Three electric school buses quietly glide down the streets of the West Valley School District – so quietly, in fact, that exterior speakers mounted on the buses play ambient white noise so pedestrians can hear them coming.

Typical school buses use loud diesel engines, and students riding on them routinely shout or speak loudly to be heard, said Tim Morgan, West Valley School District’s operations director for transportation and nutrition services.

“On an electric bus, they whisper because they don’t want to be overheard,” Morgan said.

The district first began considering electric buses funded by a federal EPA grant a few years ago, but they didn’t have the options the district wanted and the strict grant rules, which were focused on reducing diesel emissions, required school districts t

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