It's been a year in the making. The Owego-Apalachin School District is starting the school year off with the completion of its $13-million capital improvement project. As our Janelle Burrell tells us, not all of the projects are visible, but their effects are saving the district big bucks.

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"A lot of the infrastructure associated with school buildings needs to be updated," said Owego-Apalachin Schools Superintendent Bill Russell, "So we took a look and found a whole range, almost $14-million worth of work that needed upgrades."

And so began the one year, $13.4 million undertaking. The finishing touches now being added, just in time to welcome students back next week.

"We are three of four months ahead of schedule, we came in under budget and we did absolutely everything we wanted to do including all of the items on our wish list," Russell said.

Among the improvements students will take notice of: brand new locker rooms, computer labs, and lights for the athletic fields.

"We're going to be make the buildings much more comfortable to work and study and make them last for a good long time," said Russell.

The improvements continue all the way up here to the roof of the schools, where new energy efficient heating and cooling systems have been installed.

And that's not all.

"Our middle school and high school complex has a geothermal system," Russell explained. "We have also have cogeneration plants that produce about a third of our electricity ourselves."

The improvements have already netted the district significant savings.

"We are well over a million dollars in savings on our energy use alone for all of these systems that we're putting in and we would expect that number to increase substantially," said Russell.

An added bonus: the capital projects have come in about a half million dollar under budget, money administrators say they can now use for other improvements around campus.

Eighty-three percent of the money for the district's capital project was funded by the state.

District leaders are urging you to check out the improved campus and their new stadium lights at their varsity football and soccer games on Friday.