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Navitas is pleased to announce that we are working with Washington County USD 108 to help them improve their facilities and create a better learning environment for their students.

Washington County USD is a rural school district located in north central Kansas. They have one building with multiple additions for most of the K-12 classrooms. The district has done a good job maintaining the facility over the years, but time has not been kind. Most of the heating and air conditioning equipment is well past its useful life and in desperate need of replacement.

In fact, the air handling units that serve the high school portion of the building were install in 1952 when the school was originally built. The district has had a hard time finding replacement parts and there was a very real concern that the equipment would fail and leave the high school without heat in the winter.

Washington County USD chose Navitas to be their ESCO partner and help them solve these problems. We worked with the district to help them decide which solution made the most sense for their facilities, their students and staff, their community and their budget.

Ultimately the district decided to abandon the old air handling units at the high school, but keep the existing air distribution ducts as much as possible to help keep costs down. The new system that is being installed has two packaged units that are more efficient than the old units and will be considerably easier to maintain.

We are also replacing the rooftop units in other parts of the facility and adding a new building automation system. This BAS will allow better control of all the heating and cooling equipment and will substantially reduce times the equipment runs even though it’s not needed. This helps to extend the life of the equipment and also helps the district save energy.

The project also includes replacing the old windows in the high school as well as sealing the gaps between windows, walls, and doors to prevent air infiltration that caused drafts in the winter. The district also was able to upgrade the lighting throughout the facility to new LED lamps that are not only very energy efficient, but will last a lot longer than the old fluorescent tubes.

The district opted to use the Kansas Facility Conservation Improvement Program (FCIP) services for this project. FCIP provides third-party oversight during the development of the project to ensure the project meets statutory requirements and that the energy savings estimates are accurate. The program also provides a project review during the construction process.

As a result of this energy conservation project, the district is able to take care of their most pressing and costly capital needs. They will also save more than $1,200,000 over 15-year term of the contract. These savings, along with some capital monies the district elected to use, will pay for the entire project.

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For more information about this project click here.

Check out this video of Karl Jansen, the superintendent of Everton R-III School District, talking about the energy project we did with them. They had a huge problem with the windows in their building, so much so that they had snow on the window sills INSIDE the classrooms. Using an energy performance contract, Navitas was able to help them not only replace these terrible windows, but also upgrade their HVAC equipment, replace roofs, and upgrade the lighting. All of this has made the classrooms at Everton much more comfortable, which makes it easier for the students to focus on learning.

This video was taken during our workshop “Turning Over Rocks to Find Money” at the 2017 Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA) conference. Karl was one of the panelists featured in the workshop.