The Perry School District’s three-year major facilities project is officially underway, with a contract signed for the LED lighting project at the high school.

At their recent meeting, the Perry School Board approved an agreement with Sitler Supply for the project, which will cost $86,000. However, that price doesn’t include a rebate the District was able to take advantage of, which will decrease the overall cost to $67,565.01. The initial cost will come out of the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) funds, with the rebate put into the general fund. Superintendent Clark Wicks says the project was a priority to get done quickly, not just because of the rebate, but also because of savings on energy consumption.

“The whole idea is that as soon as you get those in, the more that you can save money and become more efficient and help with that general fund. So it’s an exciting project, and hopefully down the road we’d be able to do that with the other buildings. We felt our biggest bang for the buck would be to start with the high school, because (of) the number of lights, but then also the amount of time that the lights are on with all the night activities.”

With the LED lights installed, the District expects to save around $20,000 a year in energy costs at the high school. In the next two years they will look at doing the middle and elementary schools, which will cost around $51,000 and $39,000, respectively. Wicks says there’s a chance the high school project will be completed during winter break, but he admits that’s optimistic. If it’s not done then, it will likely be completed over spring break.