The Vashon School District has garnered a $550,000 grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to make energy upgrades at existing school buildings.

The grant will allow the district to install more energy efficient heating systems at Chautauqua Elementary School and McMurray Middle School, as well as replace an aging boiler at McMurray with a more efficient one and make energy upgrades to the high school gym.

Eric Gill, the school district’s capital projects manager, said that when complete, the improvements are expected to save the school district about $45,000 a year in electricity and gas costs.

“This is a good thing. These are energy-efficient measures that are going to reduce our utility bills,” Gill said.

The total cost of the projects is about $900,000, Gill said, but some of the work was included in the scope of last year’s capital bond. In the end, he said, the OSPI grant money will actually free up capital funds that could be used in the construction of the new high school building.

What’s more, Gill said, the district anticipates it will receive about $70,000 in incentives from Puget Sound Energy for completing the energy-saving projects at the schools.

“This is a good deal,” he said.

While the $70,000 in PSE incentives will go into the district’s capital fund, Gill said, the annual utility savings will benefit the operational fund and could help bridge the district’s budget gap.

OSPI energy grants totaling about $21 million for the 2011-2013 biennium were given to 43 school districts in the state.

Gill said the Vashon Island School District may have gotten the upper hand on the competitive grant because it is developing a district-wide resource conservation program that aims to continually reduce the district’s energy consumption.

Superintendent Michael Soltman called the OSPI grant a significant one for the district.

“We got everything we asked for, and it allows us to build in some greater energy efficiencies in new and existing buildings that we anticipate operationally will pay off over time,” he said.