photo by: Courtesy of Cromwell Solar

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

The Lawrence school district is continuing its push to add solar energy systems to schools, with Woodlawn Elementary set to become the district’s third campus with solar panels this summer.

The Lawrence school board approved a contract last month to install the third solar system in the school district, and it will be at Woodlawn Elementary School. There are two other projects already online – the first was at Prairie Park Elementary was installed in 2024 and the other at Sunflower Elementary in 2025.

Deputy Superintendent Larry Englebrick told the Journal-World that the idea to add solar to the district started because of the district’s Futures Planning Committee. From there, the district has been making it a priority each school year.

“Our hope is to be able to budget and finance a solar project each year,” Englebrick said.

Each of the solar projects has a different energy output. Prairie Park’s solar system can generate 125 kilowatts of electricity at peak output and Sunflower’s project is able to produce 150 kilowatts of power. Meanwhile, Woodlawn’s system is going to produce 40 kilowatts.

At the time when Prairie Park’s system was installed, district officials said the new solar panels would cover 22% of the school’s energy needs and avoid producing hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Englebrick said while there is a software monitoring the building’s energy output and savings, most recent data wasn’t immediately available on the solar facilities at Prairie Park and Sunflower.

Englebrick said the selection of the school for the next solar project boils down to the building’s roof – the size, age and amount of the roof that can actually be used. Woodlawn became a good contender for a solar project after the district replaced its roof over the gymnasium last year.

“So we replaced that roof over the gym,” Englebrick said. “It’s a large, wide open space, perfect location for that facility to put a solar system.”

While these projects are primarily being implemented to lower the utility costs the district pays, Englebrick said, it can also be a learning opportunity staff can use to teach students.

“Each school is connected to the internet with a piece of software that allows students or teachers to go in and look at the power being generated at that time by that system,” Englebrick said. “Part of the thinking there is it could be used as data collection, simple data collection for … elementary students learning to graph, learning to present data and analyze data.”

Another factor was the location of each of the schools. All of the schools that were selected for solar projects are in different areas of town, Englebrick said.

He said students could potentially compare their solar system’s energy output with systems at other schools, based on differences in cloud cover and weather conditions across town.

Englebrick said while the next solar system will be at Woodlawn, community members won’t be able to see it from the ground looking up, so the district is planning to add a mock up of some of the panels on the side of the building with a plaque stating that there’s a solar system.

“Their whole function is kind of a billboard to let people know that we’ve made that investment there,” Englebrick said, adding that they will not be functioning panels.

The solar system at Woodlawn will be installed this summer, with the goal of being complete by Aug. 1.

After Woodlawn’s project is complete, Englebrick said the district doesn’t have an idea of what building might be next yet. However, Englebrick said one school comes to mind in potentially being challenging to house a solar system, and that’s Lawrence High School.

“We’ve got a lot of mechanical already on the roof of Lawrence High School,” Englebrick said. ” … So a lot of that space on that roof is used. We still have a lot of roof there, and we will eventually get to the place that we’re putting a solar system there.”

Englebrick said overall, the district is excited about the upcoming project at Woodlawn.

“I hope the kids find it’s a neat addition to their school,” Englebrick said. “It’s been a tremendous learning opportunity for all of us, and one of those projects that thus far has gone pretty well each time we’ve done it.”