A partnership that's benefiting Porterville Unified School District students, their educations, and PUSD as well as the environment and the local community involves the PUSD/Via Transport electric vehicles serving students.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at Porterville Military Academy on Tuesday morning with dignitaries and representatives from State, County, and local governments and members of the PUSD Board and Administrators as well as Via Student Transit Head Administrator Ariana Grand.
Before the ceremony Grand said it was exciting to be partnering with PUSD in an incredible opportunity transporting students to and from school as well as the Pathways internship program.
PUSD Communication Officer Hannah Moore said the Via Project was the culmination of many different partnerships and she recognized PUSD oard members Lillian Durbin, Pete Lara, Jr. and Tom Velasquez, Superintendent Dr. Nate Nelson, and assistant superintendent of business Dr. Brad Rohrbach.
Porterville Chamber of Commerce Kristy Martin thanked everyone for attending the ribbon cutting ceremony and welcomed Porterville City Councilman A.J. Rivas, from Congressman David Valadao’s office Rachel Clement, from Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo’s office representative Rosalinda Alexander, Chamber Ambassadors from OACYS Technology and Maggie Salazar from the City of Porterville.
The Porterville Military Academy Color Guard presented the colors.
PUSD Board President Lillian Durbin said Moore helped write her speech as well as Rohrbach, and said “How would you like to receive $9.1 Million? We got it,” to loud cheers from the crowd. “ I get so involved, and being emotional, how happy I am. I’m thanking everyone, so anyway, City of Porterville, Where are you? Thank you, thank you for being our partner. Via, Where are you? Thank you, Thank you so much for being our partner. And then I have to say, on behalf of the Clean Air Resource Board, they are our partners.
“I represent seven board members, my colleagues who are dedicated to improving the lives of the students in our community, so we can have a better future for all of us. Tom Velasquez, Pete Lara, and officers of our board, they are awesome, and are dedicated every day putting the students first and putting the students in the hands of brilliant professionals collaborating to improve and change their futures. These vehicles out here, will help our youth, our foster youth, our homeless. They will give them an opportunity to reach their dreams, and use the resources. Without all these partnerships, we could never do that. Thank you so much. This is such a gift, look at it. All are helping us model what we need to do in the future. Clean air. And that doesn’t even go into the collaboration to get the jobs done. But for our students to live in the future we have to look at our resources every single day. So thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Rohrbach said, “Thank you Ms. Durbin for your leadership, your comments, your focus on our students. Superintendent Nelson, staff, community members, we appreciate you being here. This is an important moment for Porterville Unified, I’d like to thank Rich Tree (Porterville Director of Transportation Richard Tree), with the City of Porterville. All his efforts to guide us to Via, and the grant writing on this process as well as other partners, Climate Action Pathways for Schools, and Native Star, who met us weekly, and biweekly, to really make this thing go, and reach out to the community for outreach to students, and drive recruitment. We talk about our mission, and our vision. Thank you Via, thank you for your flexibility and innovation. We realized that access for students really makes a difference. Our mission at PUSD is creating opportunities and changing lives.”
He spoke about PUSD’s commitment to the community that stresses compassion, confidence, and competent, collaboration with others. Th partnership is being funded by a California Mobility for Schools grant, offered by the California Air Resources Board.
Rohrbach spoke about a student who was unable to participate in extracurricular activities, and Pathways programs because of a lack of transportation, and other issues. Now students are able to participate in in these programs and internships because of the Via Transport and PUSD partnership.
There are student interns from Pathways who are now able to go to their internships at local hospitals on a weekly basis and their are other students who just need consistent transportation to and from school. Rohrbach also said Via will help them optimize their bus routes in the future, and thanked them for their assistance and guidance.
Grand thanked Rohrbach, for his comments on behalf of the entire team at Via, saying she was honored to be there. Via provides technology and operations, for business including school districts around the world. They aunch convenient, reliable, and safe transportation programs that improve access to opportunities such as education, employment, and healthcare. Grand thanked Rohrbach, who she said whose innovative approach to student transit made the program possible, and how the program helped students access important opportunities, either getting them to school on time, or helping them reach internship programs. “Our program is unique, because it's centered around smart technology and operations,” she said. “Through our caregiver Website, caregivers have the ability to track rides In real-time, to stay informed about when a driver will arrive and they can follow along with their journey.”
Grand continued to say the program uses zero mission vehicles and electric vehicles, and underscored the school district and Via are committed to sustainability.
VIA/PUSD have completed more than 2,300 rides since launching this program in January, serving 10,180 students. 13 Via drivers were at the ceremony. “Thank you so much for this partnership and this opportunity,” Grand said. “We are so excited to continue our work with you.”
CAPS Pathways intern Ethan Torres spoke about the VIA/PUSD program reducing greenhouse gases in the community and school by reducing transportation challenges sustainably.
All of the State, County, and local representatives spoke about the remarkable partnership between the school district and the clean energy transport service and how it would enhance the lives of the students, their education and futures, and they gave certificates of recognition and appreciation to Rohrbach and Grand and then the Ribbon was cut in celebration of the partnership between Via Transport and PUSD.