Conserving Resources. Renewing Facilities.
Our project with the Pattonville School District was in the news recently. Channel KMOV4 (http://KMOV.com) out of St. Louis featured the piece on their morning show. It included interviews with a couple of students on why “going green” is important and how they were proud that their school district for their energy conservation efforts.
Here is a link to the video on KMOV4’s web:
Pattonville High School’s energy efficient upgrades leave more money to spend on classrooms
We had the fun experience of hosting a high school student from Sabetha High School today. David Pierson was job shadowing some of our Navitas and Smith & Boucher (our sister company) engineers to get a feel for what working as an engineer is like.
In the photo above, David talks with Zack Flageolle our Director of Optimization about what’s involved in reporting energy savings back to our clients.
In the photo below, David chats with Chris Albright, one of the principals at Smith & Boucher about mechanical engineering.
In the photo above, Ryan Diediker, also a principal at Smith & Boucher, shows David some electrical design drawings.
Navitas welcomes Kent Clow who joins our team as a Business Development Manager. Kent’s experience in business development and as a college board trustee will certainly be an asset in helping to understand our higher education clients and the financial difficulties they face.
Kent currently serves as a board trustee for Culver- Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, a position he has held since 2012. He is involved in fund raising as well as supporting the strategic goals of an institution of a liberal arts college. He, along with other trustees, are working to make sure that the degrees the students earn are founded in real world applications. Kent believes strongly that today’s colleges need to do a better job of helping our young people be prepared for a successful career.
When he’s not working, Kent enjoys spending time with his wife Peggy. Both he and Peggy love gardening and landscaping the property around their home. He says “Peggy moves trees and bushes like most wives move furniture. She points and I plant it where she wants it.” They are both looking forward to warmer weather so they can start checking out what the local nurseries have available this season.
This video shows our recent work upgrading the HVAC systems at Pattonville High School. This was part of our $10.2 million energy conservation project with the Pattonville School District. As part of the HVAC system upgrade, 32 roof top-mounted HVAC units needed to be removed and new units installed.
The layout and space around the High School did not lend itself to using a conventional crane to lift the units off the roof. So Navitas, and their mechanical contractor partner Integrated Facility Solutions (IFS), engaged Midwest Helicopter Airways and their air crane helicopter to do the lifting.
It took almost a month of work to get the site prepared and schedules to coordinated in order to pull this lift off. Since the High School is just down the road from St. Louis’ Creve Coeur Airport and not far from the Spirit of St. Louis Airport, flight plans had to be coordinated and filed with the FAA.
Pattonville High School is also a popular site for community events, and we wanted to make sure that no one was in the building during the lift for safety reasons. So, we worked with the school district to pick a day during their winter break when teachers and students would be away from school and no events were scheduled.
Once we had a date scheduled, the next step was to coordinate the actual lift. Navitas worked with IFS to plan the sequence in which the units were removed and replaced so that we could use the air crane efficiently. A staging area was created in the parking lot of the school so that the old equipment could be dropped off quickly and the new equipment picked up.
As the date drew near, Navitas worked with the IFS crew and the folks from Midwest Helicopter Airways to prepare the site. Extra care was taken to remove or fasten down anything that could possibly be sucked up into the rotors of the air crane or become flying debris that could harm someone.
Site safety was a big concern, so both Navitas and IFS had safety directors on site during the entire lift event.
Our last obstacle was the weather. As many of you know, the weather in the Midwest in late December can be unpredictable. But we were fortunate to have a good day for flying on the day of the lift.
All the crews did an amazing job. The lifts went as planned and the crews work quickly and efficiently. All old unit were removed, and all the new units were installed. The air crane performed 70 lifts and was able to do it in an hour and a half, which is an outstanding performance.
Thanks to everyone who made this possible. Great Job!
Click here to find out more about our project with the Pattonville School District.
The following Navitas article was published in the January edition of the Missouri Association of School Business Officials (MoASBO) Enews publication with the title “Finding Dollars Within Your Existing School District Budget to Re-Invest into Facilities”. MoASBO is a professional association of Missouri school district officials and employees whose expertise is in the area of school business administration. (https://www.moasbo.org)
When looking for ways for your school district to operate more efficiently, the “rock” to turn over with the greatest amount of savings is most likely energy management. All around us, embedded in every building is a vast, untapped energy resource: efficiency. Many times, this resource is hidden, ignored, or misunderstood by school districts that are sitting on the potential.
Today, school districts in the United States spend about $8 billion annually on energy costs alone, which is more than the cost of textbooks and computers combined. When a school district receives the utility bills, they are sent to Accounts Payable for processing. Often, there isn’t enough time to take a hard look to see where the school district could be saving money.
Every year, K-12 facilities waste millions of dollars in excess energy consumption. Those dollars may take the form of lost heat through walls, windows, doors, and roofs. By being intentional about cutting utility costs, school districts can easily reap savings that can be used to help fund greater needs within the district.
Excess funds that districts are sending to the local utility companies can either be invested back into the facilities to address deferred maintenance issues, or possibly as a new source of funding for other pressing instructional needs.
Some of the top energy wasters include:
Over the years of conducting energy audits, we have encountered a lot of strange things that leave us scratching our heads. Some of the time, these items were known to school administrators and facility directors, but the district lacked funds to address them. Other times, these items were unknown and had been issues for years!
Below are a few of those “head scratcher” situations. Are any of these occurring in your buildings? What other problems might be lurking and causing issues with your utility bill?
The money to make the appropriate modifications is already available in your current budget, if you are willing to find it. Here are a few suggestions:
Click here to view this article on the MoASO website.
About the author – Paul Harrell is a business development manager with Navitas. His background as a Certified Public Accountant and 33 years of experience in the education sector help him bring a practical approach to developing strategies for school districts wanting guidance in how to manage their overall budget and utility costs. He can be reached at pharrell@navitas.us.com or 913-344-0049.