Ope.

One of the cost-saving measures the school board insisted on was a “green lighting system” run on software installed by a company called 5th Light to control the lights in the building. The system was designed to save energy — and thus save money — by automatically adjusting the lights as needed.

 

But in August 2021, staffers at the school noticed that the lights were not dimming in the daytime and burning brightly through the night.

 

“The lighting system went into default,” said Osborne. “And the default position for the lighting system is for the lights to be on.”

 

Osborne said they immediately reached out to the original installer of the system only to discover that the company had changed hands several times since the high school was built. When they finally tracked down the current owner of the company, Reflex Lighting, several more weeks went by before the company was able to find somebody familiar with the high school’s lighting system, he said.