photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Prairie Park Elementary students cheer at a ribbon-cutting for their solar energy project Friday, May 17, 2024, at the school, 2711 Kensington Road.

The end of the school year marked a proud beginning Friday for renewable energy in the Lawrence school district.

Students at Prairie Park Elementary erupted in applause – and school pride — as their fellow students cut the ribbon on the first-ever solar project among district buildings.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Prairie Park Elementary students cut the ribbon for their solar energy project Friday, May 17, 2024, at the school, 2711 Kensington Road.

Their principal, Jason Townsend, at an outdoor school assembly noted that Friday’s intense sunshine — the students, with a sheen of perspiration, had just come from field day exercises — was a fitting inauguration for the project.

Larry Englebrick, the school district’s chief operations officer, told the students it was a special day because it was the culmination of an idea that had been a long time in the making.

“Your school is the first school that we’ve been able to install solar power on, and it is up and running now,” he said to boisterous cheers.

The school at 2711 Kensington Road, with its large south-facing metal roof surfaces, was chosen by the district’s Futures Planning Committee last year to be the site of a $240,000 pilot project with Cromwell Environmental, who installed the system. The roof, which has a 50-year life expectancy, now boasts 250 solar panels.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Amanda Stamm of Cromwell Energy addresses a Prairie Park Elementary assembly as the school cut the ribbon on its solar project Friday, May 17, 2024.

Amanda Stamm, the vice president of energy operations for Cromwell, told the students that those panels would run their lights and computers and, perhaps most importantly given Friday’s heat, their fans.

She said the solar panels would meet 22% of the school’s electrical needs and would keep more than 250 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted. She likened it to planting about 1,500 trees.

In addition to being climate friendly, the solar panels will also serve educational purposes, the district has said, because students will get to learn about the photovoltaic effect, or the process of converting the sun’s rays into electrical current.

School board member Shannon Kimball told the students that she looked forward to the solar project happening at other schools as well.

“I’m so excited that you all got to be the first one of these projects,” she said. “We will get to see how it goes and then we will have the opportunity to do this at more of our buildings … so we can become a district where we are using green energy to meet the needs of our students and staff.”

photo by: Courtesy of Cromwell Solar

Prairie Park Elementary as seen from above with its array of solar panels.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Prairie Park Elementary students express their excitement at a ribbon-cutting for their solar energy project Friday, May 17, 2024, at the school, 2711 Kensington Road.