Ft. Atkinson School Districts, WI

Background

Fort Atkinson school district is located in Jefferson County, WI and is an open enrollment school committed to delivering the quality opportunities and services each student needs to achieve his or her academic and personal potential. The District serves approximately 2,800 students and consists of six (6) buildings totaling approximately 703,572 square feet. The School District of Fort Atkinson is committing to a 20% energy reduction goal by 2020 across its facilities in order to lessen the environmental impact of its operations, provide learning experiences for students and reduce costs. Some of the current goals of the School District are to have all six schools achieve energy star certification, contain onsite renewable energy generation, become one of the most energy efficient school districts in Wisconsin, and serve as an example for other districts to follow. Fort Atkinson was recently named a Green Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

The District will continue with its active, student/teacher led “Green Teams” at each school and will perform several feasibility studies throughout the year for chiller, HVAC, and geothermal replacements. The District will also conduct energy audits at remaining schools (3) to identify additional energy saving measures, incorporate domestic hot water into the existing hot water heating system at the High School and install pole-mounted PV Systems in several parking lots with web based monitoring of energy production incorporated into curriculum. The PV energy will be sized to match individual classroom lighting or plug loads, which will also be monitored. This will establish a baseline for interested classrooms to compete to reduce their energy consumption.