ABM’s Energy Performance Contracting Program Helps Finance District-wide Education, Security and Technology Initiatives through Energy Savings
ABM (NYSE:ABM), a leading provider of facility
solutions, has initiated an Energy Performance Contracting program for
Connellsville Area School District in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. ABM's
customized solution is projected to save Connellsville Area School District
more than $26.4 million in energy and operating costs over a 15-year period,
which district officials plan to use to finance educational and technological
initiatives across the district. The project launched on July 1, 2017 and is
scheduled for completion in October 2018.
Energy and operational savings will be achieved by implementing
infrastructure upgrades to multiple facilities in the district, including four
elementary schools, Connellsville Area High School, Connellsville Area Middle
School, and the Connellsville Area Career and Technology Center.
The district is using the project to help cut operational costs
without sacrificing educational opportunities, as part of a three-year
strategic financial recovery plan.
"Connellsville Area School District's turnaround is ambitious
and sets the district apart from others," said Mark Newsome, President of
ABM Technical Solutions. "The district is well-positioned to enhance its
students' educational experiences by working with ABM to realize the savings
our Energy Performance Contracting program can provide."
Philip Martell, Superintendent of Connellsville Area School
District, said, "It is the perfect time to partner with ABM. We have
operational issues across the board, but for us, the selling point of the
project is the educational benefit to our students." He continued,
"This partnership allows us to upgrade not only the facilities and
security in our building, but also the technology. This project gives us the
stability to move ahead with an educational component that a lot of public
education institutions cannot due to funding cuts."
Earlier this year, the Connellsville Area School District
consolidated its eight elementary schools into four, in an effort to align its
operational budget with enrollment and improve its students' learning
environment.
ABM's Energy Performance Contracting program enables the
Connellsville Area School District to address the operational issues and aging
infrastructure of its buildings without burdening the district's taxpayers.
The program enables district officials to retrofit and upgrade
most of its buildings systems, while continuing to move toward technology-based
educational programming for its students.
"A project like this provides us the ability to make
educational upgrades we may not have been able to do otherwise because of a
lack of funding," Martell said. "There are a lot of districts that
may not be able to take on a project, like putting devices in students hands,
right now, but they can do it, too, with the right help. For us, that was the
partnership with ABM."
In each of the buildings, ABM will work to improve HVAC systems
and maintenance, lighting, water conservation, and energy management systems.
ABM's Energy Performance Contracting program is a financial solution
that meets clients' technical facility needs and sustainability goals. It
drives costs out of clients' operating budgets and allows savings to be
reallocated to fund educational and capital expenses. Click here for a video on how ABM is providing facility and
financial solutions to school districts without upfront costs or tax increases.
Along with upgrading the school district's infrastructure, the
solution is expected to produce enough general fund savings to purchase each
student a Chromebook laptop computer, upgrade televisions, install SMART Boards
in classrooms, and upgrade the wireless internet network throughout each of the
district's buildings.
"Ultimately, the goal of our partnership with ABM is to
provide educational opportunities for our students and staff and help us meet
our buildings' needs to create an environment conducive to learning,"
Martell said. "ABM's creative solution will help us address our daily
operational needs, while redirecting funding toward educational
programming."
Click here to find a complete listing of the
energy-efficiency and infrastructure improvements at Connellsville Area School
District's facilities. Highlights of the project include:
- Districtwide, replacing fluorescent lighting fixtures
with new, energy-efficient LED lighting, upgrading security and safety
features, and building envelopes
- Installing upgraded or rejuvenating old HVAC systems
function at high-efficiency rates, and state-of-the-art, non-proprietary
controls
- Replacing boilers with high-efficiency units at
Bullskin Elementary and Springfield Township Elementary schools, and
Connellsville Area Middle School
- Across the district's four elementary schools,
installing 37 new rooftop air conditioning units, and new roofing overlays
at Bullskin Elementary and West Crawford Elementary schools
- Upgrading walk-in coolers and freezers, and kitchen
hood controls in six of the district's kitchen areas
- Districtwide, upgrading water conservation measures,
and installing tankless hot water heaters at three schools
Connellsville Area School District covers 250 square miles of
rural southwestern Pennsylvania and currently has about 4,300 students and 550
employees.
