SANFORD — Later this year, more than 30 brand new school buses ”“ powered by propane gas ”“ will roll into town, ready to ferry young people from home to school and back.

Sanford School Department has inked a new, five-year transportation contract with Ledgemere Transportation, part of a New Jersey-based corporation called Student Transportation of America. The parent company provides school transportation under a number of names from the East Coast to the West, and in some parts of Canada.

School transportation costs for the coming year total about $1.6 million, estimated Assistant Superintendent Eric Knowlton, which is the same amount Sanford is paying for school bus transportation this year. Increases over the next four years are pegged at an average of 3 percent.

And while the buses will be new, students are expected to see some familiar faces in the driver’s seats. Ledgemere Transportation Manager Deborah Coleman said drivers currently employed with First Student, the company that has held the Sanford school transportation contract for the past several years, will be invited to stop by and meet the folks at Ledgemere, and fill out some paperwork. Those interested in making the transition would undergo required background checks and the like, she said.

“Wherever we go, we tend to bring on the current fleet (of drivers),” she said.

In Maine, Ledgemere currently provides school transportation services to Wells, York, Kittery, Parsonsfield and Lewiston. Nearby New Hampshire locations include Rochester and Portsmouth.

The buses rolling into Sanford will be the first Ledgemere Transportation buses in Maine to be fueled by propane, though some other Maine school districts have some propane buses in use. According to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Energy, MSAD 6 (Bonny Eagle) had 10 propane buses in use in 2012, and there are some propane-fueled school buses in use in Scarborough as well.

Why propane?

“Greener, cheaper, more cost-effective,” said Coleman, who manages the Maine and nearby New Hampshire Ledgemere Transportation sites.

While the technology is not yet in widespread use in Maine, she said Student Transportation of America tends to use propane-powered vehicles in their Western fleet. Mechanics hired by the company will be given specialized training, she said.

Knowlton said he’s excited about the new student transportation provider. He said one feature of the new buses will allow for smoother communications, as the schools will have direct radio communication with bus drivers. That’s far less cumbersome than the current system, he said, in which the school calls the transportation company, which notifies the bus driver, and then all the calls are reversed when the situation has been resolved.

The vehicles will be equipped with GPS, digital cameras, crossing arms to ensure safety of students crossing in front of the bus and child check devices to ensure the driver inspects the vehicle at the end of his or her route, to look for sleeping children.

Coleman said Ledgemere is currently looking at a couple of locations for the new fleet, which will include 21 77-passenger buses, nine 29-passenger buses and an ambulatory bus, and may initially lease property. She said the current bus transportation location, on Shuler Street, isn’t being considered because it is in a residential area.

A “meet and greet” for the public will be scheduled within the next few weeks, she said.

The change comes as a result of a request for proposals issued by the school department late last year.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.