VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Valley City School board approved the purchase of seven school buses as the school district moves to a district-owned and operated bus services for the next school year.

Superintendent Josh Johnson said using school district ESSER funds, the bus purchases are between $250,000 to $300,000. He talked about the rate of pay for future school bus drivers approved by the school board.

He said our preliminary cost comparison between contracted services and district-owned is more than $325,000 annually. Johnson said we are estimating a district-operated annual cost of $555,000 compared to contracted services estimated at $850,000.

Johnson said the school district is still searching for a school bus storage facility. The school board also approved of posting a job search to fill open bus service positions to operate the district-owned service next year.

The full summary from Johnson is below.