Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The Pennsbury School District is looking upgrade nearly all of its schools to achieve energy savings.
Pennsbury officials expect to spend $9.5 to $10 million to upgrade its administration building and almost all of its schools, except for Pennwood Middle School in Lower Makefield. Pennwood is expected to undergo a full overhaul of a much larger scale.
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The work is part of Pennsylvania’s Act 39 Guaranteed Energy Savings Act (GESA), which is expected to save Pennsbury more than $250,000 per year over the next 15 to 20 years.
In preparation for the GESA upgrades to 13 schools, Pennsbury’s school board recently approved taking out a $12 million bond that will cover the cost of the work. Bond advisers for Pennsbury also refinanced bonds from 2010 to realize more savings for the district.
If the recently-approved bond sales are successful, contractor CM3 Building Solutions of Lower Southampton could begin work in the district before the end of 2015, Scott. Millward, director of facilities for Pennsbury, said.
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The work on the 13 schools and administration building will include projects that will achieve energy savings through lighting upgrades, upgrading physical plants and the installation of water conserving appliances, Millward said, adding nearly all of the district’s 20,000 light fixtures will be replaced with more energy efficient LEDs and motion senors will detect when lights can be switched off in empty rooms.
Much of the work will be done when students are not in the buildings and during the summer. Precautions will be taken when work is being completed near kids, Millward said.
Aside from replacing lighting throughout the district, some of the larger upgrades involve changing out boilers at Oxford Valley Elementary School, replacing the windows at the administration offices, upgrading equipment at Pennsbury High School East and switching Penn Valley Elementary School from oil to natural gas, which is expected to result in substantial savings.
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The GESA work means the contractor and not the district is responsible for any cost overages on the project. While nearly all the money has to be used for energy upgrades, some funds can be allocated to semi-related upgrades at schools. When the Neshaminy School District began their GESA upgrades to three schools, some of the funds went to upgraded security vestibules and sprucing up paint in some parts of buildings.
With energy savings from the upgrades and PECO rebates, the district plans for the project to be cost neutral.
“This [project] really is a no brainer,” Millward told LevittownNow.com. “There’s no reason not to do it.”
