2024-2025 Energy CLASS Informational Webinar

And go back to sharing my screen. One second blurb that's about AI. So, Dewey requires pre-authorization to record meetings and prohibits use of unauthorized recording devices. Dewey does not recognize AI tools such as meeting assistants or authorized recording transcribing tools, and they will not be allowed. Any violations of this policy will be recorded. And with that, we can get started into the webinar. So, like I said, we're so excited to have you here today to talk about the 2024-2025 Energy Champions Leading the Advancement of Sustainable Schools Program, also known as Energy Class. There we go. So, for the agenda today, we'll begin with introductions, and then we'll get into talking about what Energy Class is and what the application process is like. Then we'll hear from a participant from the 2023 Energy Class Program, and then we'll finish up with questions. So, starting off with introductions, if I could have all the panelists, as they go down the line, come off mute and introduce themselves a little bit, starting out with Andrea. Great. Thanks, Anna. Welcome, everyone. We're excited to have you with us today. My name is Andrea Swiatoka. I lead the Renew America Schools Program at the U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Class is just one of the programs that falls under the Renew America Schools Program. Hopefully, you're also familiar with our larger grant program where we're able to fund energy infrastructure projects. We just recently, back in August, announced the second round of selectees through that program. So, please sign up for updates. There'll be more information at the end of this deck if you're interested in that program. But today, we are going to focus on all things Energy Class. And with that, I will pass it over to Riley. Hi, everyone. My name is Riley Loveland. I'm within an organization called New Buildings Institute. I'm actually physically located over here on the West Coast in the Portland, Oregon area. We're a national nonprofit focused on a lot of different things, but I lead our schools team, and we're helping facilitate this program on behalf of the Department of Energy. We're also around for Energy Class Round 1, so we're happy to be back to work with y'all. Hello, everyone. I'm Fran D'Ambrosio, and I am the Energy Manager for Canada Juhari Central School District located in Central New York. Last year, we participated in the Energy Class, and I'm here to reflect on the benefits that that provided for us throughout the past year. Thank you so much. And with that, we'll get into the meat of the presentation, starting off with Andrea. Great. Well, I wanted to also just follow up with a chat that I just put in. Folks always want to know if we're going to share the recording and the presentation. We absolutely will. It'll both be posted to the Energy Class website, and we will follow up with an email. Usually a link to the recording does take us a few days, so please be on the lookout for that. What is Energy Class? If this is a new concept to you, it's really a two-part at this point. In partnership with both the Renew America Schools Program and in partnership with another program within DOE called the Efficient and Healthy Schools Program, which is purely a technical assistance arm for us, and the New Buildings Institute that will help run both the Energy Class for us and as a part of the Energy and Efficient and Healthy Schools Program, we have launched two different things. In August, we opened the Energy Class free on-demand training. We put a screenshot here, and I'll have a few more slides coming up, but that is found on the Efficient and Healthy Schools website. Under training and resources, there's a little screenshot there. The link is also live. When you get the deck, you'll be able to click on that. All of the recordings, and this comes from last year, the recordings over 35 hours, both the recordings and the decks that we held with the first 25 school districts are available as we speak for anyone to watch. And sort of self-walk themselves through. We're going to talk a little bit more about today. So that's available up and running. Anyone is welcome to use that. Really geared towards school districts. Part two of this is the next round of Energy Class, and we're calling it the 2024-25. We'd like to align it with the school year. That's often how we think about it. I'm sure you guys do too on the call for school districts. We opened applications for this September 4th, and applications remain open until October 4th, and there's a screenshot on the website. It is a very short and quick application, not your traditional lengthy grant application. Hopefully a few questions that is manageable to answer. And we'll walk through a little bit more detail in the upcoming slides of what you can anticipate in that program and the benefit of submitting an application and hopefully joining and participating in that program. And if we go to the next slide, I wanted to just share a little bit more of what the free on-demand training includes. So the Energy Champions Leading the Advancement of Sustainable Schools, we refer to it as Energy Class for short, is a training that aims to provide school districts practical knowledge and resources around energy infrastructure projects that reduce utility costs and create healthier learning environments for students and teachers, as well as identify funding pathways for advancing sustainability across the school district. As I've mentioned, the Energy Class was sponsored by the Renew America Schools Program at the Department of Energy. This time we are partnering with our fellow team members