School board settles with solar company on Old Terwilliger panels – Mainstreet Daily News Gainesville

The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unanimously approved a $17,100 settlement with a solar company to remove solar panels from Old Terwilliger so the buildings can be demolished. 

The settlement leaves Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) in possession of the solar panels. 

“They’ve given us those panels now, we can just tear them down,” staff attorney Susan Seigle said at the meeting. 

In June 2013, Terwilliger Solar Four, LLC (TSF) entered an agreement for a 20-year lease of space on the roofs of Terwilliger Elementary School, now known as Old Terwilliger. The panels installed were part of a feed-in tariff solar energy purchase agreement with Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU). 

In August 2021, ACPS moved the Terwilliger student population to a new facility and a spot survey presented to the board in March determined that renovation of Old Terwilliger is not financially feasible.

The Old Terwilliger buildings, now fallen into disrepair and occupied by squatters back in April, were set to be demolished, but demolition was put on hold because of a dispute with TSF over the cost and responsibility associated with the removal of the solar panels. 

Using the mediation option in their agreement, the two parties met and Seigle said she brought in a quote from a contractor outside the district and told TSF that the school board would not pay more than that $17,100 quote. 

This week, the school board approved a settlement agreement, mutual release and covenant not to sue, in which the parties agreed that SBAC would pay TSF the settlement, and TSF would surrender the solar panels to the school district. 

Demolition for Old Terwilliger is expected to cost the district an additional $750,000, and future use of the property is not determined, though the board has discussed the possibility of allowing the county to use the space for affordable housing. 

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