LAPEL — While Senate Bill 309 winds its way through the Indiana General Assembly, the Frankton-Lapel Community School Corp. will continue to explore the economic feasibility of installing solar panels at the Lapel school buildings later this year.
The bill, which was referred to the Indiana House Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications on March 6, in part would eliminate the practice of “net metering,” which allows facilities with solar power to sell back excess electricity to power companies dollar for dollar. Under provisions of the bill, a school or business with solar power would get only a 30 percent return from the power company.
“That’s not been finalized yet,” Superintendent Bobby Fields said of the bill. “There’s been some talk of exempting schools from that, but I’m not sure if that’ll happen or not. I’m not sure how that will turn out.”
Fields remains optimistic that, even if the bill passes, there are ways for the project to remain a good economic investment.
One way would be for the schools to produce enough electricity via solar power to supply themselves.
At Lapel Elementary and Middle Schools, solar panels on the roof would provide enough electricity to provide 77.5 percent of the power needed, while 2.5 acres would be needed to provide 100 percent of the power required to run Lapel High School.
Assistant Superintendent Sterling Boles outlined the total cost savings for the corporation during the first 20 years using solar power. He said a conservative estimate for that time period would be more than $2 million in savings, plus an additional $450,000 per year after that.
“This project includes not only the solar that we talked about, but also going back and retrofitting our buildings with LED lights,” Boles said. “Hopefully this will make us pretty lean and mean in terms of energy costs. In 20 years, we will have saved $7.4 million, and the cost of the project is $5.4 million.”
He said the equipment is guaranteed for 20 years, and the contract includes a service agreement.
The equipment is monitored 24 hours per day, and service personnel is on call around the clock for any eventuality. After 20 years, the equipment involved would be owned by the corporation.
“If all the equipment is working properly, we can assume that in year 21 we will save almost a half-million dollars,” Boles added. “One building (LHS) would be completely off the grid and the other (LMS) would be 77 percent off the grid.”
The board approved Fields to file a request for qualifications as a way to explore the actual cost and placement of the panels. Fields said the request does not commit the corporation to action, but simply checks the qualifications of the company installing the panels and could buy FLCSC some time to fully evaluate the implications of SB 309.
Fields said if the board moves forward with the project, he’d like it to be done “sooner rather than later.”
Once the board commits, the panels could be installed and operational within 90 days.
In other board business:
• With INOW or “chalkable” having been purchased by Powerschool, Boles presented several options for a new student information system for the corporation for the 2017-18 school year. The board approved his recommendation of Alma, which has direct Google Drive grade syncing, built-in parent notifications, and a built-in learning management system. He said it was unanimous among the teachers and administrators on the FLCS tech committee that is was the easiest system to operate for teachers and students.
• The board accepted two retirement notifications from teachers who have spent a combined 75 years with the Lapel schools. History teacher Mark Boudrot is stepping down after 30 years, and English teacher Jerry Kemerly, who has also been a principal at LES and LHS, a baseball coach, as well as the faculty sponsor for the annual senior trip to Europe for more than 20 years, is retiring after a total of 45 years with Lapel.
“You can’t replace that,” board president Brian Gill said.