within the Efficient and Healthy Schools Program and DOE to really host and house these trainings. And you'll see, again, there are both videos and the slide decks that are available. The materials come from the sort of inaugural Energy Class prize that we held the trainings during school year 23-24. There's over 35 hours of training across seven training topic areas. So let's go to the next slide and we'll walk you quickly through what those different topic areas are. So there'll be multiple videos and decks on Fundamental Building Science, Benchmarking and Energy Management, Indoor Air Quality, Procurement Strategies for K-12 Facility and Energy Managers, Resilience, Stakeholder Engagement, and Business and Communication Skills. This is really intended to be what fits your need. So they don't necessarily need to be watched in order as they're outlined on the website. If you feel you have a good grasp on Fundamental Building Science, but maybe Indoor Air Quality is where you feel like you lack as a school district or need more context, feel free to jump over there. I would say generally you can watch them in any order that meets the needs and goal of what you are trying to achieve within your school district. Let's jump to the next slide. So what is number two on that previous slide? What is the Energy Class 2024-25 program? So again, in partnership with a few different groups of us at DOE and NBI, we have launched the 2024-25 program. This will utilize an outcome-based cohort model where energy champions learn together how to improve the efficiency and health of their schools while working towards a specific end goal. School cohorts will be guided through a process to determine the highest need and most achievable processes, plans, and documents needed to take the next step to secure funding and plan for healthy and efficient school upgrades across a portfolio. As a reminder, applications are open right now. They opened on September 4th, and they will remain open until October 4th. And with that, I'm going to pass it over to Riley with NBI to walk us through a little bit more detail of what this school year and this new program will look like. Thanks, Andrea. So this year is a little bit different than last year, but still very complementary to the trainings and everything that Andrea talked about. So we're going to be building on some of the existing content, which is things like benchmarking and indoor air quality. But we're going to do a little bit more of a deep dive with you each month. And so the goal of this program is to, again, build on the existing training content and really accelerate this development of successful strategies to achieve your goals. So we'll do a lot of fact-finding with you all to identify what those goals are, how we might be able to set some, and what you all really need to accelerate what you've been working on or what you would ideally like to work on. Through the program this year, we'll have a peer-to-peer network that you all engage with once a month. And then you'll also receive one-on-one coaching from us and then other technical assistance providers. If you want to go to the next slide, I will explain that process a little bit more. So throughout this process, districts that are accepted will go through an interview process to just really understand who you are, what your needs are, what your district is like, what your stakeholders are like. We want to know everything. So don't hold back. Tell us all the things. And then that way, we can help identify how this program can best help support you and what might be something that you want to work on through this program. So once we identify your project goal or goals, you can have multiple, of course, we'll go through a series of one-on-one coaching each month to achieve your sort of desired outcome. And I'll make the little note, too, that sometimes one-on-one coaching doesn't just look like a bunch of calls with us because we know you're busy. It can look like outreach via email. We will try and figure out what works best for you. You all are busy. You have different competing priorities. So we'll work through to make sure that coaching process is as effective as possible. For example, I'll give a quick example from last time. One district was really truly just so overwhelmed by meetings that a lot of our interactions were based in email. So they would reach out and say, you know, do you have an example of an energy plan that you like? Do you have an example of this? And that was the way we were able to push them through towards the goal that they were seeking. In addition to the one-on-one support, we'll have monthly group calls to sort of dive in on some deeper topics. And these topics will identify during those district interviews. So we'll figure out if, you know, a bunch of you are trying to work on benchmarking. We might have another discussion or another meeting to dive a little deeper into the benchmarking in addition to the trainings to work through anything you might be confused about or anything you need support on. So the intent of this year is to really like get in deep and provide as much one-on-one support as humanly possible. And then the best part is Andrea mentioned NBI is also supporting the Efficient and Healthy Schools Program. So we have this whole range of technical assistance providers through that program that can help also be these one-on-one support people. So I'll just keep using benchmarking and as an example, you know, if you need someone to really like sit with you to work through your energy data and Energy Star Portfolio Manager or whatever system you want to use, we have someone that would be that would