News/Photos/Video courtesy of Trane
Leaders at Willoughby-Eastlake School District in Willoughby, OH, a suburb located to the east of Cleveland, recently took a high performance building approach to district-wide upgrades that generated impressive results.
Administrators faced aging infrastructure, high energy costs and outdated, inefficient lighting in 12 buildings constructed from 1921 through 1974. The district serves nearly 9,000 students from the cities of Eastlake, Lakeline, Timberlake, Waite Hill, Willoughby, Willoughby Hills and Willowick.
VIDEO OF IMPROVEMENTS:
Buildings needing retrofits in the district included a high school, a Tech Center, three middle schools and six elementary schools as well as the Kennedy building. The district first worked with the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission to evaluate the situation and received a recommendation that every single building be torn down and rebuilt at a cost of $300 million.
Since that solution wasn’t financially feasible, Willoughby-Eastlake leaders worked with Gardiner Trane, Leff Electric and GE Lighting to accomplish its mission of improving the learning and teaching environment throughout the district. District administrators undertook a high performance building approach to achieve their goals.
The district was able to use provisions of Ohio State House Bill 264 to secure low-interest funds for the energy conservation measures throughout their facility buildings and for the Kennedy building. The house bill enables school districts to fund energy projects to improve the educational environment by using the savings of those funds to drive the project.
Click through the photo gallery to see these various improvements.