School Bus Replacement Grants for Greater Minnesota

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) received an overwhelming response to our Volkswagen Settlement school bus replacement grant offered in 2018. We had roughly $2.1M available in funding, but received applications totaling $8.5M in requests: four times more interest than funds available. We were not able to fund all of the projects submitted, but we spent the entire $2,115,000 available on 111 new buses.

To capitalize on the interest in school bus replacements, the MPCA decided to create another funding opportunity specifically for school buses in Greater Minnesota. This will ensure our commitment to distribute school bus grants throughout the state at a 60/40 split between the metro area and Greater Minnesota. A total of $580,000 is available, which we expect will fund 29 additional bus replacements.

We’re hosting a meeting on Tuesday, July 30, 2019 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. to share information about this grant and answer your application questions. You can attend in person in the MPCA Saint Paul office, or join us simultaneously via webinar. See the school bus grant webpage for details and an agenda with the link to the online session.

As with the previous round, these grants will help replace older diesel school buses (model years 1992–2009) with newer, cleaner models. Grants will be for $15,000 or $20,000 per school bus, depending on whether the school district has 40% of students in the free or reduced lunch program. Projects in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area are not eligible for this grant.

Applications are due August 13, 2019 by 4:30 p.m. (CST). To apply, visit: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/vwgrants.