love to do that with you. Or if you're interested in like a renewable energy assessment, we have someone that would love to do that with you. So we're sort of the concierge in the middle of it that can help facilitate both one-on-one coaching with us and then help get you to other technical assistance providers. If you want to go to the next slide. So through this program, this is about a year-long process. Again, it's just a lot of working with us directly. You and really just tell us what you need. That's the ideal here. And then we can help facilitate you achieving those goals however you need to. So out of this program, our goals are to have you achieve your goals. Maybe we should count how many times I said goals today. Ideally, save energy and money at the end of this or emissions or achieve whatever sort of savings you're trying to identify. Maybe it's setting up a revolving loan fund. Let's definitely talk about it. And then receive nationwide recognition from the Department of Energy. Also, the Efficient Healthy Schools Program has a recognition program that we can help facilitate energy class prize or energy class program participants into. And then one of the other things I want to throw in there is we really want to help you find funding for projects. This is not obviously a guarantee, but there's so much out there. And both us and our technical assistance providers have a lot of knowledge of how to try and work on different grants and things like that. So that's definitely a key priority here because we know there's never enough money. You want to go to the next one? That might be it for me. Andrea, back to you. Thank you, Riley. So the big question is who can and should apply? This program is intended truly for K-12 public school staff. Charters very much fall within that public school. But that is who the intended group is that will join this. Who within your district joins is very much up to you. And I will say in the first round, varied. Participants should be able to commit to joining at least a six-month program. So really think about it starting in November through the rest of this current school year that we are in. And we are looking for the champion to submit that application. I will say from last year, we saw the champion come in all shapes and sizes. It could certainly, if you already have an existing sustainability or energy team, it could be that leader that might be the champion. That's obviously the logical person. But we saw it in a variety. It could even be potentially the grant writer for maybe the city who helps all public buildings, which includes school. Maybe they're really a big advocate and they bring in the right people within the school district to help champion and move this forward. So think creatively outside the box. It is intended to help train and advocate for those K-12 staff. But the champion might look like a variety of different people. We are looking to prioritize a geographic diversity, making sure that we're funding supporting and training both rural, urban, suburban school districts. Really want to focus on school districts that have buildings within the disadvantaged communities. And you're welcome to look at your school districts. All 100,000 K-12 public schools are mapped on our energy justice mapping tool. And this is a live and active link. Hannah, if you don't actually mind, or I can do it when I'm done speaking, I can add a link in the chat. And then also looking for folks that have limited to no funding, both at the local or state or even federal level. Let's go to the next slide. All right. So again, applications are open. You can find them. It's a Microsoft form on our website. Hopefully, if you have not submitted, that you will take the time as a follow up to this webinar to submit. Applications opened on the 4th of September. They will close here on October 4th. I just want to highlight, we will not extend the application deadline. So please, please, please submit on time. We would hate to have any late applications that we can't accept. We plan to announce the selections of up to 50 school districts late October, who will be joining this next round of Energy Class Prize. And then the cohort period will begin, likely anticipated in November of some time and run through the rest of the school year. I think we can go to the next slide. I just wanted to share a quick testimonial. Again, we had 25 school districts that joined us last time, a variety of sizes, a number that were very small, you know, less than 1,000 students, rural communities to folks that were much larger. You can see Orange County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in our country. So again, looking for folks that both maybe have an existing team but haven't been able to keep up due to the volume of facilities that they manage. And then folks that have just never even put an energy plan together. We had those extremes last time. And it's amazing what you can learn from each other. Each were headed in a different direction, depending on their starting point, but I think incredibly valuable for both groups. I love this quote from one of the groups that joined us last year that was the help of the coaching we received. We were able to look at other samples and really put together an energy program that works for us individually as a rural school district in Wisconsin. And it's something we really think will be a lasting impact for our kids and community as a whole. And with that, we can go to the next slide. Great. I am going to pass it over to Fran, who participated with us last year. He was one of the 25 school districts and wanted him to share his experience with you all. Sure. Once