Solar Panels were first introduced as a possibility back in 2013 by a group of students from Mrs. Shimogawa’s class doing their Civic Action project. One of the students sent a letter to the superintendent, Elizabeth Novack. When she responded, calling for a meeting, the students were fired with excitement. They researched the price of the solar panels and how much they were paying for utilities here in the school, made a slide show, dressed up professionally, and gave a well-spoken pitch in front of everyone from the district. They argued solar panels would be a win-win for the school and students who park their cars in the parking lot. The district agreed to have solar panels and said that it was great to see that a group of kids seeded this idea and convinced everyone that this will be the future. Soon many schools in the district followed, while it’s a little disappointing that some schools got solar panels before Cypress did, Cypress might be the first school in the district to plug in and use the electricity. 

This project was significantly delayed after a robbery occurred. On September 5th, 2023, around 5 a.m., when the workers showed up, they arrived at the storage enclosure and found that the gate had been pushed over and the trailer was missing. The trailer contained the construction site tools, “the total value for all the tools was about 50 thousand dollars,” according to campus Officer Martinez. The theft was not captured on surveillance cameras and so far, the police have not found any eyewitnesses of the crime. However, a fingerprint was collected from a screwdriver found at the scene and is currently being processed at the crime lab, hopefully leading to the thief.

The project began at the end of school and was supposed to be done by Aug 6, 2023, but theft and unstable soil have pushed this project’s due date. The initial delay started when the engineers did their first check to see how the concrete was curing and tested the tension to see if it could withstand the solar panels, this test concluded that it was unsafe to start building and they decided to leave it for a 30-day review to see if the concrete cured, after 30 days they came back and said the concrete has cured properly and they could continue with the project. “The city of Cypress and especially Cypress High School has a high water table underground; this essentially means you don’t have to dig very far to start hitting water underground,” said Assistant Principal Eric Tenorio. This must be considered whenever you construct any structures, because it impacts the stability of buildings. Since the district will be saving money from the solar panels, this project didn’t cost the school or district any money, it was given to them from a government grant. 

While many issues have led to the delay of the solar panels, the panels will surely make the school experience much better, after a warm day at school, your car won’t be smoking hot and it will eliminate the cost of electricity, so the school could use that money to help the school if a power outage happens, there will be electricity stored ready to use! Principal Jennifer Brown urges the students to be a little more patient as the project is projected to be finished in early November 2023.