Stephens BOE Looks at Possibility of Energy Savings Proposal

The Stephens County school system is accepting bids from companies who may be interested in trying to find a way to upgrade some of the school system’s infrastructure without costing the school system additional funding.

The Stephens County Board of Education heard a proposal last month from an energy savings company.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said the issue the school system faces is replacing aging equipment without having all of the funds necessary to do so.

“One of the things we are recognizing is that we have several schools that quite a bit of our equipment is at the end of its life cycle,” said Dorsey, pointing to things like plumbing fixtures and HVAC units. “We are looking at ‘How can we continue to make sure we have the equipment we need to but the reality is we do not have the funds available to upgrade these types of things?’.”

The company that presented to the school board last month said that it could upgrade things within the schools like lights, HVAC units, and other similar items, then have the school system pay for the upgrades with the savings the school system would see in energy costs.

Dorsey said it is not a matter of saving money, but instead of potentially getting improvements done without spending additional money that is not already budgeted.

He said it is something worth at least looking into.

“It helps us reduce our power bill,” said Dorsey, who noted those savings would potentially pay for the upgrades. “It absolutely reduces our exposure to maintenance issues we know we have coming with an aging equipment situation.”

The Board of Education decided to put the issue out to bid to allow any interested companies in this field to submit a proposal.

School board members will then look at those bids and make a decision on whether to go forward.

Those bids are due back on March 23rd.