Beach Park School District #3 is located in Lake County, IL, north of Chicago, and consists of five schools; Beach Park Middle School, Howe Elementary, Kenneth Murphy Elementary, Newport Elementary, and Oak Crest Elementary. Superintendent Dr. Craig Doster oversees the school district. The buildings date back to the 1950’s and are lacking the necessary infrastructure to provide the best learning environment for their students. The School District needed to execute a comprehensive energy efficiency and infrastructure upgrade project that included all school buildings in the district and an attractive financing option that would be approved by the Beach Park Board of Education.
From the Field: Interview with Dr. Craig Doster, Beach Park School District Superintendent
Dr. Doster explored a traditional construction route but knew that it might not meet all of the project’s needs. In the past, he had discussions with different types of Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and had an interest in their approach. In September 2019 Beach Park School District issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a Guaranteed Energy Savings Performance Contract (GESPC) to source a National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO) accredited ESCO.
CTS Group, a Veregy Company, was one of several ESCOs that responded to the RFP. They immediately started to put plans in place and presented a thorough proposal. Even though the school district issued an RFP, the GESPC project proposal had to pass a referendum. Dr. Doster describes the process, “The tricky part about our school district is that we had to run a referendum. That is very difficult in Lake County, but CTS Group took a chance on us. If the referendum did not pass, it could have been a different situation. Thankfully we ended up passing it, CTS Group showed loyalty and craftsmanship throughout the process.” CTS Group was awarded the $25.6M project in March 2020.
“The amount of work that’s going to be done in our district for a wonderful price and future potential savings is going to be phenomenal for our students and for our community. Just alone, we’re putting in air conditioning in all of our buildings. We currently do not have that, so the air quality is going to be much better. The Board of Education and myself are very pleased as we move forward,” stated Dr. Doster.
CTS group, in partnership with their sister company Dynamix Engineering will be providing comprehensive, modern infrastructure and energy-saving improvements and repairs as well as engineering services. The scope of work includes; mechanical equipment, roofing, insulation, building envelope, windows, doors, weather stripping, caulking, electrical, lighting, heating, air conditioning, building automation, security, access control, facility management, bathroom renovations including domestic water and sewer, fire alarm, and energy recovery systems.
Dr. Doster shines a light on the most significant impact the GESPC will provide the school district; “Every fall and every late spring I get numerous phone calls from parents because of the heat in the buildings. All of our buildings are brick. The heat is terrible. I have my principals putting in some cooling centers in like our library and gymnasiums and a few of our elementary school’s just to cool down them for a little bit, but there’s no learning taking place. The kids are hot. The air conditioning, that’s what really sold the referendum for us. Parents wanted that. It’s going to help with the air quality, and now learning will be taking place during those hot times. It will benefit both our children and our staff. The benefit for the school district will be, or we hope it will be, an increase in our achievement scores.”
The next phase of this project will begin in May 2020, CTS Group will follow the CDC and Illinois social distancing, cleaning, and PPE guidelines. CTS Group and its subcontractors are monitoring the COVID-19 situation extremely closely and will be taking the appropriate measures per any change in guidelines.
Contact CTS Group, a Veregy Company: Vincent Esparza // Veregy // 602.452.8746 // vesparza@veregy.com