again, I'm Fran D'Ambrosio, and I am the energy manager here at Kanagihiri Central School District in Central New York State. Last year, we participated in the Energy Class Prize, and we're going to go over what that's done for us, the things we've achieved, and what resources we used to get there. Next slide. So a little background on the school. Of course, Kanagihiri Central School District, Kanagihiri, New York. We are a K-12 public school district. We have 900 student enrollment. And throughout our engagement with the Energy Class, we had an 8.7% reduction in energy. So we saved 8.7% on our bill, which was phenomenal. Next slide. So the services, of course, public educational services to the 900 students, and we employ 190 staff members. We cover 100 square miles of towns and villages in Montgomery County in New York. And our National Center for Educational Statistics locale code is Distant 32. Our facilities include an elementary school and a middle school at one complex. A high school is a separate building. And the athletic center with an indoor pool, which is a wing on the elementary middle school portion, and a separate transportation facility. Next slide. So where did we start? We started by recognizing a need. So our goal was that the district could prioritize clean energy and recognize the need to develop an energy management plan. The Energy Class offered the tools, resources, and information and support to guide our energy projects. So we chose the Energy Class as a starting point, and we continue to use that knowledge to this day. So our plan included comprehensive evaluation of our energy systems, identifying energy conservation measures for the current and future energy needs, to identify and prioritize decarbonization recommendations for our current and future building projects. If we were going to do a building project, obviously we wanted to make the best choices possible, and the Energy Class helped us do that. So we wanted to implement HVAC electrified technology for heating and cooling resistance. The middle school and elementary school has no cooling capabilities, so electrified HVAC was certainly the answer for that. We wanted to implement solar technology for electrification readiness and sustainability, right? These things are going to cost higher electric bills, so we wanted to be able to offset that with renewable energy. We wanted to transition our facilities to meet our New York State electric vehicle mandate. So here in New York, it's mandated that all school buses purchased in 2027 and beyond are electric, and your entire fleet must be electric by 2035. So we really have a big push to get that done. Of course, we wanted to make all these things happen. So we wanted to pursue grant opportunities for BEVs, which are battery electric vehicles. When I started this, that was really the term. And here in New York, it's a broad scope. It not only includes school buses, but medium and heavy duty vehicles and passenger vehicles as well. So we use some minivans for student transport, so we have to look at that as well. We also wanted to cover our HVAC systems that would be electrified and solar projects with funding. And finally, and I would have to say probably most importantly, is infuse these energy initiatives into our STEM and engineering pathway curriculums to have our students be world ready for this transition that's coming out as far as knowledge and job opportunities, career paths, or additional education. Next slide. So we had to develop our plan. Of course, we used the energy class lessons. The starting point was to have someone in charge of the situation, which is myself. So the school appointed after an application process, the onsite energy manager, which is me, to identify energy conservation measures that aligned with the district's goals that were previously mentioned. Initially, we started an energy baseline to establish where we were going, where we were. This was key because you can't know which direction you're headed without knowing where you are right now. Next was to benchmark. And we used Energy Star Portfolio Manager. I was fortunate enough to have my individual coach who was very knowledgeable in this field. But I must add that even if your coach isn't in that field, everybody gets shared, right? I was passed on to other coaches and other resources to get the answers I need if they didn't have it. So it was very welcoming and informative. So we used that benchmark to compare our buildings within the district and to other buildings that were comparable nationwide. We then generated reports to communicate our current level of performance and then established a team to develop, communicate, and implement our energy management plan. Next slide. So our focus issues of energy management were reactive and deferred maintenance. I'm sure a lot of school districts have this issue. So we wanted to move from this type of mentality to proactive, right? We wanted to fix things and get them maintained and running as efficiently as possible prior to any breakdowns or any incidents. We wanted to also address indoor air quality factors, things like leaking roofs or leaking pipes, damages ceiling tiles. Sometimes those tiles are so damaged and repeatedly damaged that they just get left out. So we wanted to make sure we addressed those situations. We looked at energy waste, anywhere we could save, which came with adjusting HVAC set points and run times. We looked at system retrocommissioning. Our systems have been in place and running for a good 20 years. So after that duration, it was time to reevaluate and take a look at, you know, how are these running at their optimal condition? Our building