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By Taylor Beard
Earlier this year, the Superior Unified School District pursued an energy savings program with Ameresco Southwest, better known at APS Energy Services.
The program was designed to enable the district to leverage energy savings dollars through the design and implementation of a broad range of comprehensive energy solutions and risk management strategies. APS performed an in-depth analysis of the schools’ facilities to develop a comprehensive energy solution and will install the required elements, along with monitoring the system to ensure energy savings during a 15-year period. The energy cost savings will be used to pay back the capital investment of the project; and, should the project not meet the guaranteed savings, APS will be responsible to pay the difference.
This program has enabled the district to do things such as install new lights for the football field and put in a new scoreboard, as well as replace old equipment that would typically be funded from a capital budget.
In preparation for the energy program, the District was able to refund its outstanding school improvement bonds. The refunding replaced outstanding maturities paying 5.0-6.25 percent in interest with a flat rate of 2.50 percent, while keeping the payment dates same. The result of this refinancing represents a savings to the District of $28,370, over the life of the debt which is savings net of any fees or costs to the District.
“We want to say thank you,” said Board President Cyndi Benson. “We are happy as a board and we are happy to be able to give this back to the taxpayers of Superior because they’ve always been supportive of education and have always supported any kind of bonding that we need to do. So the ability to refinance and bring the savings back to them has been very worthwhile.”
Superintendent Pete Guzman explained, “It’s our way, as the governing board, of giving back to the community, especially when they are so good in supporting the school in overrides and bond issues. This is just a good way to give back.”
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