By P. Jade Asumbrado
Olympia School District reportedly saved $66,017 in energy costs over the past year, its board learned on Thursday, Oct. 10.
The board also learned that the district’s per-capita food expenditures are among the lowest in the state.
Superintendent Patrick Murphy discussed Outcome 6 from its Strategic Plan, which states that OSD students will “be critical thinkers who contribute to and collaborate with our local, global, and natural world.”
The outcome monitoring report shows how the district achieved Outcome 6 indicators by focusing on teamwork, resource utilization, and sustainability.
Murphy also explained that Outcome 6 is acknowledged as the district’s “environmental outcome.”
“Based on some feedback we received from the board and previous Outcome 6 monitoring reports, there was talk about ways that we could expand how we go about measuring this really important outcome, which is that our students will be critical thinkers who contribute to and collaborate with our local, global and natural world,” said Murphy.
Energy savings
The district also aims to increase its reliance on renewable energy, including expanding its electric vehicle fleet.
Executive Director of Operations Frank Wilson explained the results of the district’s three-year partnership with Puget Sound Energy (PSE) for energy savings.
“In 2022, we began a program with Puget Sound Energy called the Commercial Strategic Energy Management Program (CSEM),” said Wilson, adding, “We will be receiving our second-year data next month.”
Wilson shared the project’s energy savings of 336,800 kWh and 7705 therms, producing a net savings of $42,171 and an incentive of $23,846.
This scheme has $66,017 in savings being returned to the district’s general fund. The program is now nearing the end of its second year, with another year left.
Clean Buildings
Another energy milestone of the district is its compliance with the Clean Buildings Act (HB1257), which requires buildings to meet Clean Buildings Performance Standards.
The district submitted Capital High School and Olympia High School for compliance assessment, as these institutions qualify for the school size requirement.
“I’m happy to report…that Capital High School was approved through Commerce, and it was the first school in K-12 approved through Commerce in May of 2024. We submitted for early compliance,” Wilson reported.
Olympia High School’s entry was submitted on September 30, and results will be known within this month.
Energy shutdown incentive and electric vehicles
Wilson shared OSD’s Demand Response System (DRS), under which the district receives around $30,000 in incentives annually if it shuts down its systems during periods of high grid usage.
“We actually will receive an incentive to do that up to about $30,000 a year. And we have the ability to say… we’ve got 9,000 kids in school today, we can’t do that. But if it’s a day or a night where we can shut some systems down and save some energy, they’ll pay us to do that,” said Wilson.
PSE emails its customers whenever the grid is experiencing high use levels so they can shut down available systems. OSD signed up for this program last summer.
The district is also in the very early stages of conversing with its utility provider about a pilot program that would provide chargers for its electric buses so that they could serve as mobile batteries and send power back to the grid, OSD Director of Communications & Community Relations Conor Schober said on an email to The JOLT.
“Generally, sending power to the grid would be temporary and, depending on the time of day, the buses would be charged and ready for service the next day,” Schober said in the email.
OSD also expects to hear about a grant to purchase five electric buses later this month.
The district also applied for a grant to install a solar array on its transportation building, which differs from the Community Solar grant, as OSD would own the additional array that would sit on its transportation building.
OSD will raise 2% upfront through its technology and safety levy, and the grant will cover the remaining 98%.
Food expenses
According to the report, OSD has one of the state’s lowest per-capita food costs. OSD aimed to reduce food waste in breakfast and lunch programs and increase the repurposing of leftover items for food banks.
The district’s school-based farm-to-table program and scratch cooking minimized their purchase of higher-cost prepared foods.
Murphy said that the district has not participated in local food bank efforts because it has halted since the COVID-19 period.
The district participated in the ‘Food Rescue Program’ with the Thurston County Food Bank for roughly four years before the COVID-19 pandemic, Schober explained.
Schober said that the program was put on hold during the pandemic due to lack of volunteers, and it is currently unknown whether the initiative will be revived as it depends on the ability to solicit volunteers.
