The district has decided to partner with energy consultant firm Ideal Impact to cut  costs in the electricity bill.

“Our goal is to take money that would normally go toward the electric company and redirect it to your budget,” Ideal Impact project manager Kelsey Witmer said.

Superintendent C. D. Knobloch said he first met them at a superintendent conference in Austin.

“They were sharing that they were saving a great deal of money on utilities,” he said. “I had to check them out. When the new school was built, we invested in the best heating-cooling system money could buy, but it just hasn’t been efficient enough for us.”

Network administrator Clint Guidry said that a lot of work is being done to the school to better manage energy.

“They’re going to replace the thermostats in gym, elementary and middle school with new ones that have WiFi so they can all be controlled,” Mr. Guidry said. “Ideal Impact is also checking our weatherization, making sure there’s no gaps in our doors and windows for air and humidity to get through.”

According to Witmer, the less humidity in the building, the better the air system runs without raising costs.

“When air squeezes through gaps in your doors, it also brings in humidity,” Witmer said. “Getting rid of that stops your air systems from sticking and running slower, which will save money.”

When humidity is in the air, it causes each individual student’s comfort levels to decrease.

“Every person has different comfort levels,” Mr. Knobloch said. “Once you suck all the humidity out of the building, it will make the students and staff feel more comfortable.”

The way the systems are programmed now tells all the air units to come on at the same time, which causes the amount of energy needed to power them all go up, raising costs.

“Programming all the new air units to stagger when they come on will lower the amount of energy needed,” Mr. Guidry said. “This will keep the costs low, and with the WiFi they come equipped with, will be much easier to control. Each unit complements each other.”

The Grapevine-based company started out helping ministries only before expanding to school districts.

“We originally focused our mission to churches,” Witmer said. “In the 15 years we’ve been a company, we branched out to schools. We’ve helped over 742 clients, and met our goal of putting over $1 billion back into ministries and education.”

Mr. Knobloch said that he’s hopeful the $70,000 the school is investing will be well worth it.

“If all goes according to plan, over the course of a 15-year period we should save about $600,000,” Mr. Knobloch said. “I’m excited to see it work.”