Updates on Lion Electric Buses and Brightwell/820 (Solar Panels)

 At the Grove School Board Meeting on March 11th, I gave the following speech:

Now that it has been determined I will not be seated on the School Board, I would like to state my intentions.  I hope you will accept me as a liaison between yourselves and members of the community.  As I went from door to door and visited in several different groups, the people had questions that will need answers.  I told them I would learn the answers and report back to them.  I am pretty good about making information easier to understand and will be glad to do that about situations that may come up.  I may need to question you extensively and have you OK what I understand,  for instance, the technicalities of bond issues and how we arrive at the mill levies, etc.  I have found that many people are without knowledge and giving them knowledge will add to their satisfaction and mine.

Tonight I would like to address the Lion Electric bus situation and cite a possible link to the solar panel project with Brightwell/820.

My husband reads a lot about current events and one day told me about a Canadian electric bus company who had taken $159,000,000 from our government and was now filing for bankruptcy.  After learning our buses are ones made by this company, I grew concerned. 

Upon investigation I found Lion Electric vehicles had indeed filed for bankruptcy in December of 2024.  But the problems began long before that.

Between October 2022 and May 2024, Lion Electric Vehicles was awarded $159 million from our government through the Inflation Reduction Act.  Less than two weeks before the EPA gave Lion $82.7 million in October of 2022 as part of the Clean School Bus Program, investors learned the company had lost $17.2 million during the prior three months.  Since 2020, Lion had net losses totaling $301.6 million and stock prices had plummeted to $.08 a share. 

Even though a Nov 2024 earnings call assured investors that it was “well positioned to benefit from continued strong regulatory tailwinds”, Lion filed for bankruptcy in December 2024.  Soon after, they halted production at their 900,000 square foot plant in Joliet, Illinois and laid off all its employees excluding 150 tasked with customer service and maintenance duties.

In February 2025, last month, a class action lawsuit from shareholders was filed.  The proposed lawsuit claims Lion Electric hid facts and details about its order book and production capacities from investors. 

Bids from companies interested in buying or liquidating  Lion Electric Co. were due March 7, last week.  However, the company’s court appointed monitor has announced the deadline has been pushed to March 14^th at 5 PM,  this week.

 I will not blame you for the situation we are facing with the uncertainty of acquiring parts and maintenance help with our Lion buses because I am convinced you did what you thought was the best thing for the school with the information you had. 

Now, what has this to do with solar panels?  The Brightwell/820 group has used the same Inflation Reduction Act as the law of the land to encourage impact investors.  These concepts are stated on the video I watched from the Brightwell website.

I trust you will exercise due diligence before signing a contract with Brightwell.  There may be conditions I do not understand and I would gladly listen if someone wants to explain them to me. 

Thank you for listening,  Pam Jarrett

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 After my audience with the Board and administration, Superintendent Dodson remarked that we are happy with the electric buses we have. He, in fact, drives one almost daily as a substitute driver. The use of electric buses has saved us approximately $100,000 in diesel fuel over the past year.  The electric buses are used for the daily routes within the expected 100 mileage per charge.  The on-site customer service representative visits have decreased from twice a week to about one every two weeks as a result of Lion Electric staffing cuts. Our transportation staff remain in contact with our local tech to manage day to day issues. Our schools will always have diesel buses to use for activity trips and as backups. Regardless of the financial situation with Lion Electric, our district has not had or will not have any financial obligation for the electric buses. The grant awarded to purchase the buses and charging stations was to Grove Public Schools, however, all transactions were handled between the Federal government and Lion Electric. No funds flowed through the Grove School District.

Regarding the solar panel project with Brightwell/820,  Cleora schools have also been considering this.  Talking with Superintendent Guthrie, I learned they are having some service agreement questions and are still considering the project at their location.  Our lawyers (Rosenstein, Fist, and Reingold- same firm as Cleora) continue to look into legal matters dealing with the details of the service agreement. We will wait and see what our council recommends  before proceeding with the installation of solar panels on a school roofs with Brightwell/820.

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I, Pam Jarrett, appreciated the remarks that let us know the the current status of both issues we may have wondered about.