Rebuilt College View School will include solar panels

Glendale school officials, who previously earmarked $26 million in Measure S bond money to tear down and entirely rebuild College View School, will use nearly $1 million of that amount to install solar panels on that campus.

The Glendale school board recently agreed to hire Borrego Solar Systems Inc., based in San Diego, to install solar panels at the school, which is currently being rebuilt.

The decision to install the panels came after a consulting firm projected the school district could save more than $1.2 million in energy costs over 25 years, assuming that Glendale Water & Power’s energy rates would average an annual 3.5% increase.

The cost to install the panels and maintain them is expected to total roughly $923,500, leaving a final cost benefit of nearly $364,000 to the district when tallying savings and unspent funds.

Glendale school officials have already committed nearly $13 million to install solar panels at more than a dozen campuses.

Crews broke ground on College View School last spring in what was among Glendale school officials’ greatest spending priorities to emerge after voters passed the $270-million Measure S bond in 2011.

The old campus was built in the 1970s, but was passed over for upgrades after voters passed the district’s 1997 bond. It became a major renovation priority with the latest bond.

Starting in late 2011, school officials spent 18 months working with Newport Beach-based TBP Architecture Inc. to design the new building with an indoor pool, therapy gym, laundry room and classrooms.

The campus, which serves about 80 moderate to severely disabled students who live in Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge and Burbank, is slated to open its doors in July.

The building’s structural work is complete, said facilities administrator Alan Reising, and crews are now installing insulation, computer wiring, plumbing and electrical systems.

“The College View project is moving along quite nicely,” he said.