Gilman School Board eyes possible solar project

A solar energy project could be coming to the Gilman School District.

At Monday’s meeting of the Gilman School Board, board members heard from Charlie Schneider of CESA 10 about a potential solar project at the school district.

Under the proposed project there would be 230 solar panels installed at the school which has a DC rating of 124Kw and an AC power rating of just under 100Kw. The electricity generated from the panels would feed directly into a transformer on the school grounds and into the school for power. Schneider estimated that this system would cover about one-third of the energy needs for the school district. The system would be connected to the power grid so that anytime more electricity was being produced than was being consumed the meter would essentially run backward with the district being credited an amount equal to what they pay for power usage.

The project is estimated to have a total cost of $323,152. However, that cost will be offset through nearly $100,000 in federal grants, a $15,000 rebate from Focus on Energy, and a Solar in Schools initiative grant of $25,000 all of which will bring the cost to the district down to about $186,195. Based on the rates the district pays for electricity, there would be an eight year payback on the solar project after which the school district would see savings each year.

Schneider said the solar panels have an estimated life in excess of 30 years and are warrantied to last for 30 years.

Schneider said there is the option to put the panels on ground-posts or to place them on the roof of the building. His preference is to have them on posts because he said it allows easier access to them for students to learn about solar energy.

He suggested of the locations around the building that the former tennis court area would be ideal for it balancing access with limiting the amount of wiring needed to connect to the building.

Part of having the solar project would be to have it as an educational tool with the CESA providing curriculum for science classes to track the solar usage and track how much is generated in the summer months versus in the winter months as well as being part of the career exploration areas to learn about solar panel installation.

According to Schneider, the biggest lead time between approval and construction is having the crew to install them. The mounts are driven into the ground and within a few days of a crew arriving, the system is in operation. The panels themselves will be on an angle and be 45 inches off the ground on the low end and 12 feet at the high end. Schneider said they are fairly durable when it comes to impacts from things like tennis or baseballs.

District administrator Walter Leipart told board members that he did not think there was a need to make a decision at that night’s meeting, but wanted them to take the time before the February board meeting to think about it and that he would put it on the agenda for action at that time.

Schneider said he did not anticipate the price to change between now and next month and noted that CESA 10 had gone out for a request for proposal and gone through the bidding process choosing a company that was a subsidiary of Mathis Construction that balanced having a lower cost with having experience in construction projects.

eSucceed

“Their depiction is absolutely false,” Leipart said, addressing comment published in newspapers in the region as member districts in the consortium of schools in the eSucceed virtual school chose to drop out of it.

Leipart said eSucceed operates within its budget and has had academic success with the students who attend and do the work. He said eSucceed currently has 102 students.

He emphasized that eSucceed is a school, rather than being a program. “It is a school parents choose for their children,” he said.

The potential of virtual charter schools such as eSucceed is that they can attract students who would have been home schooled or open-enrolled elsewhere and capture the aid that goes along with those students. Leipart noted it costs about $18,802 per student, per year to educate a student in the traditional Gilman School buildings. By comparison, the state average is about $16,124 cost per student.

In eSucceed, the cost is $8,618, just over $10,000 cheaper to put a student at eSucceed than to bring them into the school building. “That is how it becomes a potential revenue source down the road,” Leipart said. For it to begin to return revenue to the district, the student enrollment numbers will need to be around 120 students in the virtual school.

For now, he said they are sustaining themselves financially with no additional input from the school district. Going forward he said the eSucceed board is taking steps to streamline administration and staffing to further reduce expenses.

The benefit of the consortium was that the members could have the benefits of capturing open enrollment dollars for students who resided within their districts and that those students would be allowed to participate in clubs, sports and activities at those schools. With the absence of consortium districts, those open enrollment revenues would not be shared to other districts.

“It is a different type of student that wants to go to a virtual environment,” Leipart said, noting they want the flexibility of independent learning and not being confined to a traditional classroom setting.

In other business, board members:

 Received an update on a childcare survey sent to families in the district. So far, there have been 97 responses, which Leipart said was a good response rate in a school with 278 students and about 120 families. “We are getting a really good, solid response on the survey,” Leipart said.

 Approved new course offerings including introduction to industrial automation which is part of an industrial certification program; sports and entertainment marketing; and education training. In addition Agriscience and Production Animal Science were approved for science credits. Other changes are to move civics from being at freshman year to being during junior year with a focus on educating students as they reach voting age. There will also be potential changes to the 6th grade to have students remain in their home classes except for some academic areas, rather than switching each subject. This is being looked at with staff and parents.

 Approved the calendar for the 2024-2025 school year. The calendar goes until June 6 with classes and has 175 days of instruction and six in-service days as well as maintaining having the full week off at Thanksgiving/ hunting season and having a full week Spring Break in the beginning of March. Leipart noted that with Christmas and New Years mid-week next year the Christmas break will be the longest it could likely be with the last day before break at Dec. 20 and coming back on Thursday, Jan. 2.

 Approved continuing the wrestling cooperative with Cornell and Lake Holcombe through 2027.

 Approved the FFA trip to see the World’s Toughest Rodeo on Feb. 3 in St. Paul, Minn.

 Set limits on open enrollment for students with individualized educational plans (IEPs). Because of the potential high costs that come with these students the state allows limits for districts to prevent open enrollment of them into districts.

 Received word that the planned project to put air conditioning in the middle school portion of the building is on hold pending a review of the plan. According to Leipart, the engineers used the incorrect data to estimate volumes and to proceed with the plan as previously approved would raise the cost by about $300,000 on top of the approximately $500,000 cost of the project. “I can’t see us spending over $800,000 to do it,” Leipart said.

The preferred location for the solar panel array is where the former tennis courts were located. It fits the needs for not having overhanging trees and being near the building. BRIAN WILSON/THE STAR NEWS