SALINEVILLE — As the Utica Shale Academy expands its Salineville campus, it is also growing its van fleet after obtaining a $450,000 grant for transportation.

Superintendent Bill Watson said the community school received a Rural Transport Grant in early August though the state’s biennium budget and officials plan to procure 10 additional school vans. As of now, the fleet only has two vehicles and primarily carries students to and from Carroll County; however, the extra vans would help transport students throughout Columbiana, Jefferson, Stark and Mahoning counties.

“The grant was part of appropriations in the House and Senate bill sponsored by Ohio Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel (R-79th District). We spoke about a need for transportation and she helped support the Rural Transportation bill,” said Watson. “Other schools qualified but we were the only ones to have our own transportation. That was a caveat for the grant and we’re thankful to her for that.”

Officials are seeking competitive quotes and narrowed their choice to Kia hybrid vans.

“We did a cost analysis on gas mileage and that was the vehicle we thought was in our best interest. We hope to have them up and moving by October,” Watson added, saying the new vehicles would also help widen the range for students. “We’re looking to expand our footprint and we have the ability to provide transportation,” he said. “The other vans are for longer trips. The grant is for two years and we hope to remain eligible next year and expand our fleet into the 20’s.”

Another submission has been made for a competitive transportation safety grant that would also add drivers and provide safety training. Watson said officials applied for a $550,000 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant through the U.S. Department of Justice and should learn if it was approved in October. The COPS grant is the second one USA received following a $452,000 COPS School Violence Prevention Program grant in 2024 to help add a security officer.

“It works symbiotically with the COPS grant we previously got and is an expansion of that. It will cover drivers and training and merges the safety and transportation position, plus it allows us to expand our services a little bit more and ensure we do things at the level we want.”

The Utica Shale Academy includes more than 170 students in grades 7-12 and its campus is comprised of the Hutson Building, the Energy Training Center, the Williams Collaboration Center and the exterior and new interior welding sites along East Main Street, as well as the Utica Shale Academy Community Center that is housed on Church Street. The community school is a dropout recovery and retention facility that focuses on career-tech education for at-risk pupils and provides certifications to enter the workforce.

For more information about USA, call 330-679-2000 or go online to uticashaleschool.com.