Report to the Legislature on the Progress of the Green
School Works Program
Pursuant to Outside Section 35 of the fiscal year 2024 GAA Budget, which
amended Chapter 69 by adding Section 37: “(c) Annually, not later than July 15,
the commissioner shall report to the clerks of the house of representatives and
the senate, the joint committee on education, the joint committee on
telecommunications, utilities and energy and the house and senate committees
on ways and means on the grants awarded during the previous fiscal year,
including the grant amount, grant recipient, a description of the project for
which the grant was awarded and any progress on completion of the project..”
November 2024
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
135 Santilli Highway, Everett, MA 02149
Phone 781-338-3000 TTY: N.E.T. Relay 800-439-2370
www.doe.mass.edu
 This document was prepared by the
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Russell D. Johnston
Acting Commissioner
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Members
Ms. Katherine Craven, Chair, Brookline
Mr. Matt Hills, Vice-Chair, Newton
Dr. Ericka Fisher, Worcester
Mr. Ioannis Asikis, Brookline, Student Member
Ms. Dálida Rocha, Worcester
Ms. Farzana Mohamed, Newton
Mr. Michael Moriarty, Holyoke
Ms. Mary Ann Stewart, Lexington
Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, Secretary of Education, Andover
Dr. Martin West, Newton
Russell D. Johnston, Acting Commissioner
Secretary to the Board
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Human Resources Director, 135 Santilli Highway, Everett, MA 02149. Phone: 781-338-6105.
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
135 Santilli Highway, Everett, MA 02149
Phone 781-338-3000 TTY: N.E.T. Relay 800-439-2370
www.doe.mass.edu
November 12, 2024
Dear Members of the General Court:
I am pleased to submit the fiscal year 2024 Annual Report to the Legislature on the Progress
of Green School Works Program pursuant to Outside Section 35 of the fiscal year 2024 GAA
Budget, which amended Chapter 69 by adding Section 37(c).
Any questions may be directed to Jessica Leitz via email Jessica.Leitz@mass.gov.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Johnston
Acting Commissioner
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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Proposed Program Design .............................................................................................. 2
Portfolio Planning ......................................................................................................... 3
Project Planning ........................................................................................................... 3
Implementation ............................................................................................................ 4
Eligible Implementation Project Types .......................................................................... 4
FY25 Activities ................................................................................................................ 5
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Introduction
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education respectfully submits this Report
to the Legislature: fiscal year 2024 Annual Report to the Legislature on the Progress of
Green School Works Program pursuant to Outside Section 35 of the fiscal year 2024 GAA
Budget, which amended Chapter 69 by adding Section 37(c):
SECTION 35
Section 35 Green School Works
Said Chapter 69 is hereby further amended by adding the following section:-
Section 37. (a)(1) There shall be a competitive grant program, known as Green School Works, to
provide financial support to eligible K-12 public schools or districts for projects to install or
maintain clean energy infrastructure. The program shall be administered by the department, in
consultation with the Massachusetts clean energy technology center, established by section 2 of
Chapter 23J. Grants shall be made available to address the costs of installation, operation or
upgrades of clean energy infrastructure that improves energy efficiency, reduces carbon
emissions, or mitigates impacts of climate change, including school rooftop construction or repair
costs necessary for a clean energy infrastructure project to be safely installed; provided, that such
installation, operation or upgrades shall be conducted in compliance with any relevant
procurement laws, including, but not limited to, Chapter 149 and all state and local building codes.
(2) Grants awarded by the department shall maximize the total number of projects that shall be
undertaken by public schools or districts.
(b) The department, in consultation with the Massachusetts clean energy technology center, shall
establish eligibility and selection criteria for the program. The department may give preference to
grant applications from schools serving low-income and environmental justice populations.
(c) Annually, not later than July 15, the commissioner shall report to the clerks of the house of
representatives and the senate, the joint committee on education, the joint committee on
telecommunications, utilities and energy and the house and senate committees on ways and
means on the grants awarded during the previous fiscal year, including the grant amount, grant
recipient, a description of the project for which the grant was awarded and any progress on
completion of the project.
(d) The department, in consultation with the Massachusetts clean energy technology center and
the Massachusetts School Building Authority, established by section 1A of Chapter 70B, shall
promulgate regulations to implement this section.
Created as part of the state’s fiscal year 24 budget, the goal of the Green School Works
program (the “Program”) is to provide financial support to “K-12 public schools or districts
for projects to install or maintain clean energy infrastructure.” The $50 million program is
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meant to address “the costs of installation, operation, or upgrades of clean energy
infrastructure that improves energy efficiency, reduces carbon emissions, or mitigates the
impacts of climate change, including school rooftop construction or repair costs
necessary for a clean energy infrastructure project to be safely installed.” The enabling
legislation additionally sets as objectives maximizing the total number of projects
undertaken by public schools or districts and giving preference to projects for schools
serving low-income and environmental justice populations.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) convened
a working group (hereafter refered to as the “Green Schools Working Group”) of clean
energy and school building experts from the Massachusetts School Building Authority
(MSBA), the Massachusetts Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience (OCIR), and the
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and began meeting on a regular basis
soon after the law was enacted. The cross-agency team, led by DESE, reviewed the
legislative charge, shared information on current clean energy infrastructure schools work
and building electrification and decarbonization planning work, and workshopped program
structure.
The Green Schools Working Group identified initial challenges with respect to the timeline,
specifically because capital projects often span multiple fiscal years and involve extensive
planning and procurement phases prior to the implementation/construction phases.
