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The community of Browning is about 45 miles south of the Canadian border inside of the Blackfeet Indian Nation, just west of Glacier National Park in northwest Montana. Browning Public Schools is the district that serves nearly 2,000 students in the area, a region U.S. News and World Report classifies in its school rankings as “fringe rural.”
“Fringe rural” may describe the geography of a place at the western edge of the Great Plains, but the phrase doesn’t adequately tell Browning’s story. The District is, per Public School Review, among the poorest in the state, ranking economically near the bottom when compared to other school districts in Montana. A recruitment video on the district’s website illuminates the challenges Browning faces. It features Angie Pepion, an elementary school teacher. In the video, she says, “My favorite thing about the school district is having stability for our students… such as making sure that every student is fed.”
It is somewhat remarkable for the district’s recruitment video to highlight that students are fed versus other possible attributes such as quality of education, a great athletic program, the number of college bound students or even the graduation rate. Instead, Browning school officials do their work with a very close eye on the essentials, and on their budget, which includes school bus transportation.
For the 2022-2023 school year, the district’s transportation department was responsible for transporting nearly 75 percent of its students to and from school each day along 20 routes across a territory spanning more than 1,595 square miles. In school year 2022-2023, spending on transportation for Browning School District was approximately $1.7 million, representing 13 percent of the total elementary and high school budgets. Every penny counts in Browning, so the burden falls on Wayne Bullcalf, the district’s transportation director, to stretch the district’s dollars while ensuring students have the safest possible ride –– just like the wealthiest of school districts get to provide to their students.
Wayne Bullcalf, Transportation Director, Browning School District
Equity Starts with Affordability
It sounds like an impossible task, but Mr. Bullcalf has a secret advantage. In 2016, his homework convinced him of the economic advantages of propane school buses. Since that time, he has not been disappointed. By his calculations, Browning has saved:
• $900,000 in fuel costs. The price of propane in 2016, he says “was about 85 cents a gallon, and in 2024, it’s just $1.12 a gallon.” The price stability of propane compared to gas or diesel is key to smart budget planning, and he makes his dollars go even further by refilling his 18,000 and 13,000 gallon tanks for the school year in mid-summer when prices are at their best.
• $300,000 in maintenance costs. Air and oil filters are less expensive and last longer. Oil changes require fewer quarts and last for more miles. Propane engines don’t need a fuel filter or separator like diesel, so that cost is gone. Even braking systems for propane buses are easier to maintain and downtime is substantially lower than with diesel counterparts. “I wonder sometimes if propane hasn’t made some of my mechanics lazy,” he joked. “We very seldom have problems.”
The Yellow-Orange Tradition
In April 1939, the yellow-orange color of school buses was selected because black lettering on it was most legible in semi-darkness and the color was conspicuous at a distance. For 85 years, school bus safety has been a top priority. Mr. Bullcalf is an evangelist for this tradition and with the savings his district has realized, he says, “We purchased 17 new buses. We have updated our garage facilities and tools, and we put in new radios, new in-bus cameras, and we were even able to install extended stop arms on our buses, a $73,000 cost which the state mandated but didn’t pay for.”
A Green Advantage
As much as the cost savings have translated into a fleet as modern as any school district, the environmental attributes are also appreciated. “We talked about electric but with propane, my buses are already green,” Mr. Bullcalf said. “One time, it was a Friday afternoon and one of our drivers parked his bus in the garage, still running. He went to run an errand and when he came back, the bus garage doors were closed and locked. He assumed someone shut off the engine. On Monday morning, though, we were all surprised to find that bus still running with no noticeable fumes or exhaust in the garage.”
In northwest Montana, winter temperatures stay below 0ºF for weeks at a time. The reliability of propane in that environment has been one of the additional benefits Mr. Bullcalf has discovered. “The buses start in temperatures as low as minus 40 and throw good heat into the cabin quickly,” he said. “We’ve got rough roads up here, and heavy electric buses wouldn’t work. “Plus,” he added, “the batteries would freeze, and I don’t have enough garage storage to keep all the buses inside.”
A Bigger Picture
The concept of energy equity asserts that affordable and reliable energy are vital components of reducing poverty and improving quality of life. Dr. Scott Tinker, a guest on the Path to Zero podcast once said, “The worst environments in the world are where it’s poor, without exception. That’s why the order is important –– energy, economy, environment. Energy, economy, environment. You have to be able to invest in that, to clean up [the] environment.” Wayne Bullcalf and his fleet team are showing that even in poor school districts, the energy-economy-environment rubric can, in fact, deliver great results while students are being delivered to and from school safely and reliably.
