The Greene County Schools’ plan to install photovoltaic (solar) panels at all three school buildings during this past summer wasn’t completed. Brant Carr of Story Construction, the company installing the system, explained the delay at the school board’s Oct. 8 meeting. Carr attended the meeting virtually.
According to Carr, Story Construction has been working with Modus Engineering to be sure the system will do what the school board wants it to. He called it “an assurance and confidence check.”
Carr said they’ve gathered data about energy use in 15-minute increments from Alliant Energy. That data was not previously available. The data will be loaded into a modeling system for the components the school’s solar system will use – the battery storage, solar panels, and the control system that sends electricity to the battery for storage or directly into the energy grid.
He said the extra step pre-construction will assure the system will work to reduce peak loads and the demand cost the district pays Alliant.
Story Construction looked at several different software options before finding the right one for the job. The next step is to input the data. That will take several weeks, Carr said. Once the information is available, Story Construction will send it to Modus for review. Carr said the target date is the November board meeting.
“I appreciate that we’re going through the extra time and steps to make sure it’s going to do what we want it to do,” board member Tim Riphagen said.
The board sold $5.1 million in bonds for the project in August 2024. That money was immediately invested until it is needed.
Earlier in the meeting the board rescheduled the November meeting to Nov. 19 from Nov. 12. The meeting, the first one after the Nov. 4 city/school election, will be an organizational meeting. A small part of the Greene County district lies in Boone County, and Boone County won’t canvass the Nov. 4 votes until Nov. 19.
The board reviewed the 2024-2025 certified annual report, special education supplement and annual transportation report. The board then approved a motion to request $623,991.89 in allowable growth from the School Budget Review Committee. Abbotts said special education usually runs a deficit. This year’s request is $200,000 more than last year. He explained that’s due to students needing to be placed in out-of-state facilities, and in some cases in in-state facilities.
The board also requested $20,452.48 in allowable growth for excess Limited English Proficient expenditures.
Superintendent Brett Abbotts reported meeting with Greene County engineer Wade Weiss Jefferson city administrator Scott Peterson, and staff from Region XII Council of Governments about a sidewalk on W. Central Ave and to the high school. Region XII will facilitate a grant application that could cover a large majority of the cost.
The sidewalk would not follow Central Ave or Grimmell Rd, but would more likely go north from Central on Walnut St, and then take a cross-country route west of the St Joseph Cemetery and angle to the southeast corner of the high school property.
Construction wouldn’t be until 2027, Abbotts said. The school would pay between $60,000 and $70,000, or 22 percent of the project. He thanked Peterson and Weiss “for putting it all together.”
The board approved requests for January graduation from Bailey Fagerlind, Payton Scheuermann, Mason Kinsey Christopher Lansman, Addi Ohm, Bradon Kokenge, Trenton Lee, Chase Murphy, Erik Venteicher, Naphtali Hoyt, Dylan Silbaugh and Joseph Frantz.
