(Photo provided by Alicia Jaramillo) A Warren Local School District bus stops to drop off a student. The stop sign on the bus was upgraded with a long arm stop sign in May 2024.

There were 371 schools, districts, and county boards of developmental disabilities who were awarded thousands of dollars each in Ohio School Bus Safety Grants from the state.

Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Stephen Dackin announced the total award of $10 million that will ensure safe travel for students.

“Whether students are in the classroom or on the school bus, we owe it to parents and families to do everything we can to keep them safe,” said DeWine. “We’re raising the bar for student safety on Ohio’s buses, and these grant awards demonstrate our dedication to making school transportation safer.”

Marietta City Schools received a total of $35,991 to use for upgrades on buses. The district’s Communications Coordinator Christian Hudspeth said they’re excited the state had some extra funding to support the safety of their students.

“We’ll be using the money for some of the newer buses in our fleet,” said Hudspeth. “We’re planning on adding interior and exterior LED lights and fully illuminated stop sign arms.”

(Photo provided by Alicia Jaramillo) Ground level back-up LED lights on a Warren Local School District bus in January.

He said they use the same fleet for their high school and elementary students since their pickup and dropoff times are staggered.

“Our number one priority is keeping our kids safe so being able to add more improvements to our buses is very exciting,” he said.

Hudspeth said the school applied for the grant in the fall. Schools had the opportunity to apply for the grant which also allowed them some flexibility in terms of what upgrades were needed for their buses. Some districts may use the grant for adding more lighting on their buses and some schools might use it to add more reflective gear.

Funding was authorized for school bus safety feature repairs, replacements, or authorized additions.

Warren Local Schools received $30,683 from the state and Superintendent Kyle Newton said they’re going to use the money to continue building on the changes they have been making to their buses over the years.

“We’ve been experimenting with long-arm stop signs which are about three times the length,” said Newton. “We found that especially on our routes with traffic on the right that people really need to know when to stop.”

Newton said sometimes there’s confusion about when to stop for a bus so having extra length on a stop sign eliminates any uncertainties for drivers. He said they added the feature on a few of their buses last year and it had proven to be very effective.

“We are going to upgrade as many buses as we can,” he said.

Newton said they’ve been working on adding ground level LED lights that go underneath the bus. When the bus opens the door or is backing up, the lights turn on which allows for more visibility in the dark.

“We added those lights at the end of last year and continued to add more onto our buses with the backup lighting added this past fall,” said Newton.

Newton said along with these updates, he wanted parents to know there is a bus GPS which is accessible through the school district app: Warren Local School District.

“We’ve had it for about three years now and we continue to upgrade our systems each year,” said Newton.

Wolf Creek Local Schools received $33,346 and Fort Frye Local Schools received $5,000 through the Ohio School Bus Safety Grants. Personnel at the districts did not respond to requests for comment by print deadline Friday.