JENNIFER GUSTAVSON FILE PHOTO | Shoreham-Wading River superintendent Steven Cohen and school board president Bill McGrath.
The Shoreham-Wading River school board approved a contract worth over $7 million with a worldwide manufacturing company to improve energy-saving measures throughout the district.
Assistant superintendent Glen Arcuri said the contract will pay for itself through resulting energy savings.
Mr. Arcuri explained that the district will borrow the necessary money to pay off the contract.
“It’s a type of a lease arrangement,” he said.
Officials from Honeywell, which recently won the project bid, said in February that making the improvements will save the district more than $250,000 each year on its roughly $1.2 million energy bill.
Improvements would include energy-efficient LED lighting, a “smart” system for heating and cooling and a natural gas line to the high school that would allow the school to use either natural gas or oil, depending on which fuel was cheaper.
The district will use those energy savings to pay off the entirety of the lease, Mr. Arcuri said. If the district doesn’t save as much as projected, Honeywell will have to cover the difference between what they promised and what they delivered, he added.
The state education department will next review the scope of the work to ensure that the district gets “maximum savings,” Mr. Arcuri said.
If the state determines that the district won’t break even on the deal, they will refuse to issue the site plans.