management system integration, we discovered that we were running on a very old version of software. So we upgraded to the most current version, which certainly helps accessibility into the program to manage all of our energy consuming devices. Resilience and sustainability. Of course, weather resilience is a big deal. It's been getting hotter here. The beginning of last year was very hot and the end of last year was very hot. So there was a lot of concerns about, you know, students' health and everything related to those high temperatures. So we wanted to address that. Of course, electrification was our immediate answer for that. And then, of course, we wanted to sustain that electrification. So we looked at renewables. Emissions reduction tied directly into that. The best way to get off of natural gas or reduce natural gas is to get off of it, right? So we went with electrified systems. Our fleet transition to electric school buses, energy education infusion, which includes a career focus at the high school level. It has a energy management focus at the middle school level. And it has a conservation practices focus at the elementary level. And, of course, funding acquisition. So we researched and used a lot of information from the energy class to try to decide which pathway was best for us to achieve these goals. And, of course, stakeholder engagement. The main thing we probably learned about that was focusing our topics to the audience that we're speaking to. You know, they don't need to hear too much, and you certainly don't want to give them too little. So all of these things included some of the lessons that came from the energy class of fundamental building science, procurement strategies, communication skills, and stakeholder engagement. Next slide, please. So our cross-functional energy team, which is really the key to making this all happen. I, as the energy manager, am the link between all the different departments to develop and communicate this plan and, finally, to implement the plan. The energy class allowed me, because I attended every lesson and every coaching, to really effortlessly communicate with all the different departments, right? There's some things that I didn't understand or didn't know, and being able to talk to a maintenance person and understand what they were talking about was very helpful. Same thing with the financial department, very helpful. So the coaching and lessons allowed us for the transfer of knowledge and methods to those who were not directly exposed to the training. There was just a select group that attended these trainings, but we were able to pass all that information on. So this information creates an all-inclusive environment for change, which is really the key to making this happen. You have to get the whole school district on board. Energy class stakeholder engagement and business communication skills were key in this situation. Next slide, please. So the knowledge gained and shared. Earlier, I spoke about focusing the engagement and tailoring it to each audience. So fundamental building science was focused on operations and maintenance. Energy and benchmarking was for facilities management. Indoor air quality had to do with the faculty, what they could do to help, and any things that they felt were of concern. We obviously took that information and relayed it to the necessary departments. Resilience had to focus on the community, right? The community students come here, and they're concerned about the hot weather and all that. So resiliency was really their point of contention. Procurement strategies went to the Board of Education. Stakeholder engagement went to the students. And business and communication skills was relayed with administration. Next slide, please. Identifying our opportunities from the energy class. We heard many times, you can't manage what you don't measure. So that was the starting point to establish a baseline and start planning for corrective actions and projects. Initially, we did just a level one walkthrough audit, where we just looked visually at any glaring defects that could be identified and taken care of. And these were basically no and low-cost energy conservation measures. Initial no-cost measures were implemented that include adjustment for HVAC set points, as I mentioned earlier. Scheduling, deletion of unnecessary devices throughout the progress of school and technology. We had a lot of devices, such as overhead projectors, that had been replaced with smart boards or Promethean boards. So these units were still plugged in and mounted to the ceiling, drawing power unnecessarily. We also deployed plug load controllers, which allowed us to turn off devices after school was out, and especially over weekends and holidays. These low-cost measures were implemented that included envelope sealing, making sure windows and doors sealed correctly. Heating system leak repairs, as I mentioned earlier, affected ceiling tiles. So it was not only a savings, but it's aesthetics of the environment. Everyone feels better when the ceiling tiles are nice and white. And automated lighting repairs. So we were fortunate enough to have an automated lighting system put in a few years ago. And by going back through and looking at that and managing it, basically retro-commissioning that system, we were able to find quite a bit of savings by fixing lights that basically stayed on all day or all night. They never went off according to schedule. And we generated saving metrics for capital-intensive projects. And when we calculated those, we were able to relay those to audiences, such as the board directors, the school board, and let them know what it would cost and what the