'Cool Schools' in Earthquake Country

Enlarge Image

When Governor John Kitzhaber unfurled a "Cool Schools" flag at Helman Elementary School in Ashland last week, he called his energy efficiency initiative at 500 Oregon schools a "triple-bottom-line win" that would put people back to work, keep money in classrooms, and make schools healthier.

The governor's plan would pay for energy audits at 500 K-12 schools using the state’s unspent federal stimulus funds, then finance upgrades (for example, insulation, efficient boilers, and modern lighting) with a new borrowing program that would use energy savings to cover interest payments.

The formula offers a clever solution to Oregon's recessionary bind. Energy costs are rising even as school districts face another round of funding cuts. School districts that shrink their bills for fuel and power can shift the savings straight to classrooms. Meanwhile, energy upgrades would employ tradesmen in towns where, as the governor likes to point out, each new job can have the impact of twenty jobs in Portland. Cool indeed.

The Cool Schools magic remains a gleam in the governor's eye while the legislature writes the bill to pay for it. Another state program has already set these synergies in motion. The Seismic Rehabilitation Grants Program, launched in 2009, pays for seismic retrofits at schools and public safety facilities deemed dangerous in earthquakes. Legislators authorized $30 million in bonds for the program in 2009, subsequently cut to $22.5 million when the state treasurer put a lid on new borrowing.

The first rounds of grants include funds for fifteen K-12 school projects, retrofits that will protect more than 6,000 kids and hundreds of teachers in communities including Beaverton, East Portland, Lakeview, Medford, and Yamhill. Much of the work will be done this summer, supporting about 150 good jobs in communities battered by the recession.

The seismic grants program may be Oregon's best-kept secret. It's making schools safer and bolstering the construction trades. It's tackling a big problem (almost 650 Oregon schools need seismic repair) with a creative approach that ought to earn some bully-pulpit attention, particularly in light of Japan’s catastrophe. Yet it remains a program hardly anyone has heard about.

The governor sees the two school initiatives as complementary. A few days after the Japan earthquake, Kitzhaber told Oregon Public Broadcasting, "I think we can do seismic upgrades as well, so I think there's an opportunity to re-employ good trade jobs throughout the state. Make our schools safer and more energy efficient at the same time."

The problem is financial. Seismic retrofits can't pay for themselves the way energy measures can. Saving lives may be worthy, but saving kilowatts pencils out. School upgrades depend on old-fashioned borrowing. And until the state treasurer says otherwise, no matter how urgent the priority, new borrowing remains off the table.

Why not view seismic upgrades as a way to protect state investments made to save energy? That might change the financial calculus. After all, there's no payback from energy savings in a school destroyed by an earthquake. Following this reasoning, the Cool Schools performance goal depends on a Safe Schools foundation.

Not far from the ceremony at Helman Elementary, about 1,100 students were in classes at Ashland High School, a campus where five out of eight buildings are rated "high" or "very high" collapse risk. Ashland’s two other grade schools, Bellview and Walker, are both rated "high" collapse risk. There is work to be done.

Making Oregon schools quake-safe is a long-term project that will outlast many governors and legislatures. Governor Kitzhaber is no stranger to such projects. He is determined to re-think Oregon schools from top to bottom. He has talked about writing a 10-year budget for the state. He has outlined a 10-year clean energy vision.

No governor is eager to point out that roughly half the schools in the state will fare badly in the Japan-magnitude quake that scientists expect to strike here. No governor wants to admit that some schools will remain dangerous for decades, given fiscal limits on the rate of repair. But this governor should be the one to say that we need safe, cool schools, and to celebrate the steps — toward seismic safety as well as energy efficiency — that begin the journey.

Maybe this campaign just needs a flag.

Portland writer Edward Wolf is a school safety advocate.