The Clarke County Board of Education unanimously approved solar panels last week for the new Clarke Middle School.
“I’ve been getting lots of emails with lots of enthusiasm for these panels, so I’m very grateful to the district for finding a way to do this for these students,” board member Patricia Yager said.
The four sets of tracking panels will cost a total of $277,000 to install. They will generate 164,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which at an average rate of 9 cents per kwh will save the school about $15,000 off its $114,000 annual power bill. Upfront costs will come from the CMS construction project’s contingency fund.
Hundreds of students and parents called on CCSD to include solar panels when CMS was being rebuilt last year, but district officials at the time said the technology was still evolving and did not make financial sense to incorporate.
The school board also voted to continue a partnership with Athens-Clarke County that funds after-school activities at elementary and middle schools. Each entity is pitching in $110,000, with ACC’s share coming from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds earmarked for youth development and CCSD’s coming from the general fund budget.
In addition, the board voted to waive fees associated with using CCSD facilities for a youth basketball league run by the Community & Youth Development Organization, led by Earnest Elder. The CYDO’s sixth-grade basketball league was absorbed by the ACC-CCDC initiative, and other grades were threatened when Superintendent Robbie Hooker informed Elder he would have to pay $13,000 to reimburse CCSD for security and janitorial services.
“I don’t see any other way for us to support those efforts without having it rolled into an already formalized partnership,” board member LaKeisha Gantt said. But board member Tim Denson, a former commissioner, pointed out that amending the ACC-CCSD agreement would require sending it back to the ACC Commission, so a separate vote was held for waiving CYDO fees.
Gantt said that more groups need to be at the table when CCSD is forming partnerships. “To me it would be advantageous for the district to look at, how do we partner with our youth-serving organizations in a more collaborative way?” she said. “I would love to be voting on something more comprehensive.”
Board president Mumbi Anderson, participating by speakerphone, voted in favor of waiving the fees, but warned that doing so could give the impression of favoritism. “I want to be really careful not to create a space where certain organizations are given preferential treatment in our district over others,” she said.
When CCSD officials were writing this year’s budget, they did not include the $110,000 outlay from ACC, so when the partnership was extended, it freed up extra money for after-school programs, Chief Financial Officer Chris Griner said.
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