Head down into the underbelly of Lone Tree School, and you’ll discover two giant boilers, one installed in 1960 when most of the school was rebuilt following the 1956 Christmas fire, and the other installed in 1971. They are what we would call ‘vintage.’

Vintage has its charms, but less so when it comes to heating a school.

“The worst time of year is either late fall or early spring,” Superintendent Tyler Hotz says. “Those 50-60 degree days are the worst because you get enough sunlight to kind of warm up the building, but it gets kind of cold, so there’s kind of an art to it, of, do you want to turn the boiler on today?”

Steam systems like the one at Lone Tree are fundamentally slow, entirely different from a modern thermostat that can be micromanaged. It takes hours to heat up the boilers’ cast-iron bodies and gallons of cold water inside before they can produce steam to heat the building, and that warm-up consumes a lot of fuel. Once it’s up to operating temperature, however, it can coast.

“There’s times we don’t turn the boilers on because its highly inefficient and ineffective and difficult to do it for one day,” Hotz says. “If you’re going to leave them on, you’re going to leave them on for the whole week.”

A decade or so has passed since a facilities review identified the school’s HVAC system as needing an upgrade, as the boilers are far beyond their 20 to 30-year life expectancy. Not only that, but cooling happens via a collection of window air conditioning units and mini splits, and ventilation overall is lacking. The “system” is neither unified nor efficient.

After commissioning a comprehensive study by Shive-Hattery and seeking input from community members, the Lone Tree school board has a plan in hand for a new geothermal HVAC system that would not only ensure a comfortable climate for student learning but also control humidity and reduce the transmission of airborne illnesses. And thanks to some financial incentives, they believe now is the time to act.

“There’s a thing called the Inflation Reduction Act that will give us 30% back for using geothermal,” Hotz says, noting that the newest wing of the school already has a geothermal system they are happy with. “Then we get another 10% discount if we use Build America Buy America, BABA. That does end and starts decreasing in 2030, so there’s a little bit of a clock going.”

With the schematic design in hand and a specific dollar amount for the project -- $6.9 million -- they set bond language that will come before voters in November.

Because Lone Tree is paying off the bond on the Wellness Center this fiscal year – more than 15 years ahead of schedule – the HVAC bond will be tax-neutral, meaning it will not raise residents’ taxes.

The bond will also fund the new HVAC system exclusively.

“We’ve been intentional just to focus on HVAC,” Hotz says. “We wanted to be very clear to the community that we are focusing on replacing our boilers with a geothermal system, which is what we already used in 2002, so we know it’s an effective system and it works well for us. There will be no other projects on top of that.”

Should voters approve, a new geothermal system will provide students and staff with a healthier, comfortable learning environment for the next two decades or longer.

“We’re committed to making sure this district has the structure and the foundation to continue to persevere into the future, and providing heat and air-conditioned air is important to that, and so is fresh air,” Hotz says.