School board reviews $3.4 million rooftop solar plan, schedules vote on bond options

Richland County Community School District No. 1 trustees reviewed firm proposals from vendor Straight Up Solar to install rooftop, ballasted photovoltaic systems at the district’s middle and high schools and agreed to place a vote on the project at the board’s next meeting.

The district’s presenter introduced the two firm bids and told trustees the middle‑school system is expected to produce about 49.59% of that building’s electricity and that the high‑school rooftop system could provide roughly 64% of that site’s needs. The presenter said the middle‑school installation shows annual first‑year electricity savings of about $46,355 and that, including federal incentives and SREC payments, the package’s projected payback horizon is roughly 5½ years.

Why it matters: administrators said the district budgets roughly $500,000 annually for electricity and that the systems could cut operating costs and free general funds for other district priorities. Trustees discussed tradeoffs between using fund balance, refinancing existing alternative‑revenue bonds and issuing a new bond to cover part of the work.

Board members questioned maintenance, monitoring, warranties and insurance. Trustees were told the district would own the equipment and be responsible for maintenance but that Straight Up Solar will provide remote monitoring that flags underperforming groupings; the vendor would be called to investigate flagged groupings. Panel life was described as about 30 years and inverter life about 12 years; district staff estimated inverter replacements might cost roughly $10,000–$15,000 each when the time comes. The presenter said a rough additional annual insurance cost for the district was about $11,000 (approximately $5,500 per site), and board members noted that insurance costs were not reflected in the packet cash‑flow figures.

Trustees also pressed for independent verification of structural calculations. The company plans to provide roof blueprints and engineering calculations; several trustees asked that the district’s contracted architect/engineering firm (referred to in the packet as FGMA) independently review those calculations to verify the roofs can carry the ballast system and to ensure Carlisle roofing warranty procedures are followed.

Funding and next steps: the rooftop proposals shown to trustees totaled about $3,434,618 (approximately $2.5 million for the high school and just under $1.0 million for the middle school in the materials presented). Administrators recommended a blended approach using a portion of fund balances, bond refinancing and a $1 million addition to alternative‑revenue (AR) bond capacity for solar; trustees debated whether to include the solar amount in a long (approximately 23‑year) bond or to issue a shorter‑term bond for solar only to reduce net interest costs.

The board agreed to invite bond advisor John Vizzetti to the next meeting to present two financing scenarios and to place a vote on the solar contract and the process to start bond sales at Thursday’s meeting. Administration noted the bond authorization process takes roughly three months from authorization to sale and that amounts set when starting the process can be reduced later but not increased.

What to watch: trustees asked staff to add independent roof‑load review, confirm warranty/proration details for inverters, provide an updated bond interest estimate reflecting recent market moves, and show cash‑flow scenarios that include the roughly $11,000 insurance estimate that trustees said is not currently reflected in the packet.

The presenter and trustees emphasized that, if approved, construction would not begin until summer and that some initial work may need to be done earlier to "safe harbor" federal incentives that are time‑sensitive.