Ewing School Board of Directors donate wheelchair accessible bus to Marietta City Schools
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MARIETTA – The Board of Directors for Ewing School will donate a wheelchair-accessible bus to Marietta City Schools.
The board offered four of their remaining buses to all six school districts in Washington County. MCSD was the only district who had responded by the deadline.
Superintendent Tiffany Neil said Ewing no longer has a need for their buses since they don't provide services for students anymore.
In January, the board voted to approve a partnership with the OVESC (Ohio Valley Educational Service Center) to take over operations. The OVESC provides staffing and school-age student services, but there were no longer funds to support preschoolers.
The board was met with difficult decisions after the levy to continue funding their services failed in the November 2025 general election.
"Even though the board is no longer directly applying services, our mission hasn't changed and we will continue serving our community," she said. "We had four remaining buses and elected to reach out to all six districts and offer the buses."
Neil said they made the bus offer announcement on April 20 to superintendents at the districts and Marietta City Schools responded. She said they donated their wheelchair accessible bus to Marietta.
"Tax payers invested to serve our students and our donation to Marietta City Schools is how we want to give back in any capacity we could," said Neill.
She said even though they are no longer directly applying services, they felt it was necessary to continue supporting those students and their respective districts by providing accessible transportation.
Neill said they were hoping to donate all of the remaining buses but they did not have any use for the vehicles and there were no other districts who responded. She said they reached out to county entities who may be in need of buses and hadn't heard back from anyone.
Two of the buses will be sold at a discounted rate to the Boys and Girls Club of Washington County and the fourth bus will be sold through the county.
"We are happy to help our students and districts in any way that we can," she said.
Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com