The Indianola School District plans on completing a retrofit of their school buses to have seat belts in 2020. According to new rules by the Iowa State Board of Education, all new buses purchased require lap-shoulder seat belts, but does not require older buses to be retrofitted. Superintendent Art Sathoff tells KNIA News the district is looking to retrofit as fast as possible.

“During this school year we will begin installing the belts on the buses, and then next school year all of our buses that we can retrofit we will. We will be able to do that by not purchasing any new buses; typically we purchase 2-3 per year. We will be able to do that, and do it quickly, without putting our replacement schedule behind. The total cost is around $211,000 to get them all retrofitted.”

According to the Indianola School District all but nine buses are able to be retrofitted, and those buses will be phased out. The retrofits are scheduled to be completed by March. Indianola is just one of two districts in the state to voluntarily retrofit the buses, and the other district has just four buses.