Katonah-Lewisboro board approves solar panel contract

By JEFF MORRIS

In what was a time-sensitive action, at its Oct. 9 meeting the Board of Education voted to approve the Energy Performance Contract with Honeywell. The board also heard about facilities progress, and some good news about the cellphone ban and block scheduling at the high school.

Energy Performance Contract

Trustee Marjorie Schiff introduced Assistant Superintendent for Business Lisa Herlihy to discuss one item in the consent agenda, which she said they were “very excited to hear about” — the Energy Performance Contract with Honeywell.

The plan had previously been presented to the board Sept. 18, and is designed to equip every school roof with photovoltaic solar panels, with ground-mounted panels at the former Lewisboro Elementary School building.

“We have been working with our counsel, and they have been working with Honeywell’s counsel,” Herlihy said, to ensure that if everything does not move forward the district would not incur costs, specifically in engineering and predesign. She said they structured the plan as an energy performance contract in order not to incur any upfront costs, and in order to ensure it is a feasible contract that will pay for itself over time.

Herlihy said they are relying on the Investment Tax Credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. She said it is direct pay for nonprofits, such as school districts, and is dependent on timing. 

“There are changes that are occurring Jan. 1, so we need to actually have approval from [the State Education Department] as well as close financing by Dec. 22.” Because of that, she said, “it’s going to be a great deal of rush rush rush,” but will ultimately save the district upwards of $600,000 over the course of the project. She said there may be a few years they will have lease payments, but they will not incur lease payments the first year. “Much of this is proprietary information,” said Herlihy. “It’s confidential information what was negotiated, so I can’t go into too many specifics.”

Herlihy said over the length of the project there will not only be a great deal of money saved, but conservative increases in electrical costs. She said they try to be conservative on both sides; for example, they put in numbers for interest rates for borrowing that are 50 basis points higher than what is currently closing, and on the other end they are conservative about the savings, because “we just want to make sure we are doing the best by the district.”

Herlihy said the project will produce roughly 50% of the district’s energy.

Board President Lorraine Gallagher thanked Honeywell and Energia, the project engineer. 

“This project was dead, and they persisted — and thank you to Lisa for persisting with them — they came back to the table and are being true partners,” she said.

Herlihy said there had been a flurry of emails at 9 p.m. the previous night between her, Honeywell, Energia, everybody’s attorneys, and Director of Operations & Maintenance Michael Lavoie in order to finalize the contract, and because of the tax credits closing, it had to come to the board immediately — though she hated to bring anything to the board at the last minute.

The board voted to approve.

Student perspective

Student Trustee Hudson Lutz was asked how the cellphone ban was going. “I think it’s going really well,” he said. “It really is making a difference in the school; lunches, everyone is talking now.” He said it spills over. “If you’re just not on it during the day, you don’t really have that desire as much after school. It’s kind of like a subconscious thing; you don’t really think about it when you’re not on it all day in school.”

Lutz was also asked how he was adjusting to block scheduling having been introduced midway through his high school career. He said he liked it, and enjoyed project-based learning. “One of the classes I wasn’t sure how it was going to work in was math,” he said, but it keeps him more engaged even though “it took some adjustment at first to be able to focus for 80 minutes.” A month in, he said, it is what he is used to. “I can’t really imagine going back to nine periods a day,” Lutz said. He added that there is much less homework each night because there are only four classes, and it is easier to accomplish because “you are not jumping from thing to thing to thing, and you’re not losing track of what you have to do.”

Capital project

Schiff gave a facilities report, saying the highlight was the opening of the B wing at John Jay High School the previous day. She said work had begun on the C wing at JJHS, and after the fall productions, work will resume in the auditorium. Work at Increase Miller, Meadow Pond and John Jay Middle schools is substantially complete, she said. The vestibule at Katonah Elementary School is taking a bit longer but is envisioned to be completed over the December break.

Lutz reported that when students at JJHS walked into the B wing, they were “honestly shocked.” He said it looked “futuristic” and students couldn’t have been more pleased with the final result. He said during lunch break, nearly every seat was taken. 

“One aspect students didn’t know about was the four private rooms,” Lutz said. “Students can go in there to study or to hang out with their friends; when you’re in the rooms, outside noise is blocked out.”

He said all four rooms were taken throughout the entire day.