RENO — While class size and teacher layoffs get most of the attention when it comes to school budget cuts, there’s one arena that you don’t hear much about: school buses.

Financial crunches will be a hot topic of discussion at this year’s North American School Bus Conference and Trade Show, which starts today at the Grand Sierra Resort. Put on by the monthly School Transportation News magazine, the event is in its 17th year, 14 of which have been in Reno. More than 600 people from around the U.S. and world are signed up to attend.

Editor Ryan Gray said the school bus industry has taken a big hit as a result of school budget slashing nationwide. Orders for new vehicles are down 20 percent, he said, and the drop is expected to continue as districts make existing vehicles last a little longer.

“While preventative maintenance has been key, (districts) are trying to squeeze as much life out of their buses as possible,” he said.

The half dozen or so major manufacturers of buses reported that new bus purchases shrank from around 42,000 on average to the low 30,000s last year, Gray said. Next month’s issue of STN magazine will feature an article on how this has had a ripple effect down the supply chain. Makers of tires, steel, plastics, copper wire and other school bus parts are scrambling to replace the business.

“This is very much an industry predicated on real time,” Gray said. “Buses aren’t made until somebody orders them.”

“As states become more and more broke, school districts have to be more creative,” said Tony Corpin, president of STN Media Group, which publishes School Transportation News. “They’re buying used vehicles or extending the life cycles of buses.”

Part of the difficulty in used vehicles is increasingly rigid standards on emissions from their engines. Gray said the new Environmental Protection Agency regulations over the past five years have forced the prices of school buses up more than $25,000 apiece. That is just one of many federal and state regulations that school transportation officials and businesspeople must grapple with regarding everything from bus construction specifications to ridership.

An issue that has arisen from tighter budgets is advertising on school buses — both inside and outside, each of which has its own issues.

“Traditionalists in the industry see the yellow bus as iconic,” Gray said. “It is, and the reason it’s yellow is it is the color for caution.”

Advertising on the inside of the bus comes into conflict with nationwide efforts to encourage children to have a healthier lifestyle. The question becomes what is acceptable to advertise to the kids riding the bus and what kind of revenue can be had from those messages. Nobody wants to advertise soda or candy bars inside the bus, Gray said. Acceptable ads might be public service announcements or learning programs, he added.

Last year, a company called BusRadio, which broadcasted music, contests, public service announcements and commercials to approximately 10,000 school buses and 1 million students in 24 states, went out of business after about five years. A national coalition of parents, educators and health care professionals prompted the Federal Communications Commission to review the service for the age-appropriateness of its music and the effects of its advertisements on students and drivers. Much of the public comment questioned the advertising’s content.

The issue of ads on school buses is a “slippery slope,” Gray said.

Other issues that will be covered at the expo’s workshops include administration, technology, safety and more. The keynote speaker will be John Walsh, creator of the television show “America’s Most Wanted.” The conference concludes Wednesday.

For more information, visit www.stnonline.com.