LRSD to receive over $11 million to make energy upgrades to 17 schools

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – More than $11 million is headed to the Little Rock School District to support upgrades in energy efficiency and indoor air quality for K-12 public schools.

LRSD won the 2024 Renew America’s Schools Prize and Grant competition administered by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The funds will be used to bring upgrades to 17 schools in the district, including Central, Mabelvale Middle, Bale, Carver, Baseline, Gibbs, Chicot, King, Geyer Springs, Stephens, Washington, Mabelvale EL, Wakefield, Watson, Dunbar and Romine.

Officials said the money will be distributed in three phases and during Thursday’s LRSD board meeting, a check for $300,000 was presented for phase 1.

Energia, a K-12 energy management consulting firm and Protect|ED, a national leader in indoor air quality solutions for schools, partnered with LRSD and helped the district win the grant.

Veronica Niter, vice president of business development for Energia, said firm aims to “partner with school districts and help them find funding mechanisms to get light done, get their HVACs updated, create kind of a better learning environment for their students and educators.”

She said, “it was an extensive process” to pull data from every LRSD school building.

Niter said they collected data from every LRSD school which consisted of the amount of energy usage, what upgrades were needed and a narrative detailing what the funds will be used for, not just in the schools but in the community as well.

In phase 2, Niter said Energia and LRSD will enter into a cooperative agreement with the DOE to start getting schools audited.

In phase 3, Niter said, LRSD “will get the larger sum of money to actually do the work.”

More than 350 local school agencies across 42 states entered the competition and out of all the schools and districts to enter, only 16% of applicants received funding.

Niter said even though the chances of winning are slim, it’s still worth giving your district an opportunity.

“Even if you don’t get it, at least you now have the data to understand what your buildings need,” she said.

Niter said Energia does complementary assessments. More information can be found at EnergiaSaves.com or by reaching out to Niter directly at vniter@energiasaves.com or 404-902-6756 ext. 422.

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