DAVIS COUNTY — School buses in Davis County will soon be covered in paid advertisements.
The ads are expected to make the district an estimated $200,000 per year, which will help cover transportation costs.
The ads can only take up 30 percent of the school bus and are usually messages geared toward families and education.
The school district says its proceeding cautiously with the project.
“There is a debate in the school bus industry that ads will distract drivers, and it could be a safety issue,” said Brian Larsen the school district’s transportation director. “There haven’t been any studies that have proved that though.”
State law allows school buses to have advertisements, but since 2008 only two districts have tried it.
The Jordan School District was the first. Since the campaign started a year and a half ago the district says it has made $40,000 extra dollars.
“It’s been a little more work for our staff, I’ll be honest, but anytime you can offset some of our transportation cost that just means extra money that can go into the classrooms,” said Sandy Riesgraf Jordan School District Communication Director.
Both districts teamed up with Alpha Media, an advertising firm out of Texas. The company is supposed to solicit advertisers, come-up with the artwork, and install the ads on buses at no cost to the district.
The new bus ads are expected to roll out in the next two weeks.
