The East Greenbush Central School District is taking advantage of an energy-efficiency program that will brighten classrooms and hallways and yield massive savings. All five elementary schools – Bell Top, Donald P. Sutherland, Genet, Green Meadow, and Red Mill – will be completely upgraded to energy-efficient LED lighting this year at no cost to the district or taxpayers.

From Budget Constraint to Innovative Solution
The need for LED lighting upgrades was originally identified in the district’s last Building Condition Survey. However, due to the high estimated costs of full fixture replacements, the upgrades could not be prioritized within the budget of the current “Building a Brighter Future” Capital Project.

In December 2025, the district identified the National Grid Incentive Program as a potential solution, and submitted an application prior to the deadline.

By January 2026, the Board of Education approved a contract with RKE Lighting and Electric, LLC to complete the lighting upgrades across all five qualifying elementary buildings through the National Grid LED Retrofit Program. (Columbia High School and Howard L. Goff Middle School did not qualify for the incentive program.)

Through the National Grid incentive program, these upgrades, which were estimated at $4,444,153 for full fixture replacements in the Capital Project prereferendum estimates, will instead be completed at no cost to the school district through a retrofit of most existing light fixtures with some complete fixtures being replaced in specified areas.

A Breakdown of the Savings
If the district had proceeded with replacing all lights through the standard Capital Project, the estimated cost would have exceeded $4.4 million.

By utilizing the National Grid Retrofit Program, the district will pay nothing.

Long-Term Benefits and Maintenance Advantages
In addition to the substantial upfront savings, this project offers significant long-term operational advantages:

• Identical Energy Savings: Both the original capital project plan and the National Grid Retrofit Program provide the exact same monthly electricity savings for the district.
• Easier Maintenance: The retrofit approach offers superior, cost-effective maintenance. With brand new LED fixtures, an entire unit must be replaced if a light fails. The retrofit program, however, allows our facilities team to easily replace individual bulbs when necessary, saving both time and future material costs.
• Overall Energy Efficiency Increase: The benefits of LED lighting over traditional fluorescent, incandescent, halogen, and other old style lighting has become the new gold standard due to significantly less energy consumption.

“We were very fortunate to be able to get our applications in and approved before the program end date of December 31, 2025,” said Director of Facilities Paul Bickel. “The savings provided at each elementary building from the lower energy use will help significantly with offsetting the increased electricity costs of the air conditioning that is being added to each elementary school in the current Capital Project, so it really was a big win for the district taxpayers.”

Timeline
The work is planned to begin in early March 2026, with DPS to be the first school to receive the LED lighting. The project will then move from school to school until completion.

To ensure there is no disruption to student learning, contractors will conduct all installation work during second shifts, after the school day has ended. This schedule will have minimal impact on daily building operations.

The district expects all elementary school lighting upgrades to be fully completed by October 31, 2026.

“I am grateful to Mr. Bickel and our leadership team for identifying this cost and energy savings opportunity for our district,” said Superintendent Dr. Kurtis Kotes. “This will brighten and enhance our learning spaces both literally and figuratively! We look forward to working with the contractor to see this work through to completion.”