ORANGE : Purchase of 4 Vans Okd by Schools

School district trustees voted to buy four new vans and started considering plans to buy another 16 buses as part of a massive overhaul of the district’s transportation system.

The action comes in response to a 60-page report released earlier this month by consultant Virginia Barnes that said the Orange Unified School District’s transportation system has been dysfunctional for at least 10 years.

Supervisory positions remain unfilled, bus stops are unsafe and illegal and a number of buses in the 61-vehicle fleet are older than some of the trustees on the school board, the report said. Barnes presented a list of the most urgent fixes to trustees Thursday.

The aging buses, particularly those that have reached their 35th birthdays, need to be replaced whether the district decides to contract out for transportation services or to continue to run its own show, Barnes said.

The trustees agreed and voted 7 to 0 to buy four vans capable of transporting disabled students for $194,000.

Barnes also warned them that another 16 buses should be replaced within this school year and bid requests need to go out soon. The trustees will consider the plan, which could cost about $4 million, at their study session Thursday.

Barnes also told trustees that officials hired a driver trainer whose salary already was budgeted. She sought approval to hire a supervisor for the district’s five mechanics, who have been working without one since at least the late 1980s.