Montgomery County Public Schools drew national attention in 2021 when it signed a deal to buy hundreds of electric school buses. The district said it hoped to convert its entire fleet of 1,422 buses by 2035.
Four years later, the rollout has been anything but smooth.
Buses weren’t delivered on time — a delay Highland Electric Fleets blamed partly on supply chain issues and said was resolved within a grace period — and a county watchdog last year said the school system failed to properly hold the contractor accountable. The school system spent about $14 million to buy more diesel buses.
Montgomery County Public Schools drew national attention in 2021 when it signed a deal to buy hundreds of electric school buses. The district said it hoped to convert its entire fleet of 1,422 buses by 2035.
Four years later, the rollout has been anything but smooth.
Buses weren’t delivered on time — a delay Highland Electric Fleets blamed partly on supply chain issues and said was resolved within a grace period — and a county watchdog last year said the school system failed to properly hold the contractor accountable. The school system spent about $14 million to buy more diesel buses.
The school system terminated its initial contract with the Massachusetts-based Highland in January but still has a deal with the company to maintain the 285 electric buses already delivered.
This month, the Maryland State Board of Education dealt another potential blow. The board voted to reverse the district’s contract with Highland, alleging its approval was “tainted” by the involvement of a transportation employee later convicted in a fraud case. The board’s decision, made Nov. 4, was first reported by the Montgomery Perspective.
Montgomery schools spokeswoman Liliana López said the district is reviewing the state’s decision. An external investigator previously said he didn’t find any improper influence, she added.
The district had initially agreed to pay Highland $1.3 million annually for 12 years to lease buses and provide electricity. The district selected Highland after an evaluation process found it had the “best overall proposal” on costs and delivery timelines.
The decision was appealed by another competitor, Autoflex Fleet, which alleged in a 2021 complaint with the state board that it should have been ranked over Highland because it had “the most technical experience in electric vehicle bus fleet leasing” and provided the lowest price. The state board initially upheld the Montgomery school board’s decision.
Autoflex later sent its complaint up through the legal system, adding details about two Montgomery County schools transportation employees convicted of a theft scheme and misconduct in office — and who had been part of a committee to evaluate the potential electric-bus vendors.
Charles Ewald, a former assistant director in the transportation department, pleaded guilty in 2023 to a felony theft scheme and misconduct in office. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with all but five suspended and five years of supervised probation after release. Todd Watkins, the former director of the department, pleaded guilty that same year to a misdemeanor count of misconduct in office after county prosecutors said he maintained an “off-the-books” vendor account with American Truck & Bus that allowed Ewald to steal over $320,000 from the school system.
Last year, an appellate court said the State Board of Education should command the Montgomery school board to revisit its decision to award the Highland contract. Judges wrote that following the employees’ convictions, Montgomery schools needed to vet whether they had improperly influenced the selection of an electric-bus vendor.
Montgomery County Public Schools hired an outside attorney to scrutinize the deal. School system leaders upheld their initial decision and requested the state board dismiss Autoflex’s complaint, according to the state board’s opinion. Autoflex appealed to state board again.
In its most recent opinion, the Maryland State Board of Education said the criminal charges against Ewald and Watkins were relevant to the Highland contract, since the company appears to have a relationship with American Truck & Bus. At one point, the board refers to American Truck & Bus as a “subcontractor/partner/integral team member” of Highland.
Highland contests the two companies are affiliated.
In a memorandum to the Montgomery school board while it was revisiting its decision, Highland’s attorneys say the two companies do not have any equity shares or other ownerships, or voting interests in one another. The two companies also do not share any employees or management, the company said in the document obtained by The Washington Post.
But the memo states that Highland listed American Truck & Bus as a subcontractor because it sells from a specific bus manufacturer. Highland also used the company’s mailing address in Maryland until it could establish its own, the memo states.
The state education board’s opinion states the shared office address indicates “some type of affiliation or close relationship.”
The state board said it reviewed the external report conducted on behalf of the Montgomery school district that detailed how the electric-bus contract was awarded. The four-person committee was tasked with scoring the potential vendors.
The state board said that if the scores of Ewald and Watkins were excluded, Highland Electric Fleets would not have won the Montgomery contract. It alleges their involvement “at a minimum … created an appearance of impropriety.”
Ewald’s scores were not included in the report, and López referred questions about the omission to the investigator. Andrew Nussbaum, a Howard County-based attorney, did not immediately answer questions about his report.
Ultimately, the state board declared that the school board’s decision to enter a contract with Highland was “arbitrary, unreasonable, and illegal.” Nine members signed the decision; three were absent.
Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.
The post A school district’s deal to shift to electric buses hits another bump
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