The company, which specializes in solar energy, will conduct a study at its own cost to see if it would be feasible to lease building space from Lakota for solar panels and then sell the school district some of the electricity generated.
“We’re really looking at sustainability across the district in a variety of areas” Business Director Chris Passarge told the board during its Monday night meeting. “It could be a possible revenue generator for the district plus a cost savings.”
David Chrestensen, president and chief executive of Sol Ventus Partners, said this project would be the largest of its kind in the state. The company, he said, is launching in the next two weeks a system at the Adams County/Ohio Valley School District, which would create just less than one megawatt of energy from solar panels.
“We’re excited because this (Lakota project) will be the first big project,” he said. “There’s nobody in the state who will have done a project of this magnitude.”
In other business, Superintendent Mike Taylor said the district would be filing a two-year waiver request for all-day kindergarten to the state, even though he anticipates the requirement may go away under the new state leadership.
“Since it’s still law, I want to make sure we dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’ as we move forward,” he said.
Accommodating all district kindergartners all-day, every day would have cost the district as much as $3 million annually. Even without having to pay those extra costs, Taylor warned that Lakota remains in a fiscal crisis.
“This certainly is a step that’s going to help us, but it’s not the answer,” he said.
However, one change to kindergarten may help save $700,000 in transportation costs is to switch from two half-day programs to all-day programs that would alternate students every other day, with a Friday rotation.
“That’s a large sum of money,” Taylor said. “I felt that was very important for our team to begin turning over every stone. There is no recommendation to the board right now, because we are in the research stage.”
Several parents spoke out against the idea, saying it would jeopardize their children’s education.
Parent Krista Wiseman said it would interrupt a child’s routine and could leave gaps of four days out of school every other week and during holidays and school breaks.
“Having days off between actual school days isn’t good,” she said. “They are going to have to reteach lessons.”
Taylor said research will continue, and the input was appreciated.
“It’s simply very much in the exploratory stage right now.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.
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