Falls School District Dedicates Its New Solar Array

It was a warm and sunny day Monday, and the conditions were perfect to officially dedicate the new solar array system that was recently installed at North Middle School.

Leaders and teachers in the Menomonee Falls School District were joined by representatives from WE Energies and Solar Innovations for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the lawn outside the school.

The group gathered around a small demonstration solar panel on the lawn. The rest of the system was installed during the winter months on the roof of North Middle School. The entire array is expected to save more than $174,000 in electricity costs over 25 years.

The district received a $55,000 check through the WE Energies "Focus on Energy" program Monday.

North science teachers Ryan Bock and Dan Leffel have spearheaded the solar panel project to further incorporate conservation and alternative energy into science curriculum at the school. It was an approximately $300,000 project paid for mostly by grants. Bock and Leffel will design experiments and projects based on data readouts from a monitoring system installed with the panels.

"The kids are very excited, and we're very excited about this project," Bock said.

Bock said a real-time monitoring system will be put on the North website as well as the district website. The community will be able to see how much power the panels are generating at any time during the day.

Both Bock and Leffel were instrumental in working with the School Board to bring the district on board with their project. Superintendent Keith Marty commended both teachers for their efforts in getting the project off the ground.

"This is an example of two of our staff members doing the extra legwork to get their ducks in a row and present a project we couldn't turn down," Marty said. "It's also a great example of teachers taking the initiative to improve their students' learning."

The solar panel project is just one piece of district-wide . Over nine years, the district has avoided $3.95 million in costs by implementing strategies that conserve water, sewer use and natural gas.