Sun FunED co-founder Patrick Poer, right, speaks with Scott Cvelbar at the 2,000 kilowatt solar farm outside the Neighbors Educational Opportunities school in Portage Thursday Nov. 5, 2020. Andy Lavalley/Post-Tribune (Post-Tribune)
•
•
Two years ago, Rebecca Reiner, the executive director of Neighbors' Educational Opportunities, in Portage, received a dollar bill and a postcard in the mail about a solar array program.
“This stood out from the other tons of mail I get,” she said Thursday during a ribbon-cutting for the solar array now on NEO’s property, a partnership with Sun FundED.
The postcard suggested a program to connect classrooms with real-world experience in an environmentally sustainable field that would build equity in the community.
Curious, she called Carmel-based Sun FundED, expecting a five-minute phone call. Instead, she spent over an hour on the phone with co-founders Kelly Hipskind, a Portage native, and Patrick Poer.
That phone call resulted in what Reiner called one of the major milestones for NEO, comprised of New Vistas High School and adult education at its facility, 5201 U.S. 6, the site of the former Camelot Bowl.
“I think today’s milestone will really help us think toward the future,” she said.
The partnership with Sun FundED will connect students to good-paying jobs and provide opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise, as well as connecting NEO to more communities in the region, she said, and connecting NEO with higher education, the green economy and sustainability, and promoting NEO’s role as an educator.
NEO, officials said, is the first school in the nation to receive the solar array through Sun FundED, though 40 schools, the majority of them in Michigan and Indiana, have signed letters of intent, said Poer, adding the interested schools include Indiana Wesleyan University’s campus in Merrillville.
“They would like to see it advance first. They don’t want to be first and they don’t want to be last,” he said of the interested schools.
The inverters for the solar array at NEO were made by Fronius, based in Portage, and Poer said the plan for other schools is to use local companies in those places as well. The array at NEO is 578 panels that generate 205 kilowatts, he added, on the smaller side of the solar arrays available through the program.
“It allows us to be innovators with education,” said Anna Swope, principal of New Vistas High School, adding the partnership provides a dual credit pathway through Ivy Tech, as well as project-based learning and possible work-based learning with industries in the community, as well as career and technical education for adult learners and certificate programs for students of in-demand energy jobs.
The partnership, added Alicia Rios, a NEO board member, would result in energy savings of more than $1 million for the educational facility, funds that could be used for continuing education across Northwest Indiana, without debt being incurred by the school or out-of-pocket expenses for taxpayers.
Hipskind said the idea came about when he and Poer, longtime friends, were sitting in the living room chatting.
“It’s really been a labor of love building this business,” Hipskind said, adding given the challenges faced in education, including funding, meeting state standards and other issues, “to tell them you don’t have to pay money, that can be too good to be true.”
Reiner said NEO was partners with Sun FundED “but we’ve also been their guinea pig,” though the program was vetted before NEO agreed to participate.
NEO also received a $50,000 donation from the company that will be used for its energy academy, a new education and workforce development program.
“This is a game-changer for a small, non-profit charter school, especially during COVID,” Reiner said. “It’s going to be a springboard for everything we want to do at NEO.”
Portage Mayor Sue Lynch, noting that “anyone who knows me knows I’m an environmental nut,” said she was excited for Reiner and her team.
“NEO is a trendsetter here. They are with solar and it’s so important for our environment,” she said, adding she would love to see solar arrays all over the city.
Halie Fanning, 17, a senior from Gary, was one of the students on hand for the ribbon-cutting and helped lead tours of the solar array afterwards. She credited science teacher Angela Kochan with sparking her imagination to look into a career in an environmentally sustainable field.
“She gave me this opportunity. This is really interesting to me so I might be interested in future jobs,” she said.
Copyright © 2024, Chicago Tribune