savings would be. So that promoted some buy-in for that situation. All of these included the energy class resources, which has been very helpful throughout our whole situation. Thank you. Next slide. All right. So our benchmarking. Our reports provided quick identification of performance. Our top row of dials shows where we started, and our bottom row of dials shows where we got to. So you can see there's some definite savings there. Not a huge amount, but definitely enough to make a difference. I'll put a little bit in perspective that 8.7% for us in energy savings was about $20,000. However, that $20,000 on our educational aid ratio at 90% equals about $200,000 in building projects. So you certainly can utilize any bit of savings to make a difference. Next slide. So we had to establish our results. We identified corrective actions, began with improvements to operations, maintenance, and processes by moving from reactive to preventative. It's key to having a healthy environment, an efficient environment, and a safe environment. One year into the engagement provided an energy consumption savings of 4.5% in electricity, 8.9% in natural gas, and an overall expenditure of 8.7%. We have an upcoming district-wide solar project for electrification readiness that will reduce our electrical consumption by 84%. This will allow us to electrify heating and cooling systems without a major impact to the energy bills. So I have to add that you should always start with what's manageable. In the beginning, a lot of these things can appear overwhelming, but just pick something, investigate it, see what you think the outcome might be, and make sure that it's manageable. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew. This is a long-term process, and it certainly will take a few years other than the small, low, and no-cost energy conservation measures. Next slide. So these are just some graphs of our energy use. You can see the red line was our baseline here, and the blue line was our year after the engagement, so there definitely was some savings. All of this was part of tracking through education of the energy class. We had, at this point, identified 25 measures for savings. Twelve of those measures had been installed, and nine of those measures had been calculated for a total savings of about $163,000 annually. So as we approach all of these goals, there will be a significant impact. Next slide, please. Moving forward, the district is committed to advancing the clean energy goals roadmapped in our energy management plan. I must add that this plan is a living document. It's reviewed and adjusted as the district progresses towards its goals. It gets changed and modified to see what's working and what isn't. It's important to note that energy-saving achievement in this plan, provided the roadmap for the clean energy future, is a direct result of participation in the energy class training and coaching. And of course, thank you to the energy class for the tools and resources, information, and support they've provided that has accelerated our progress. Next slide, please. Associated impacts. So we have a more efficient and healthy school. We have a healthier learning environment for the number one stakeholders, which we believe is the students. We have made strategic decisions for technologies and timelines pertaining to what systems we choose for future improvements. We have lower energy costs through increased efficiency and conservation. We have increased indoor air quality through periodic and preventative maintenance, a very low and no-cost effort to make a change. We've made choices towards resilience and sustainability. We have a diversity and combination of funding exposed to us through the energy class that allowed us to look at different avenues to try to get things done. And we have buy-in by keeping this initiative at the forefront of our school community. Next slide, please. So our impacts to saving health and learning. The final financial savings from renewable energy will provide an offset of electrical consumption. This upgrade, of course, is our on-ramp to future upgrades focused on carbon and emissions reduction. The initial electrification of heating systems will provide emissions reduction, creating air quality improvements, and lessening environmental impacts for all stakeholders with more improvements to follow. Electrification of the bus fleet will eliminate fossil fuel consumption and emissions related to bus transportation activities, as well as within the communities that they travel through to pick up the students. So impacts from the proposed building projects will positively affect the attendance and learning of students throughout a healthier learning environment and for the community at large. Our school is used as a community-based organization. We have a lot of after-school community activities that take place here as a rural district. Next slide. Our continued use of resources. So our educational component has allowed the energy manager to infuse energy initiative topics into STEM and engineering pathway curriculums. This, of course, was related to energy class stakeholder engagement. The grant writing component allowed the energy manager to pursue grant funding in support of financing the district's clean energy goals. This was related to energy class procurement strategies. A comprehensive school bus transition plan for transitioning the school bus fleet to zero emissions starting in 2027 and fully transitioned by 2035. This was a focus of energy class sustainability. A recent application for a study and design of our ground source and air source heat pump systems project towards decarbonization that will provide cooling capabilities at the elementary and middle school for resilience to climate change. This was a direct result of energy class benchmarking and energy management and resiliency. Throughout my time of looking at the data that is generated, it is absolutely clear which buildings in our district stand out as an area of focus. So if nothing else, that certainly will aid you in moving forward and creating a plan. Next slide, if there is one. Nope. Okay. Very good. Well, I want to thank you all. I know that was long. But I am here to answer questions if you have them later. