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RSD/OPSB Schools

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the infrastructure of Orleans Parish, the Recovery School District of Louisiana (RSD) and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) embarked on a FEMA-funded, multi-billion dollar infrastructure rebuilding campaign. The goal of the program was to build 17 new schools, fully renovate 12 and provide some level of refurbishment for 23 schools.

Moses Engineers has been involved with every facet of this rebuilding process, including program-wide Design Standards development, school assessments to determine refurbishment scope, Central Facility Automation System (CFAS) design, and individual school design.

Moses Engineers developed the unit pricing strategy for adding more schools to the CFAS moving forward. The CFAS system took building automation and management an extra step. It was designed to allow both individual building and centralized control and monitoring of equipment performance and energy consumption across the entire school district.

For new construction and major renovation projects, Moses Engineers provided full mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) design and associated construction administration services. Renovation and refurbishment projects provided additional complications because almost every existing building has historical value and incorporating mechanical systems to meet state and federal historical requirements was exceptionally challenging. This led to ongoing development of design and performance standards by Moses Engineers, which formed the basis for systems selections by all design teams involved in the program. Despite the historical preservation challenges, we exceeded code energy efficiency goals by almost one-third.

To date Moses Engineers has provided design services for over 40 minor New Orleans Public Schools projects and complete MEP design services for 22 major renovation and new construction projects including: Guste Elementary, Andrew Wilson Elementary, William Frantz Elementary, Charles J. Colton Elementary, Audubon Elementary, Booker T. Washington High, Drew Elementary, Sophie B. Wright Schools, Stuart Bradley Elementary, Alfred Lawless High, Ernest “Dutch” Morial Elementary, Avery Alexander Elementary, Landry/Walker High, Bienville (Arthur Ashe) Elementary, Parkview Elementary, Edward Livingston High, North Kenilworth Park Elementary, McDonogh #35 High, Edward Livingston High, Abramson High, and a new gymnasium for Elanor McMain Secondary School.

Building Automation System (BAS)

The State of Louisiana through the Recovery School District (RSD) contracted with Moses Engineers to provide a Common Facility Automation System (CFAS). Today, all schools have CFAS or plan to implement it.

Additionally, RSD tasked Moses Engineers to develop a Building Automation System (BAS) standard to ensure that the BAS for each school is compatible with the CFAS. As this program was envisioned to last many years, we developed a simple unit pricing strategy for adding schools and equipment to the CFAS. BAS allows OPSB/RSD to control the mechanical and electrical systems. In the process, they save energy, reduce maintenance costs, increase equipment life, increase trouble shooting abilities, and monitor energy costs.

To comply with the bid specifications, the building automation contractor Synergy developed a remotely accessible energy dashboard calculating in real time each school’s chilled water, electrical, gas and water consumption. State-of-the-art enhancements included Continuous Commissioning, Environmental Indexing, Central Plant Performance Reports and monitoring AHU Fan Power Performances.