Facility managers everywhere are tasked with improving energy efficiency to control costs. Those strides cannot be achieved at the expense of system performance and reliability, or the comfort of the people within those properties. There are few places where this is truer than in schools and universities. K-12 schools and university lecture spaces must be kept comfortable to maximize student performance. The question for most schools comes down to budget: What upgrades are needed, and what can be achieved in a retrofit vs. a new system? Similarly, how can new site builds maximize energy efficiency while containing upfront system costs? Finding the capital for major upgrades or high-end alternative energy systems may be difficult for many schools, but modern control techniques can help improve the efficiency of existing legacy systems and new installations by executing HVAC processes more efficiently.