Renew America's Schools Grant (RAS)

On June 29th, St Maries was announced as a Selectee for the Renew America’s Schools grant, a funding opportunity from the Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Our district, along with 23 other Selectees, will share $178 million in awards to support the implementation of energy improvements in our schools. St Maries will get about 14 million in funding. We are thrilled to have been selected!

The Renew America’s Schools grant is a first-of-its-kind competitive award that garnered unprecedented interest and engagement from schools across the country. DOE received 236 full applications from Local Education Agencies (LEAs) across 44 states. Thank you to your prior superintendent, Alica Holthaus, St. Maries was awarded the Renew America Grant and will be receiving over 14 million dollars to help improve the school buildings.

For the next steps, the senior executive accountant will present information at the July 10th School Board meeting. From there, a timeline for the project will be established. Once the timeline is set, a taskforce can begin to outline the projects based on need and in line with the grant requirements.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the grant by clicking onto their website at https://www.energy.gov/scep/renew-americas-schools.

The goal of this project is to provide HVAC system upgrades to Heyburn Elementary, Upriver Elementary, St. Maries Middle School, and St. Maries High School to provide reliable, energy efficient, long-lasting systems for the community. Full HVAC system upgrades will improve indoor air quality and ensure space temperature conditions for the long term, all while saving energy and, thus, money in the maintenance and operations budgets. Window and light replacements are needed in most buildings in the District. This impacts performance for both student and staff. Many of the windows are single pane windows that provide very little insulation. Improving the windows and/or lights in the building would reduce the energy needed in day-to-day operation. Nearly one half of students in St. Maries elementary schools and more than one-third of secondary students come from socio-economically disadvantaged homes. School is often the only time in their day that they are warm, comfortable, and fed. Safe, well lit, and healthy schools must be a priority. This project takes a comprehensive approach to improving energy efficiency, health, and safety of facilities within St. Maries School District. As part of this project a comprehensive operations and maintenance plan will include training for the district's staff to ensure proper maintenance and operations of the newly installed improvements for the life of the facilities

Statement of Project Objectives