Bend-La Pine Schools' first electric school bus, seen at a charging station in Bend in March 2023, has been idle for four months this winter because the heater that warms the cabin became inoperable in late October. 

Bend-La Pine Schools received its first electric school bus one year ago, and hopes were high that it might usher in a new era of greenhouse gas reductions.

Those plans hit a speed bump this academic year when the heater that warms up the cabin became inoperable at the onset of winter, said Scott Maben, a spokesperson for the school district. The bus was operational, but early morning pickups would leave children riding in the cold.

So, the bus has sat idle for four months.

“We are opting to wait until we have this maintenance completed, or warmer weather arrives, before we return it to service,” said Maben.

The bus is currently housed in a storage shed at the bus barn, undergoing repairs.

The 71-seat, $383,000 Canadian-made school bus began service in the Bend-La Pine school district in March and was the first of its kind east of the Cascades. The purchase was made possible with a $157,500 grant from Pacific Power.

But the diesel-powered auxiliary heater stopped working Oct. 25, forcing the school district to pull the bus from service. Maben said the nearly four-month suspension is due to delays in getting parts for the repair.

“They found out the heating system had some damage when it was delivered, unbeknownst to us or the company that delivered it, we didn’t know this was an issue until we worked that heater hard in the fall,” said Maben.

A mechanic specializing in electric bus repair is currently in Bend and applied a temporary fix that will allow on-the-road testing next week.

“This is new technology, and we expected glitches,” said Maben. “Still, we are disappointed the heater repair has taken this long, and we hope to have the bus back in service soon.”

The repair work done this week is a temporary fix, said Maben, and further work will be required for a more permanent fix.

“We are going to test it out and if it heats up as fast as we need it to and sustains it then we will feel comfortable putting it out on its route,” said Maben.

Even if the temporary repair isn’t adequate, the bus will return to service when the weather warms up, Maben said.

In addition to the heater malfunction, the drop-chain mechanism on the bus, which allows the driver to deploy tire chains with the push of a button, also experienced a breakdown this winter after a driver hit a pothole.

“That occasionally happens with other buses as well,” said Maben. “We’ve had the chains reinstalled so they don’t hang so low.”

Maben said the bus was performing well before the problem with the heater and displayed good power on Bend’s hilly streets.

“No complaints from drivers,” he said.

The charging feature was also reportedly working well. It was charged at night and could cover its morning and afternoon routes without any recharging.

The school district has no plan to buy a second electric bus, said Maben. The grant opportunity that allowed the district to buy the first bus is no longer available.