OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The Marion County Public School Board voted unanimously to approve the purchase of new vehicles for their fleet at their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.

The board voted to purchase 13 new vehicles for the maintenance department, and when the capital budget was approved in September, the board allotted $1.3 million for vehicles for the operations department, with 11 of the vehicles being replacement vehicles, said Dr. Angela Usher, Marion County Public Schools facilities director. The vehicles being replaced in some cases were more than 20 years old and have high mileage, and their repair costs would be extremely high.

The new vehicles are a generator truck, and a truck for the plumbing department, said Usher. Theres is still one other vehicle to be brought before the board, a septic pump truck, and on Nov. 11, 2025, the board approved the purchase of a clamp truck for the custodial department. The total cost for the board item is $735,896, with the funding coming from capital projects.

The board also approved 5-0 the purchase of a Ford F-550 box truck for the central warehouse. The school district was in need of a new box truck, effectively a courier van, to replace a 2002 model with over 325,000 miles, said Robert Rios-Welsh, MCPS chief financial officer. The cost is $105,750.

“This truck needs to be replaced, we do have a spare truck, but it isn’t adequate and is subject to a lot of repairs,” said Rios-Welsh. “We do feel like having a new version that will last for the next 10 or 20 years is certainly a good value for the money. We don’t bring these up often. This isn’t an item that we would be replacing on a regular basis.”

The school district has a number of members on staff that are able to handle the maintenance on Ford vehicles, and that’s why the district likes to purchase. They are able to do a lot of the diagnostic codes and maintenance themselves, said Rios-Welsh.

The board also approved the purchase of a Ford F-650 refrigerated box truck for food and nutrition services. The truck was $145,000.

“This is something that the food and nutrition program wants to utilize,” said Rios-Welsh. “This is going to help us to transport our goods from different schools to the sites on multiple occasions. It will also serve as a refrigeration unit. It can be used even if it’s not in mobile transport.”

When the school district is purchasing new vehicles and whenever they’re looking at them as individual items, it’s not just that they’re approving these large ticket items, they’re also able to see the budget source, said Dr. Allison Campbell, school board member, District No. 1.

“The fact that food services is actually paying for this refrigerated box truck that they are going to be using and needing is impactful and interesting to know,” said Campbell. “The other two that we just voted on and approved, are coming out of the capital projects fund that we agreed to in the five-year work plan.”

For this particular vehicle, the school district had to get approval from the state to use the funds, said Rios-Welsh.

MCPS Board Member Eric Cummings, District No. 3, noted that of the vehicles that were being replaced in the fleet, the newest of those was 17 years old. The vehicles in the school district support every student and make the district more efficient, he said.

“Tonight, we approved $987,237.17 in the purchase of vehicles for this district,” said Cummings. “When you look at the agenda and you look at what was purchased, they weren’t luxury vehicles. They were vehicles that were necessary to do the work in the district. I don’t think any of us are driving 17-year-old vehicles and expect it to get the same efficiency and production that we would a new vehicle. What this shows me and shows our community is that this district has been very good at being good stewards with what we have and taking care of the vehicles that they have had, to get 325,000 miles on a vehicle, and in Marion County, you can do that quickly because of the size of the county. But to make it last 17 years, is a testament to our facilities department and maintenance department and the people that drive those vehicles every day.”