The Polk County School Board voted last night to buy 50 new school buses for $8,863,110. The vote was unanimous (7-0).
All 50 are Thomas-built. Forty-two of them are standard 77-passenger buses, and the other eight are lift-equipped, for students who need them. They are being bought through the Florida Department of Education bid, and the money comes from local capital funds, not a grant.
The district says this is part of keeping its bus fleet on about a 10-year rotation, replacing older buses with safer, more reliable ones. The new buses are expected to take about a year to arrive, so they should start showing up on Polk County roads next fall.
That is a lot of new buses headed to our neighborhoods over the next year or so.
(Source: Polk County School Board meeting record, October 27, 2026)