School buses will return to town next week, covering many miles of road as they bring children to school. Some of those buses, however, may have traveled a few too many miles.

“Some I’ve seen are in tough shape,” said Municipal Maintenance Director Dave Menard.

Menard said that 14 out of 48 buses  in the fleet failed an inspection last year. He said the two bus technicians employed by the town believe that half the buses will fail an inspection this year.

The buses are inspected three times a year by state employees. Many failures  pose no safety threat, and require simple repairs to get the buses right back on the road, but the costs add up.

“The fleet’s getting a little old,” Menard said.

Selectman Alan Slavin said he, along with school business manager Michael Macmillan, have started the long and arduous process of looking at the school bus fleet.

Slavin said Selectmen, and ultimately Town Meeting, would make the decision if there was ever a question about whether the schools should continue to run it’s own fleet or have it run by an outside company.

“We’ve just started initial discussions, trying to figure out where we are and where the school is going in five or 10 years,” Slavin said.

Menard said that both he and School Transportation Manager Jeff Tatro don’t think as many buses will fail inspection as the technicians believe.

The two technicians were school employees until July 1, when the process of merging the school bus garage with the municipal maintenance department began.

Menard said they are still working through that process, slowly getting bus records from the school department and readying the town facility to take in the buses. The school buses are still currently housed in the school garage, according to Menard.