LA CROSSE COUNTY, Wisconsin (WEAU) –
A school district in the region is taking steps to better save energy through a special collaboration.
Looking to the future together and promoting energy saving, that is the mission of the recently founded group Solar on La Crosse Schools (SOLS).
On Monday morning, SOLS presented the La Crosse Summit Elementary School on the French island with a check for USD 500 for new equipment.
“Today they will donate $ 500 that we will use to build a portable solar generator that we will use across the district for all types of events, including sporting activities,” said Mike Freybler, manager of energy and student transactions for La Crosse School District .
“It's a portable package that is solar-powered and stores solar energy so that educators, staff, and others can teach outdoors and teach solar energy, but also use that energy to power all kinds of technological tools,” other lessons that could potentially be used outdoors, ”said Heather Talbot, Co-Director of Solar at La Crosse Schools.
The Monday meeting was also the first face-to-face meeting for SOLS after the group formed in the spring.
“We just met virtually and said what can we do to help the La Crosse school district bring solar energy to life sooner so that students can benefit from it now?” Said Talbot.
After installing a solar panel at Summit Elementary in October, the La Crosse school district looks forward to new solar opportunities for the future.
“We have a 100-kilowatt solar field that we will be using at Hamilton Elementary next spring,” said Freybler. “We hope that by the time we complete a $ 200,000 project that we had no money for, it will be funded entirely by donations we received from this group here.”
Teachers like Erica Rasmussen, a 5th grade teacher at Summit Elementary, are not only looking forward to saving electricity, but also looking forward to new educational opportunities through SOLS’s previous efforts for the district.
“The sun is always there for us,” said Rasmussen. “Instead of using this electricity and burning these fossil fuels into the environment, we can use this renewable raw material.”
“If we can do so much good together this year, imagine what we can do in years after 2020,” added Talbot.
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