Energy conservation has become a headache for the Iola School district.
USD 257 school board members authorized the district’s attorney Bob Johnson to review its energy conservation lease agreement with Schneider Electric Company, after director of operations Scott Stanley and Superintendent of Schools Brian Pekarek expressed dissatisfaction with the energy company whose headquarters are based in France.
“We want to see if we have options for getting out of this agreement,” Pekarek said.
As a part of the 15-year payment plan with Schneider, the district made $275,000 worth of energy equipment upgrades. In return for annual checks of about $80,000, the energy company guarantees a fluctuating level of cost savings. Stanley said the district saw a $74,000 utility savings last year. “We’re pretty well upside-down,” he said.
Schneider offers its customers cost saving analyses and recommendations aimed at maximizing efficiency, but Stanley said many of those suggestions are unreasonable.
“It doesn’t make sense to let the buildings get to 90 degrees over the weekends to just try and rush to cool them down between seven and eight o’clock,” he said referring to a Schneider cost savings suggestion. “Where does savings override comfort in the building. We can turn everything off and we’ll save a ton of money, but that’s not going to be a very comfortable environment for the kids to learn in.”
On top of that, Stanley said the company is “just not very good to work with,” citing a malfunctioning heating and cooling system in the middle school last week as an example.
“It was 83 degrees last week and it kicked over into heat mode and started blowing 90-degree air into the classrooms,” Stanley said. “We call them; they look at it, call us back and say ‘we don’t see any problems.’ Sometimes it’s completely absurd what we’re told.”
Calls to Schneider, which has offices in Lenexa and Wichita, were not returned by today’s press deadline.
With seven years remaining on the $1.026 million indenture, Pekarek said it would be in the district’s best interest to have its attorney review the service agreement to see how much, if any, wiggle room is in it.
The board will discuss the issue with Johnson at the Oct. 24 USD 257 board meeting during a confidential executive session.
