Fremont Elementary School sits along the Arkansas River, near apple orchards and a fertile ranching community. The school was built in 1963 and has since become a mainstay is this Colorado Springs community. The Fremont RE-2 School District decided it was time to update and transform this 60-year-old structure and partnered with construction and energy services firm, McKinstry. ““Together we are engineering solutions that allow communities to offer the best educational environment possible, and to improve energy efficiency with zero cost burden for taxpayers,” said Leslie Larocque, McKinstry’s VP of sales and marketing.
Across the country, school districts have busied themselves updating, improving and installing clean energy and energy efficiency measures.
Entergy Arkansas recently awarded Bryant School District $43,328.61 in incentives to support their energy efficiency programs. By partnering with the utility’s CitySmart Program, the school district was able to better understand the benefits of investing in energy efficiency. Based on recommendations from Entergy’s Solutions team, the school district made simple low or no-cost operational changes to improve efficiency. For example, a daily shutdown checklist was implemented and tasks were shifted which reduced their energy load by 20 percent. “My experience with this program has been great and I look forward to continuing this partnership, so we can get better at ‘doing our part’. Conserving energy is our first priority, but the savings we are seeing is an added benefit that our taxpayers deserve and should expect,” said Bryant School District Deputy Superintendent Todd Sellers.
In New Jersey, Robbinsville High School and the Pond Road Middle School used the summer to install a solar park. The school district will save more than $100,000 a year on energy costs. “Every dollar I save in operations is a dollar more that can be used to fund education in the classroom and a dollar less we have to raise taxes,” said Nick Mackres, the district’s business administrator and board secretary. The schools district is eager to use savings toward curriculum. “Those savings can now be reallocated to improve curriculum and help create new opportunities for students and staff — real money that can be spent in the classroom where it’s most needed and most important,” said Rich Young, vice president of the Robbinsville Board of Education.
In Texas, Montgomery Independent School District (ISD) has partnered with energy management company Cenergistic to create energy efficiencies for their district. "Our school district budget is incredibly lean," Montgomery ISD Board Trustee Mike Hopkins tweeted. "The cost avoidance from this partnership has been critical to the district as we planned our budget for this year.” Cenergistic is also helping Montgomery ISD identify ways to operate more efficiently.
In North Carolina, electric school busses will improve energy management and lower operating costs. During the summer months, utilities, like Dominion, may call on school districts’ to help ease demand load. Researchers at the University of North Carolina analyzed a vehicle-to-grid option and estimated a fleet of 14,000 buses could provide about 2.6 gigawatt-hours of electricity to the grid on an average winter weekend day.
From electric school busses to newly installed HVAC systems, school districts are prepared for this time of year again. As parents line up for parent/teacher conferences and students lament the end of summer, what partnerships have utilities and energy companies forged to improve energy management for schools in your community?