Redondo Union High School’s new cafeteria will be less green after the Board of Education on Tuesday night voted to change plans and remove solar panels from a proposed rooftop deck, a move that reduced the project’s price tag from $450,000 to roughly $200,000.
Board member Anita Avrick initiated a discussion over keeping the deck in the cafeteria design at all. She said her concern was less about the cost and more about whether the deck would even be used by students.
“It wasn’t necessarily to save $450,000, if it was going to be used a lot,” Avrick said.
The new cafeteria is part of the $145 million Measure C bond, more than $93 million of which is allotted for new construction at RUHS. The board a year ago, after realizing more than $2.5 million in savings at its new aquatics facility due to a soft construction market, changed original Measure C plans that had called only for a $3.6 million renovation of the existing cafeteria and opted for a new building entirely.
The $6 million new cafeteria, topped off with its rooftop deck, was envisioned as a new gathering place at the very center of campus. The solar components were expected to help the building achieve LEED “green” certification.
Board member Laura Emdee suggested a compromise – building the rooftop deck and including the infrastructure for solar components but not the panels themselves, which could later be added if other construction remains under budget.
“Knowing that at the end of the day – if we have money at the end of the bond – we can just add them in,” Emdee said.
Architect Nathan Herrera of MVE Institutional said that solar panel technology could be both cheaper and more advanced within the next two or three years. He also noted that the proposed panels would pay for themselves in energy savings within 15 years, at which point they would need to be replaced.
The board voted unanimously to proceed with the deck and added Emdee’s compromise motion, including mounting and conduit pathways, but not the panels or inverter for solar power on the new building.
