The Mendota High School District 280 Board of Education approved the trading of two new buses for three run-down buses.

Each bus, a 2025 Blue Bird Vision Gasoline 71-passenger bus, costs $114,900.

The three buses being traded in exchange for the two new buses are a pair of 2014 buses and a 2013 bus, each valued at $1,000.

“Right now, they’re just sitting there,” district superintendent Denise Aughenbaugh said. “They’re emergency-use only.”

Aughenbaugh said that the district tries to purchase one new bus a year, and this transaction would cover the district for two state fiscal years, officially making a purchase of one bus for the 2026 fiscal year on June 30 and purchasing the other on July 1 for the 2027 fiscal year.

With the trade-ins accounted for, the total cost for the purchase of the two new buses is $226,800.

Aughenbaugh said that the funds for this transaction will come out of the district’s transportation fund.