Education and generation may go hand in hand in the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation.

The P.H.M. district is looking to generate its own wind power as a means of generating revenue for the schools.

Penn Harris Madison has also received $2.3 million worth of federal bonding authority to help the cause.

“Technically what we would do is sell the energy and then we would use that revenue to offset our utility costs,” said P.H.M. Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker.

“We spend about $2 million a year on utilities, and this would help us with about $500 thousand,” Thacker added.

A consultant has recommended that P.H.M. build one wind turbine on the grounds of Grissom Middle School, and another at a wind park in Lafayette, Indiana.

“We anticipate that we’re going to be able to go forward with the blessing of the community and the school board,” said Dr. Thacker.

Estimates show that the Grissom turbine would cost about $2.3 million to build but bring in $2.9 million over the 17-year payback period.

The turbine in Lafayette would cost $3.4 million but return $6.7 million over a 15 year payback period.

“We’re going to pay it back with our debt service but the way we structured our debt is that we'll be retiring some debt and we will not be increasing the tax rate,” explained Dr. Thacker.

“In addition to reducing our expenditures we have to increase revenues and so that’s what we’re trying to do use this as a revenue generator to help our school system,” Thacker said.

The P.H.M. district held a public meeting on the subject at Grissom Middle School on Monday night.

No final decision was expected at the meeting.