Sun Prairie Area School District

KEEP Energy Educator Awards: The Wisconsin K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) annually sponsors the Energy Educator of the Year Award to increase the visibility of the network of outstanding educators across the state of Wisconsin. In 2022 KEEP named Royal Oaks Elementary Teacher Patrick Bencher as 2022 Energy Educator of the Year. The award recognizes Bencher’s many efforts to engage students around renewable energy and energy conservation.

Dane County Climate Champion Awards

The Dane County Office of Energy & Climate Change recognizes entities that are leading on climate action in a variety of categories. The SPASD is unique insofar as more of its schools have been recognized for energy efficiency than any other district in Dane County.

Climate Champion Awards include:

• Sun Prairie's Creekside Elementary School is a 2021 Climate Champion (3 Star/Energy Use). Built in 2008, the school features a geothermal heating and cooling system and uses less than 25% of the energy consumed by a typical elementary school.
• Sun Prairie East High School is a 2021 Climate Champion (2 Star/Energy Use). The school features a geothermal heating and cooling system and uses about 30% as much energy as a comparable high school.
• Meadow View Elementary got 3 stars in Energy in 2020.  One of two newer elementary schools that opened in 2018 that use geothermal heat pumps for heating and cooling.
• Sun Prairie Token Springs got 3 stars in energy in 2020.  The Sun Prairie Area School district and it's school board believes it has a responsibility to ensure every effort is made to conserve energy and natural resources while exercising sound financial judgement.
• Sun Prairie Area School District and its partners achieved 2022 Climate Champion (2 Star/Building Design) status for West High School. A solar array will provide 10% of the building's energy, while geothermal heat pumps and LED lighting will reduce the school's energy consumption. The school is expected to use about half as much energy as a comparable school. Project partners include Bray Architects, Fredericksen Engineering, Muermann Engineering, and HGA.
• Sun Prairie's Patrick Marsh Middle School achieved 2022 Climate Champion (2 Star/Other) status for a student project to reduce food waste at the school. Students developed initiatives to reduce up to 60% of wasted food heading to the landfill and partnered with the City of Sun Prairie to lead composting classes.

In 2021 Sun Prairie partnered with three other local school districts (Middleton-Cross Plains, Monona Grove and Oregon) to apply for a planning grant from the Office of Energy Innovation’s Energy Innovation Grant Program. The application was successful and the four entities are currently collaborating to develop comprehensive energy plans. These plans will be a path to increased savings and reduced emissions for the districts.

Royal Oaks Elementary participated in the Renew Our School Spring 2022 competition. A group of 4th and 5th graders formed the Rocket Energy Savings Team (REST) and save 18% of their energy throughout the competition. With their impressive energy savings, Royal Oaks earned one of the top spots, earning them $2,500 for energy updates at their school.

SPASD is unique insofar as the district staff includes a full-time Sustainability/Energy Manager who focuses on energy savings across the district’s facilities. Since 2005 the position has saved the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs.

• Sun Prairie West High School – built in 2022, a solar array will provide 10% of the building's energy.
• Sun Prairie (East) High School - In 2010 Sun Prairie Schools installed a 5.4 kW solar system on the roof of this high school. View the hourly, daily and even year-to-date projection of the system. In 2017 the Sun Prairie School District installed a second solar system, 2.28 kW on the roof of the maintenance shop at Sun Prairie East High School.
• Royal Oaks Elementary School - There is a 5.22 kW pole-mounted system behind the school building. See live data on the electric production of this system.
• Token Springs Elementary School - There is a 12 kW system on Token Springs Elementary. You can view data on the electricity generated at this school here.
• Meadow View Elementary School - There is a 12 kW system on Sun Prairie's Meadow View Elementary School. See live data on the electricity production at this school.

Sun Prairie East High School has numerous student clubs, including:

• Environment Club
• Asian Multicultural
• Black Student Union
• Hispanic Student Union
• Science Olympiad

Sun Prairie West High School opened in fall 2022 and will post a list of clubs shortly. 

• Approximatey 650 FTE teachers
• 15 schools