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Johnson Controls Helps Innovative School Obtain Financing

20 December 1999

Johnson Controls Helps Innovative School Obtain Financing

    MILWAUKEE, Dec. 17 -- Financing arranged by Johnson Controls,
Inc. has helped make the Central City Cyberschool of Milwaukee a
reality.
    Of the $7 million needed to build the school, Johnson Controls helped
Cyberschool obtain nearly $3.9 million in funding for the project, which will
be used to install heating, air conditioning, fire, security and lighting
controls in the building. Johnson Controls will also install an innovative
data network system from Lucent Technologies that will allow for wireless
communications. In addition, the company will service and maintain the
building systems for 15 years.
    Cyberschool is operated by a nonprofit company under a five-year charter
granted by the City of Milwaukee.  Milwaukee is the first city in the country
with the authority to establish charter schools, which are tax-funded
institutions that operate independently of public school districts. The
original five-year term for the Cyberschool charter limited the school
officials' options for using traditional financing sources. Johnson Controls
commitment to sign a 15-year contract helped the school get the needed loan.
    "While we're helping the Cyberschool dream become a reality, our
involvement also is a sound business decision. A major goal at Johnson
Controls is to deliver quality indoor environments," said Alex Molinaroli,
vice president sales, Systems and Services North America for the Controls
business of Johnson Controls. "With Cyberschool, we're providing the Milwaukee
community another quality building environment delivered by state-of-the-art
equipment."
    The school's new 47,000-square-foot facility, currently under
construction, will be among the first elementary schools in North America to
feature a wireless data network system where students can operate their laptop
computers and access the Internet from anywhere within the building without
having to plug into a modem. The school is part of the renovation of one of
Milwaukee's oldest public housing developments and will accommodate 400
students when it opens in September 2000.
    Johnson Controls, Inc. is a global market leader in automotive systems and
facility management and control. In the automotive market, it is a major
supplier of seating and interior systems and batteries. For nonresidential
facilities, Johnson Controls provides building control systems and services,
energy management and integrated facility management. Johnson Controls,
founded in 1885, has headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis.  Its sales for 1999
totaled $16.1 billion.