April 21, 2010 --The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s elementary schools are going green while saving some green. At its meeting on April 14, the Board of Education approved a deal for the installation of solar panels on top of the District’s elementary schools. The new energy source could save the SMMUSD up to $5.1 million over 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 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 that they provide 68 percent of the energy for the schools.

The project is exempt from California Environmental Quality Analysis because it 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 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. A study will be needed to determine whether there is enough money to put panels on those buildings.

De la Torre said he was disappointed that PermaCity and REgeneration Finance are not companies from this District. He said he hoped they hire a labor force that is from Santa Monica or Malibu. Also, De la Torre said he wants 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“We’re pretty much outdated in our vocational education strategy,” de la Torre said.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 its vote, there are still some additional items that will need to go before the Board to finalize the plans. De la Torre said he would not approve them unless there is a guarantee for student involvement in the project.

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 this. “Companies select their own labor force,” she said. “We can’t dictate to them where the labor force comes from.”