Running a competitive grant program and having school districts procure, plan for,
execute, and complete capital improvements on school buildings by the end of the state
fiscal year (June 30, 2024) risked having potential district grantees run out of time with no
ability to complete their projects. Further challenges were identified with respect to DESE’s
expertise and capacity to run a program involving specialized capital projects, as green
energy building technology continues to evolve and involves specific subject matter
expertise, and DESE does not typically manage or oversee school infrastructure programs.
Working together to determine the best and most efficient way to use these public dollars
to benefit our schools, the Green Schools Working Group proposed that DESE transfer the
funds to MassCEC to run the program, but that DESE maintain oversight for the program
(reporting, regulating, etc.) as specified in the budget language.
Proposed Program Design
The Green Schools Working Group’s proposed program, which will kick off in fiscal year
2025, is intended to meet the requirements outlined in the law and simultaneously enable
districts to determine their current baseline and their pathway forward for converting their
old inefficient building systems into newer, cleaner systems. The draft program concept
proposes a combination of grants of technical services, implementation grants, and
implementation loans to support the planning and implementation of clean energy,
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electrification, and decarbonization projects in school buildings across the
Commonwealth, while prioritizing school buildings serving Environmental Justice and low-
income populations. The proposed program is divided into three components, described
further below: portfolio planning, project planning, and implementation.
Portfolio Planning
Via stakeholder consultation, the Green Schools Working Group learned that many
districts could benefit from technical support in selecting a a clean energy project. Some
questions that came up during consultation included: “What kind of clean energy project
would be most beneficial?” and “Which buildings would be prime candidates for such a
project?” High-level, district-wide decarbonization planning is for many school districts a
necessary first step towards a 2050-ready, zero-emissions building portfolio. Because this
type of portfolio planning is a high-level analysis, the cost per school building is relatively
low.
This portfolio planning component will allow MassCEC to complement existing and
planned portfolio electrification prioritization plans offered by Mass Save through third-
party vendors to the extent feasible to efficiently provide a large number of public school
districts with the high-level roadmap that’s required to begin planning clean energy
infrastructure projects, and enabling those districts to prioritize their buildings and
projects in an informed manner.
Project Planning
For districts that have completed portfolio planning and prioritization, either through the
portfolio planning process described above or independently, individual building
decarbonization assessment and planning follows the high-level portfolio planning work.
This project-level planning includes more rigorous energy use and emissions analysis,
energy modeling and engineering calculations, and on-site assessment. It is roughly an
order of magnitude more intensive and costly than high-level desktop analysis. However, it
is still a relatively small scope of work compared to the total value of the work procured;
and MassCEC is proposing to create a grant of services under this program component to
provide dozens of schools serving Environmental Justice and low-income populations with
a single building decarbonization assessment and plan. This work represents the final step
in planning before an implementation project can be designed, financed, and constructed
when conducted partnership with other capital planning coordination. MassCEC will
endeavor to provide grants of services that complement and build off of existing and
planned MassSave decarbonization and electrification plans.
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Implementation
A wide variety of projects can contribute to decarbonizing school facilities, including but
not limited to:
• electrifying heating and hot water,
• insulating and air-sealing building envelopes,
• enhancing building ventilation,
• providing onsite clean energy,
• deploying electric school bus and personal vehicle charging, and
• integrating resilient clean backup power sources.
There is currently a far more favorable incentive and funding environment for these
projects than in the past for school districts with the capacity to tap into new and
expanded funding resources. For example:
• Mass Save commercial incentives for air-source and ground-source heat pumps
have recently been increased;
• The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created large tax credits available to non-taxable
entities for solar PV and ground-source heat pump systems; and
• The MSBA has recently proposed creating a new heat pump funding program to
potentially begin operating in 2025.
With these new and increased funding sources and potential funding sources, school
electrification, decarbonization, and clean energy projects will, in many cases, be much
less costly for school districts to implement.
MassCEC proposes awarding a certain number of school districts with implementation
funding that may be in the form of a bridge loan, grant, or combination of the two for
eligible decarbonization project hard costs, plus design, capacity, and technical
assistance grants to support soft costs for eligible projects. A bridge loan would allow
schools to capture up-front IRA tax credit funding for eligible projects at the beginning of
construction, and to repay the bridge loan at the time the tax credit is received. Projects
intending to maximize IRA tax credit funding may be given priority in the selection process.
Eligible Implementation Project Types
The Green Schools Working Group is proposing the following list of eligible electrification,
decarbonization, and clean energy project types:
• Investment Tax Credit (ITC)-eligible
• Ground-source heat pumps (GSHP)
• Solar PV (rooftop, ground mount, and parking canopy)
• Solar PV with island-able battery storage systems
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Non-ITC-eligible but enabling work for ITC-eligible systems, e.g.
• Building electrification readiness (e.g. high-performance building envelope
improvements, high-efficiency energy recovery ventilation with ASHP-tempered
makeup air, conversion of heating and cooling distribution systems such as steam
to hot water conversions, electrical service and system upgrades to enable full
building electrification)
• Roof repair
• Window replacement
Non-ITC-eligible
• Air-source heat pumps (ASHP)
• Electrification of other building systems (e.g. domestic hot water, kitchen
equipment)
• EVSE for electric school buses and personal vehicles
• Other electrification, decarbonization, and clean energy projects to be reviewed on
a case-by-case basis.
Fiscal Year 25 Activities
As MassCEC, DESE, and their partners implement the program, there will be continued
stakeholder outreach and engagement, including to school districts; followed by
finalization of the program design, and then program launch.
Additional information about the program can be found here:
https://www.masscec.com/program/green-school-works
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