The school Committee had a full plate this week. In addition to a review of possible cuts that could be required in the event of a level budget (please see post here), the committee reviewed a presentation to install solar panels on school roof tops; heard from the Collicot Site Council; and received Superintendent Gormley’s goals for the year.

Bill Ritchie who is the head of maintenance and facilities for the schools was joined by Bob Patterson of W. Robert Patterson & Associates for a presentation on energy savings that could be realized by installing solar panels on Pierce, Glover, Tucker, and Milton High (Collictot / Cunningham have solar arrays already installed).

The key points made were:

• there is no capital investment required by the schools
• the cost of the electricity generated by the panels will be low-cost (.04 – .05 cents per kiloWatt hour) as compared to current .20 cents an hour. Savings are conservatively projected to be between $120-130,000 year 1.
• the term of the agreement is for 20 years. It was unclear what the energy savings would be after year 10. However, Mr. Patterson in his presentation states, “price escalation as low as 1% to 2% per year.”
• installation will take ~4 to 6 month

There is some urgency as Green Communities Act which grants solar energy credits and makes the financial arrangement viable and of interest to developers. Milton is in the process of qualifying as a Green Community.

Member Keohane asked what would be the impact or issues if roof repairs needed to be performed. Ritchie assured him that the design of the panels allows them to be moved easily and that on Collicot a leak that existed was no longer a problem once panels were installed.

The committee passed a motion to issue an RFP for installation of the panels. Key to the agreement will be negotiating a Power Purchase agreement. This sets the terms and conditions for the cost to Milton for the electricity.

Other business included but was not limited to:

• A school improvement presentation from Principal Gerard Schultz and Collicot Site Council. The school received a commendation for “high growth’ from state for progress made in students Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), a key MCAS metric. They reviewed academic strengths and weaknesses. In ELA (ie Reading) all three grades are strong in structure of English and weak in open responses. in math, Gr 4&5 were strong in a variety of areas (Short answers, Shape, Patterns, ). Regarding weakness, Gr 4 had difficulty with open responses, inferences and symmetry. Strategies for improvement include early reading assessment, software support for intervention, a renewed focus on “specific strategies to write complete, meaningful sentences/ paragraphs.”
• Time was tight but Ms. Gormley did quickly outline goals for year which include but are not limited to: Improve student achievement (e.g. increase the % of AP scores by 5%); Curriculum & Professional Development (e.g. develop assessments in alignment with Massachusetts curriculum frameworks); and work to communicate budget requirements (e.g. research potential savings in energy and transportation).