What do utilities cost in the district and how can grants be used?
The district has an active resource conservation program in place, and has had for many years. This ongoing program has allowed the district to have average energy costs of only 81 cents per square foot. This is the second lowest cost in the metro area schools that were surveyed. Many other districts range from $1.06 to $.40 per square foot. The one district that costs less does so because of lower local energy costs, such as water. The district is participating in the Senate Bill 1149 energy program for schools. We are currently using these funds to audit eight buildings (in NC12, only eight buildings are eligible for these funds, because they are over the threshold set by the state.) Eventually we will be using these funds to leverage several million dollars in energy improvement projects at these eight facilities. 4.
