Portland Education Jobs Go Green

A new round of funding will help many Portland education jobs go green.

The Portland City Council recently approved the allocation of $11 million in low-cost Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds to Portland Public Schools. The funding will be used to finance energy and water conservation projects throughout 100 schools, which will in turn create jobs, improve classroom conditions, and create more energy savings.

"In this year's State of the City address, I talked about utilizing Recovery Zone Bonds to fund sustainable development and to extend the Clean Energy Works Portland program to institutional and commercial building stock," Mayor Sam Adams said. "Today, we're realizing that goal in a way that creates jobs, supports schools and furthers our sustainability efforts."

PPS was selected to receive the funding after a thorough application and evaluation process that attracted eight statements of interest. Those interested had to offer: energy efficiency retrofit projects, renewable energy projects, and new green building projects.

"We're grateful to the city for giving Portland Public Schools the opportunity to participate in this federal stimulus bonding allocation," David Wynde, chair of the school board finance committee, said. "This is a win-win for the city and for PPS because we can issue these bonds to fund projects that reduce our energy and water use, put people to work this summer, and repay the bonds with the cost savings."

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided Portland with $33.9 million in Recovery Zone bonding, including $13,548,000 in Recovery Zone Economic Development bonds and $20,323,000 in Recovery Zone Facility bonds.

Recovery Zone Economic Development bonds are taxable municipal bonds eligible for a 45 percent direct interest payment subsidy from the federal government, meaning they have no impact on the city's budget or city taxpayers.