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Anna, before we jump into the next slide, there are a number of great questions that I am trying to keep up with in the chat, but I thought I would just lift a few up. There has been a question around high school resources. So while the energy class trainings were not intended for high school students, I would still encourage and send your teachers there. They can watch the videos. They could always show clips are part of the training. Again, they're available and free for anyone to access. So I certainly wouldn't steer them away. Just know that that was not the intended user. Someone else put another great link in there for another resource called Keep. And then I also added our longstanding program called the Solar Decathlon. It's been around almost 20 years at this point that many folks may be aware of. While the competition is specific for collegiate only, if you look under education, there are, again, a number of videos and training resources. And certainly, I think high school and college are very, very similar. And so I think that's another really great starting point. Let me see. I tried to answer. There's another one I wanted to lift up. I might answer that one too. Andrea, if it's OK. Yeah, go ahead, Riley. I mean, I would say especially related to the trainings online already, the fundamental building science one is a great one for high school age students. I think it has some really tangible concepts. I will also say that engaging high school, middle school, elementary school students in energy efficiency is like one of my favorite things under the sun. So if that is of interest through this year's program, that might be a great example of one of the goals or the actions that could be identified by your district. We have a bunch of districts that we work with that have done a really great job of engaging their students in their energy efficiency work. There's also a bunch of programs out there we can talk about. So if that's of interest as something you wanted to develop through this program, you should definitely surface that in your application and then in talking to us in those interviews. That's great. Thank you, Riley. One of the other questions was about the NCS ID. This is a Department of Education ID. Every school district has an NCS ID as well as every individual school. We're really looking for the district number. Under the application, there is a link to find that on NCS. So ideally, please submit your school district ID. If you submit the individual school, that's fine. We can also look up the district one. But it helps us confirm that you are truly a public school. That's really the intent behind it because only public schools, again, including charter, are given these IDs. And then there was another great question about the teaming. While only the energy champion and one individual is submitting the application, the program is really intended for a team. So there is no limit. I mean, if you invite 20 people as part of your team, we might have to re-strategize with you. I would say on average, most entities from last time, the 25, had anywhere from three to five people that joined. It can just be one. That's fine, too, if you're the lone champion driving the work forward. But don't hesitate if you want to invite a few people. And I think depending on the topic that we covered that month, we also saw different people jump in and out when it came to financing. An extra person or two might come. Maybe your communications folks might come if we focus on that for a particular month. So your team can be broader than just the person that submits the application. So I wanted to emphasize that. Okay, let's keep going, Anna, and I'll keep checking the chat. We're just about done. I wanted to share that on the same website where you apply, there's an energy class testimonial video that you're open to watch. It's nine minutes long, but you can hear more testimonies like what Bran just shared with us and what came out of energy class for them. And then we're on to questions. I will really briefly say when we share this presentation, we have links on the final slide to the application, the testimonial video, the trainings, the Renew America Schools website. And you're also welcome to sign up for our email list to hear about more updates. The QR code is there, and you can access that later. But for now, we can get into more questions. And Riley and I both just had the same thought. We both just put our email addresses in the chat. So if there's something you're looking for that falls slightly outside the program that we are talking about today, we're here. We can try to help guide you to additional resources. I love that we are starting to talk about this at the fourth grade or maybe even younger. My oldest is in second grade. And so it's exciting to see that these ideas and concepts, again, are not just at the high school and collegiate level. So feel free to reach out to us. Hopefully, we can figure out a way to get you some resources or guide you in the right direction. Let's see. We have