Director of Schools Mark Willoughby announced that the Dekalb County school system may consider the purchase of an electric-powered school bus at Thursday night's school board meeting.The bus, manufactured by a British-based company, would reportedly save a great deal of fuel and maintenance costs.Willoughby said that he and Transportation Supervisor Jimmy Sprague will meet with a representative of the company that manufactures electric buses next week to discuss the possibility of purchase.Sprague told the Review Friday that if the purchase is made, DeKalb County would be the first school system in Tennessee to go the electric route.The school system is due to buy a bus to transport special-needs students, but a normal vehicle costs upward of $100,000, while the county may be able to get into an electric bus at a fraction of that cost.“With grants and funding from the state we can get one of the electric busses for about $15,000, whereas a regular bus costs about $100,000,” Sprague shared. “It’s a win-win situation.”Not only would fuel and maintenance costs drop substantially with an electric bus, according to Sprague damage to the environment would be reduced to nearly nothing as well.“There’s no fuel, no emissions, no carbon footprint,” he said. “It would eliminate oil changes and transmission service.”Fuel savings would also be substantial with the electric vehicle.“Just one electric bus in our fleet would save 30 gallons of fuel per day.”