The Opportunity
Lindbergh Schools is located in St. Louis County, Missouri and has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as having one of the top high schools in the United States. The district serves more than 7,000 students in ten facilities.
Like many school districts, Lindbergh Schools was faced with aging facilities, rising utility costs, and limited financial resources. The district patrons recently approved a bond issue to renovate their high school and provide for more safe and secure entrances for several school sites. Unfortunately, the bond dollars available were not sufficient to address many of the districts deferred maintenance projects beyond the high school facility itself.
The district had a growing list of facility improvements without a clear mechanism to fund them. By partnering with Navitas, the district was able to enter in to an energy savings performance contract to generate funding to pay for the additional improvements identified in their remaining elementary and middle school facilities.
The Technical Solution
Navitas performed an investment grade audit of buildings throughout the district to identify critical facility issues and develop energy conservation and facility improvement measures to address them.
The work included upgrading the interior lighting with energy efficient or LED lamps and fixtures, HVAC equipment upgrades, boiler replacements, coordination of building automation systems, water conservation measures, building weatherization, and building performance optimization through data analytics.
The Financial Solution
The district recently passed a $105 million bond authorization to fund the renovation of the high school and build more secure entrances in several sites. However, additional funds were still needed to address facility maintenance projects in other district facilities. Through performance contracting, the district was able to increase the scope of work district-wide by $8 million. This was done by leveraging savings from their maintenance, operations and utility budget as capital to make the needed upgrades to modernize their facilities.
