Sun power headed to local elementary schools

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Two local elementary schools, Point Dume and Webster, are named as California Distinguished Schools.

By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s elementary schools are going green while saving some green. The Board of Education last week approved a deal for the installation of solar panels on top of the district’s nine elementary schools, including the three located in Malibu. The new energy source could save the SMMUSD up to $5.1 million during the next 25 years, according to the district.

“Anything that we can do that is environmentally sustainable and in line with our principles is a good thing,” Board of Education member Oscar de la Torre said in an interview on Monday.

PermaCity Inc. will install and maintain the panels. REgeneration Finance LLC owns the panels and will provide the energy. Virginia Hyatt, SMMUSD’s director of purchasing, said portions of buildings are not equipped to handle solar panels. The target is for the panels to provide 68 percent of the energy for the schools.

The project is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act analysis because it is designated as a maintenance or repair project, according to the district. So it will not have to get approval from the cities of Malibu or Santa Monica. Hyatt said the panels should be installed by the fall.

The elementary schools were chosen because they did not receive any funding for enhancements from the recent Measure BB capital improvement project bond. The new buildings that are part of the Measure BB-funded projects at the secondary schools will be equipped for solar panels. But it will have to be studied whether there is enough funding to install the panels on those buildings.

Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School is already ahead of the game. Last May, 33 solar panels were placed on two classrooms with the financial support of the David Geffen Foundation and funds from a lemonade stand managed by the school’s second-graders, as well as other sources.

De la Torre said he was disappointed that PermaCity and REgeneration Finance are not companies from within the district. He said he hoped they hire a labor force that is from Santa Monica or Malibu. Also, de la Torre said he wanted students to be involved in the panel installation.

“We’re pretty much outdated in our vocational education strategy,” de la Torre said. “And this would reinvigorate it.”

He continued, “You can do work on the ground and then have the kids bring them up, learning how to repair them, how to install them. Maybe you won’t be having kids on the roof. But anything you can do to expose them is good. You can start a class.”

Although the board approved the contracts for the project with last week’s vote, there are still some additional items that will need to go before the board to finalize the project. De la Torre said he would not approve them unless there is a guarantee of student involvement.

Hyatt said an education component is possible and that goes with her “passion for student involvement” in everything the district does. However, she added, “as far as a vocation toward a career path, we would have to see how that works.”

As for de la Torre’s concern that the labor force be locally based, Hyatt said the district cannot do much more than encourage that it be so. “Companies select their own labor force,” she said. “We can’t dictate to them where the labor force comes from.”

Two local schools receive distinction

Meanwhile, in other elementary school news, the State Board of Education, as part of the California School Recognition Program, this week named Point Dume Elementary and Webster Elementary as California Distinguished Schools. The honor also went to McKinley Elementary School in Santa Monica.

The Distinguished School Award is in its 24th year. Schools were identified for eligibility on the basis of their Academic Performance Index and Adequate Yearly Progress results, which are the state and federal accountability models. The applicants were also identified by their successes in narrowing the achievement gap between higher-performing and lower-performing students.

“We are extremely proud of our staff for demonstrating educational excellence for all students and progress in narrowing the achievement gap,” Superintendent Tim Cuneo said in a press release issued by the district. “The principal, teachers and staff are to be commended for their hard work and dedication to the success of all students.”

Point Dume Principal Chi Kim added, “This is a reflection of our collective effort as a community of teachers, staff, students, parents and community members. Everyone works tirelessly to bring innovative programs forward, like marine and environmental science, as well as our reading intervention programs. It is such an honor to be validated for the work that we do for our students.”

Webster Principal Phil Cott said, “We try every day to make learning meaningful, to connect our students to the real world, to make learning challenging, exciting, fun. It is gratifying to see the school staff and students receive this award from the State Department of Education. They earned it.”