Forest Edge Elementary School, which opened in 2020, features a bank of solar panels to help the building produce more energy than it uses. The district plans to add similar solar panels to the district pool this summer to save on energy costs. 

Forest Edge Elementary School, which opened in 2020, features a bank of solar panels to help the building produce more energy than it uses. The district plans to add similar solar panels to the district pool this summer to save on energy costs. 

With summer break just around the corner – that annual chance to get some building projects done while students and teachers are away – the Oregon School District has several large capital maintenance projects lined up.

The Oregon School Board unanimously approved $925,000 in projects last month, most set to be completed this summer, including more energy-saving “green” technologies – solar panels on the pool roof and more LED lighting at Oregon High School. OHS is also in line for new tennis courts and an outdoor wood shop dust collector, and Prairie View and Netherwood Knoll elementary schools are in line for HVAC upgrades.

District director of buildings and grounds Zain Heitz said a dollar energy system at the district pool, at a cost of $150,000 (in addition to $33,800 Focus on Energy funding and a $27,000 Renew Solar for Good grant), would bring instant energy and cost savings.

“It’s going to produce half the electricity that the pool uses in an entire year, so that’s going to be about an $8,000-plus savings a year,” he said. “The other nice thing is unlike other buildings that at night electricity use goes way down and in the day it goes way up, the pool kind of has a constant load on it with all the equipment and mechanics, keeping everything running.

“So almost all the electricity is going right to the building, in lieu of cheaply selling it back to the grid.

OHS will get a $175,000 upgrade of LED lighting in older classrooms with fluorescent lighting that were not part of the 2016 renovations. It will be funded by the remaining budget of the shell space/on-line learning area build-out from the 2016 referendum.

Heitz said the project will bring around an 80 percent reduction in energy, and with it around $15,000 in energy savings a year and $3,000 in annual maintenance savings.

“The elementary schools that have the LEDs really appreciate not having to change bulbs,” he said.

The district will put $100,000 aside this year for a planned new roof for the main gym at Netherwood Knoll. The plan is to spend $200,000 next year to fully fund and begin the project next summer. Heitz said hopefully the roofing market would “settle out” by then.

“I don't think we would even get close to getting new material if we wanted to do it this year,” he said.

Tennis players rejoice, as OHS is in line for a 21st-century upgrade to its group of outdoor tennis courts, at a cost of $155,00.

“It’s 20-plus years old,” Heitz said. “We've done all the maintenance, patching and crack-filling that we could do - we’ve patched some of the patches, and it's really at the end of its life cycle.”

While the courts will have the same configuration, they will be regraded on a north-south pitch to improve the drainage in the south courts, where a lack of slope prevents rainwater from draining off. A fiberglass mesh coating between asphalt and top layer will also be added to extend the life of the new surface.

To cut down on particles in the air in the high school woodshop, the school will get an exterior dust collector– similar to the middle school’s – to replace the current indoor one, with a project cost of $100,000.

“Instead of just going into the little room in the wood shop, we’ll shoot it outside,” Heitz explained.” “(It’s a)little concrete pad and fence on the outside and all that contamination now lives outside instead of inside.”

The other projects for this summer are a $65,000 upgrade to HVAC controls systems at Netherwood Knoll and $180,000 for a new chiller for the HVAC system at neighboring Prairie View.

Contact reporter Scott De Laruelle @sdelaruelle@orourkemediagroup.com

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