Spokane School Gets $724K for Solar-Powered Future

The Salish School of Spokane, where 50 students learn entirely in an endangered Indigenous language, just won a $724,000 grant to install solar panels and battery storage at its future campus along the Spokane River.

Avista Utilities awarded the grant to help the private nonprofit school build a completely green campus. The school teaches kids from preschool through eighth grade in Colville-Okanagan Salish, a language that once thrived across the Inland Northwest before European colonization nearly erased it.

"It just really aligns with our personal philosophies of a sustainable campus," said Brea Desautel, co-executive director at the school. "Especially being right on the river, we want to make sure that we have a clean campus that follows those green guidelines."

The solar installation will cover the roofs of both the school and a community center on the donated 2-acre site. Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington gifted the land as reparations, a powerful gesture of reconciliation.

The panels will generate enough electricity to power about a dozen average homes each year. While that won't fully meet the school's needs, it brings them closer to their goal of running entirely on alternative energy.

The Ripple Effect

This project reaches far beyond classroom walls. The backup battery system means the community center can serve as a safe gathering place during power outages or natural disasters, offering warmth and light when families need it most.

The solar installation will prevent 260,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually. That's equivalent to taking 25 cars off the road every year, creating cleaner air for everyone in Spokane.

The grant comes from Avista's Named Communities Investment Fund, which directs $5 million yearly to communities disproportionately affected by environmental change. The fund specifically supports tribes, rural areas, and communities of color under Washington's Clean Energy Transformation Act.

The school is still raising funds for construction, sitting about $2 million short of its $17 million goal. But staff plan to break ground by the end of May, with doors opening in December 2027.

Meanwhile, the school keeps growing. Eight new students enrolled for next year, when the school adds ninth graders for the first time. Desautel's dream is ambitious but within reach: serving children from 12 months old to 18 years old, all learning in their ancestral language on a campus powered by the sun.