Oct. 21—POTTSVILLE — Solar panels on two schools offset 40% of the school district's annual energy usage in 2022, according to a report at Wednesday's school board meeting.
Business manager Stacy Stair's report showed the district saved $153,333 in energy costs due to solar power between Nov. 1, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2022.
Without solar, the district would have paid $470,878 for electricity, Stair calculated. With solar, the cost was reduced to $317,545.
In its first year, solar power saved the district $10,382, the report found.
"Our savings was much higher than expected," Stair told the board, "due to the high cost of energy."
A graph in the report showed PPL energy price per kilowatt hour increased 92% since the solar project went live in 2020.
Rooftop solar panels went into operation on John S. Clarke Elementary and DHH Lengel Middle School in early November 2020.
The solar array atop the elementary school is 1.01 megawatt, and on the middle school it's 0.46 megawatt.
Regional spelling bee on the move
The board approved the use of the DHH Lengel Middle School auditorium for the Schuylkill County Regional Spelling Bee in March.
After 67 years, the Republican Herald decided to no longer sponsor the regional spelling bee after the 2023 competition at Penn State Schuylkill campus.
Intermediate Unit 29 has taken over sponsorship of the event, which draws competitors from schools across the county.
As regional winner in 2023, Tyler Kulikosky, a student at Blue Mountain Middle School, represented the county at the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland.
Other business
The board thanked Pottsville Fire Chief Jim Misstishin for teaching fire safety to students at John S. Clarke Elementary school during Fire Prevention Week this month.
The following people were inducted into the Pottsville Sports Hall of Fame during a recent ceremony in the Pottsville Zone:
—David Scott Reichert (1971).
—Donna Lowthert Knight (1982).
—Diana Legear McGoey (1987).
—Sean Holden (1995).
—Nate Lipton (1996).
—Shane Hobbs (1998).
—Jessica Moser Craig (2001).
—Tyler Heffner (2012).
Contact the writer: rdevlin@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6007