another question. Do you have examples of informational signs used to communicate solar, geothermal, energy efficiencies that can be incorporated into signs placed at schools? Feel free, Rick, to just email me. I can think of very specific schools and visualize the signage in there. I don't know where I would find that on a link to a website. But feel free to email, and I'll figure out how we can get you examples of that. I love that. Some of the really great examples I've seen is where the geothermal that's coming into the building as opposed to it being a solid wall and nobody can see in is literally just like a glass window at the end of a corridor, and students can see the pumps and the actual infrastructure working. So any visibility for the students to understand these pieces of infrastructure or to have signage and help explain it as appropriate, whether it's elementary, middle school, high school, is so awesome to see. Riley, do you want to take the next one on estimated time commitment for the six months? Yes, and I will also say something about the last one about signage. These are great examples of questions that the coaches in energy class can help with. I gave that very quick example of how one school district really wanted an energy plan, and because we talked to so many districts around the US, I knew of a bunch of them, and we could sort of work through them, and I could send them all in an email. So those are great examples of questions that once you're in the program, I mean, you can ask them now. Obviously, Andrea and I have plenty of examples, but that would be a great example of something that we could help you work through, especially because then we can help also tailor those types of things to your locality. Like you may not have compost, for example, but you have a really great electricity provider. So nice and specific. Time commitment. So this program, I mean, none of it is truly or it's all truly optional, but if you were to participate in every monthly meeting that we have, if you were to listen to or watch all of the training, and then if you had, let's say, like one coaching call a month, you know, it could be like four hours per month is what I would sort of say off the top of my head. If you wanted to do just the one-on-one coaching calls and then some of the trainings, then it's probably two or three. So really, the nice part about this program is that we can help you sort of figure out what sort of time fits into your schedule. Something that both Andrea and I know really well is that there are a lot of competing priorities and there is no time in the world to do anything. So I always sort of refer to us as like your third staff person. So just consider that, you know, even though you may not have enough time, so let's say watch all the trainings, you can really benefit from the time with the one-on-one coaching and then we can help you with some of the capacity related concerns if you can't do the, let's say, the maximum of four hours a month. Another great question in the chat and I responded to it. There is no cost. While we're not giving you funding, unfortunately, to join the program, there is no cost to join either. This is just a free training program and one-on-one coaching that we are providing. So no cost to the school district to join. You must be reading this long question too. Yes, I have not gotten to that one. I was looking at the last one too that Tina put in about did anyone from last year receive additional support obtaining funding? I think what we try to do is guide folks to meet them where they are. So for instance, if you guys are interested in solar, if that's one of the goals of the school district, help you think through how you could get funding back through the new IRS funding called elective pay or direct pay that as a tax exempt entity, you are now eligible to receive funding back. So those are kind of some of the supports that we can provide and would anticipate providing. Or if you've never gone through any of your utility incentive programs or rebate programs, maybe walk you through how to engage on that. So I think all of them probably found different ideas. I know one in particular really started working with their utility company that they had not engaged before. I don't know, Riley. I did not make it through the other question yet. It's a long one. We could certainly start to read it. Or Nathaniel, I might also suggest, too, these questions are also really great questions to ask through this program. Or like Andrea and I said, we're both really tapped into what a lot of districts are doing. So some of the questions in here are about practical steps to putting together an energy plan, grant or funding opportunities, or any tools or platforms to help with the grant application or energy plan. I have lots of thoughts on this, probably in webinar work. So why don't you shoot maybe both of us an email? I can put my email in the chat again. And we can sort of noodle through some of these things. We are about reaching our time. It's great to see so many questions. Again, exactly like Riley's saying, these are great questions for the program. So if you feel like this is right for you to apply, we would love to see your application and talk through some of this with you through energy class. And Andrea and Riley's emails are in the chat. So for follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to them. And I think that's all. Yeah, it's great to see everyone. Thank you for the interest. Please submit by October 4th if you're interested in joining the program for this year. Great. Thank you, Anna and Riley and Fran for joining. I hope everyone has a great Wednesday.