Hillsboro School District Weekly Hot News March 31, 2025 - Earth Month

April is Earth Month, and what a perfect time to celebrate as the onset of spring brings the first glimpse of nature’s fresh vibrancy! While every day could technically be considered Earth Day, April 22 bears the official moniker and is a call to action. With a theme of “Our Power, Our Planet,” each of us is encouraged to determine what this means to us and how we will put our ideas into action. The possibilities are endless and each action toward environmental stewardship makes a difference. HSD embraces and demonstrates conservation practices throughout the year. In the month of April, the days get longer, the grass is greener, and temperatures are more moderate. Earth Month is a perfect time for buildings to take advantage of these conditions to conserve natural resources through efforts like water management, daylight harvesting, and bringing outside air into buildings. This year, HSD is also running a Resource Conservation Challenge that is open to all teachers and administrators, which encourages conservation while at school, work, home, or traveling. Students - ask your teachers about this challenge! For those who are motivated by gamification, try the Earth Month BINGO card! This activity is designed to bring awareness and prompts for more sustainable practices. Print it out and post it on a refrigerator or classroom bulletin board for full family and/or classroom participation, or take the conservation one step further and keep it handy on a phone or computer. The topics listed on the card are simply a guide. The most effective actions - and the ones you’re likely to stick with - come from topics that interest you. Have fun!For more ideas and inspiration, visit our Resource Conservation webpage and earthday.org. Our featured event is Liberty’s HVAC and boiler replacement project. Even though Liberty High School was just 21 years old in 2024, its proprietary and unique-to-that-building HVAC direct digital control - or DDC - system was at the end of its life. Additionally, three of the school’s five boilers had either already failed or were failing. These factors were contributing to poor system performance, high energy usage, and occupant discomfort. The time had come to replace the failing equipment, but with an overall price tag of $2.2 million the District was left wondering how the project could be completed. Energy Services Company. Willdan was hired to assist. Willdan’s team worked with the Energy Trust of Oregon and the Oregon Department of Energy to find funding opportunities. With tremendous success, the total Energy Trust incentive awarded was $636,000, which is the largest ever awarded for a single HVAC project. The balance of the project cost was covered by the Department of Energy's SB 1149 Public Purchase Charge program. We now have upgraded DDCs for Liberty’s HVAC system, and four new high-efficiency boilers instead of five, which are anticipated to result in an annual energy savings of $140,000. A representative from Willdan presented the School Board with a ceremonial check for the Energy Trust incentive at the February 25 Board meeting. Many thanks to our Facilities team and Resource Conservation Manager Mia Hocking for all of their hard work and dedication to seeing this important project through to its completion. Hot News is produced and emailed to HSD families and staff each week school is in session. Please add the address to your “safe sender” list to make sure you always receive the latest issue. Please also bookmark our district website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hsd.k12.or.us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay informed about what’s happening in our district and schools.