Insurance proceeds received from an Apache Junction Unified School District bus that was totaled in a vehicle accident are being used to purchase vans.
The AJUSD governing board on March 25 voted unanimously to approve using the $125,263.25 to purchase vans for the district’s transportation department.
The vans are needed as the district’s current fleet is aging and the vehicles are increasingly prone to breakdowns, it states in a governing board document.
Seven 77-passenger buses costing more than $1 million were purchased by AJUSD in 2021 using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds from the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Governing board approval is needed to spend the insurance money to acquire the new vehicles, Gina Salazar, AJUSD director of business services, said to the board.
“In the last year, probably around March, one of our buses was involved in an accident and it was totaled and insurance company ... finally got the proceeds received on that. It was $125,000,” she said.
A board member asked why a replacement bus is not being purchased.
“Why are we not using the funds to purchase another bus that was totaled,” Board Member Sandra Leen asked.
“Because we already purchased other buses. This was purchased with ESSER funds,” Salazar said.
AJUSD has three elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school. In 2025 it is slated to open The Classical Academy at Superstition Mountain, a K-5 school designed to provide students with a traditional, liberal arts education. The district boundaries run from Meridian Road on the west to the town of Queen Valley on the east and from the Goldfield Mountains to the north, south into the San Tan Corridor. Communities served include Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Peralta Trail, Queen Valley and unincorporated Pinal County land in-between.
Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Richard Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.
Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.
Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.
Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.
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