle fleet and buses to electric vehicles, but manufacturing delays, as well as infrastructure delays with PG&E, have been an issue. It took us two years to get our first electric bus after receiving a grant from the Air Pollution Control District. We are working closely with PG&E to get the needed infrastructure in, as well as adding a generator in case we have any power issues. If the power went out for an extended period of time, our electric buses could not operate. We are hopeful that the generator will ensure we will not have any lapse in service as we move to electric.
So far the electric bus has worked great and we are excited to get more electric vehicles into our fleet.
SLCUSD Partnerships
Public Transit
We would be remiss if we didn’t recognize the efforts of our community partners. Both San Luis Obispo City Transit and San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority provide transportation for our students who are within walking distance of a stop. Both groups working closely with the district to adjust route times to fit school schedules, in addition to offering reduced/free rates for students throughout the school year and summer. They go so far as to create special “tripper” buses to assist our students. More buses mean less cars on the road.
Safe Routes to School
The district also participates in Safe Routes to School and promotes bicycle ridership at all of our sites. Annual “Walk to School Day” which encourages students to walk, bike or roll to school safely. This partnership has also helped us develop safe routes to school. A recent plan was put in place for Bishop's Peak and Pacheco Elementary Schools.
This group is part of a larger organization called San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, SLOCOG.
SLOCOG is focused on making our communities safer and promoting sustainable practices.
We continue to install more bike racks at all sites and bike lanes in our parking areas where applicable. Bike lanes are growing at an amazing rate in our school communities.
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