BOE talks bus facility and solar project

PINE PLAINS— A variety of updates and discussions took place at a Pine Plains Central School District Board of Education (BOE) meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 7.

New bus facility

The evening began with the BOE taking a tour of the new bus facility before the meeting.

The facility is being built on the Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center campus.

Fred “Chip” Couse said the project continues to move forward smoothly and under budget.

“As of last night, the board’s agent overseeing the project — the Palumbo Group — fully expects the project to be completed at or below the budgeted cost for it,” Couse said in a separate interview.

“Our experts tell us we’re on schedule — we are generally pleased with the progress to date,” he added.

Board of Education goals

The board also took a brief look at last year’s Board of Education goals. This is an annual exercise for the group.

Each goal from the previous year gets reviewed to see if it was accomplished. The list will get updated this year

The process of reviewing the district’s goals, according to Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler, is an important one.

Each goal acts as a benchmark, as they offer administrators “guidance as to what we should be focusing on,” Handler said.

Board members will get together to go through each goal before the next BOE meeting, and produce an updated document.

Energy 

performance contract

Siemens Energy Inc., which is presently carrying out an energy performance audit districtwide, has listed several potential projects for the district. One of them is going solar.

That project initially called for the installation of a small solar panel system on Stissing Mountain Middle /High School’s rooftop.

The project so far seems to be an appealing one to board members — they have asked the superintendent to contact Siemens to express interest in converting to solar power. 

However, minor variations will need to be made to the proposal.

“The problem with the original proposal is that the roof space is limited and our roofs are not new,” Handler said. 

The roofs, he explained, “don’t need to be replaced right this minute, but probably within the next five to 10 years they’ll need to get replaced.

“It may not be a good idea to invest money in putting solar panels on our roofs if we’re going to have to take down the  panels to do roof work,” the superintendent added.

Siemens has proposed an alternative plan — to do a ground installation.

“We think we may have a place off to the side of the front entrance to the campus where they would be able to put them in,” Handler said. “And because there is more space there, they can probably put in enough panels to pretty much supply the electricity needed for the middle school and high school.”

“It would be a major positive,” he said.

By placing the panels on the ground, Handler noted, the district would also be more likely to use the system as an educational experience for students to learn how solar panels work.