The Citizen’s Bond Oversight Committee gathers during a meeting held at the Mt. Diablo Unified School District office in Concord, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. CONCORD — For the past decade, Schneider Electric has wooed educators across the country with promises of green, cost-cutting energy solutions to help improve learning conditions inside school halls and classrooms.
Concerns that the school board has not properly handled these allegations have gotten so serious that the oversight committee has tentatively suggested starting a campaign to recall MDUSD’s board trustees, who approved the contract and subsequent revisions with Schneider.that, “we would prefer the district to clean this up if there is a problem. But from my perspective, we aren’t getting any cooperation back from the board, and this has gone on for months, and months, and months.
“I just want to know, did we do it wrong? And learn from it,” Haynes said Thursday, adding that the oversight board has asked for independent legal help on this issue for more than a year. “I applied for this committee — I’m not here just to rubber stamp. My job is to report out to the public, and I feel like I can’t do that.”
Schneider has signed similar contracts with several other school districts nationwide, including Northern California projects in Berkeley, Dublin, Dixon and Stockton. In 2018, voters approved Measure J, a $150 million school bond bookmarked for campus infrastructure improvements and energy system efficiency upgrades.