There are many components a school needs to be able to adequately educate students, but if the students can't get to the school, the effort is for naught.

The Pima School Board has been facing a transportation predicament ever since one of its older school buses broke down.

After a fruitless attempt at fixing the 11-year-old bus, the School Board unanimously approved a request to purchase a used Blue Bird All American FE for about $73,000 from Canyon State Bus Sales of Phoenix.

Pima Schools Transportation Supervisor Tharrell Eubanks spoke at the board's Wednesday meeting and said there was no way to fix the old bus.

The dash on the bus shorted out, and there isn't a place able to repair the problem. Additionally, the faulty part is no longer manufactured.

"This dash is all hooked in on the circuit board," Eubanks said. "The whole thing is all hooked together for everything, and when they short out, they're gone."

The district has been making do with an eight-year-old bus they kept as a reserve after it purchased a new bus two years ago. Eubanks said he looked for a used bus to purchase and believed the Blue Bird would be a good investment.

The bus comes with about a 50,000-mile/two-year powertrain warranty and plenty of bells and whistles, including under-seat heaters, tinted windows, an AM/FM CD player radio with intercom and is wired for a video monitoring system.

Superintendent Joseph Farnsworth said there were three other districts waiting in line for the bus and Pima would miss the boat on the sale if the board didn't approve the purchase.

"We just won't be able to compete in June, July (and) August for used buses," Farnsworth said. "We think that they'll just be swooped up when the other school districts are looking for used buses. I know the timing is poor, but I think this is the right decision."

Eubanks said a lot of the larger school districts are looking into leasing their buses instead of purchasing to ensure a continual renewal of their fleet. Board member Vince Kieffer said while that would mean a district would always have a bus payment, it seemed that Pima is always paying a bus payment in its lease-purchases because the buses do not last much longer than eight or nine years. Additionally, the old buses are worth very little in trade-in value.

Pima was offered $2,400 for its bus that cannot be repaired and is expected to need another bus to replace an older one in two to three years.

The board unanimously approved the request to purchase the 2007 Blue Bird and stated it would look into leasing busses in the future.

Pima will pay about $17,000 for the next five years to pay off the bus. It is expected to be delivered next week.

In other School Board news:

• The board approved the itinerary for the high school senior class trip to California. Principal Kalem Norton said one of the drivers was injured, and the school is looking at options for transportation, including hiring a charter bus instead of using one of its own. The lowest bid the school received for a charter bus by the time of the meeting was $5,100. If the school hired a charter bus, the total cost of the trip will be about $15,000. According to Norton, the senior class has more than enough funds to pay for the added expense.

Norton said 31 students have paid for the trip and two others are not sure they are going. That is the most students Pima has had go on a senior trip, and Norton prefers paying for a charter bus, especially because it would be responsible for transportation if any breakdowns occur.

"One way or the other, they'll get out to California," Norton said.

• The board approved the purchase and installation of a Rheem HVAC unit for the high school business room.

Superintendent Joseph Farnsworth said the room's unit has been problematic for years and the cost to keep it working was more than it would be to replace it.

A bid of $4,819.13 from Jon's Heating and Cooling to furnish and install a new unit was accepted. The unit comes with a 10-year warranty for its compressor, five-year warranty on all parts and a one-year warranty on the labor.