Fran D’Ambrosio is always looking for ways to reduce energy costs and minimize harm to the environment. As New York’s Canajoharie Central School District’s Energy Manager, his goal is to improve the district’s energy efficiency. Exploring alternative energy options is one challenge — securing funding to implement them is another. 

The Energy CLASS Prize is a grant designed for problem solvers like D’Ambrosio. The program, supported by the U.S. The Department of Energy, offered the district a two-part prize worth up to $150,000.

The award meant D’Ambrosio could start making an efficient upgrades to-do list.

“We’re not labeled on a federal level as a disadvantaged community, which makes these federal grants difficult to secure. But on a state level, we’re considered a high-needs district,” he said. “We can’t do it without grants. We just don’t have the funds to do it. The funding is the ultimate hurdle.”

A few years ago, D’Ambrosio began working in rural upstate New York as a nighttime sanitizer.  Before that he worked for 16 years in the construction industry. He knows how costly renovations can be. He became energy manager after the district received a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), awarded in part to help districts meet a state-mandated deadline for school bus electrification.

D’Ambrosio packaged a few additional funding sources with about $50,000 from the Energy CLASS Prize to secure an electric bus for the district, which serves about 900 students across its elementary, middle, and high school campuses. The district has 17 buses and needs to acquire 16 additional electric buses over the next several years to meet the state mandate.

“We’ll receive our first electric school bus in June,” he said. “We’ve managed to layer and stack funding so that it’s no cost to the district. The cost of one bus can easily consume an entire year’s savings.”

The bus was just one item on D’Ambrosio’s list. He said he plans to apply for an Inflation Reduction Act tax credit, which the district could use toward purchasing another electrical bus. In addition to electrifying its fleet, the district is installing a 700-kilowatt solar array on school property, projected to offset 84% of its electricity costs. 

The district worked with the local utility to establish an energy performance contract, allowing it to pay off the installation over time using savings from the solar array. Savings from any of the efficiency projects will be reinvested, D’Ambrosio said, to meet other district needs. 

In addition to funding, the Energy CLASS Prize provided D’Ambrosio with extensive training and professional development, helping him better understand energy planning, implementation, and management. The grant also funds a classroom component that introduces students at all grade levels to clean energy topics, including conservation, renewable energy, and career pathways. Through this program, Fran also applied for and was recognized through the Efficient and Healthy Schools Program for the efficiency and student engagement work described here.

“We need to make a move and make a change, and it’s tough. The culture doesn’t always want that to happen,” D’Ambrosio said. “It’s the mindset that’s hard to change.”