Many Dutch cities have ambitious climate protection plans. In order to encourage both professional and private owners of monumental buildings to realize energy saving measures, municipalities aim to play an exemplary role with their own historic buildings. School buildings form a special challenge: The wish to preserve historic values in combination with the need to improve the ventilation in the class rooms and to reduce the energy loss by façades and roofs and single glazing is already extremely difficult. In addition, the financial resources for school buildings are very limited. This combination seems to result in an impossible challenge. In the city of Hilversum, the potentials for energy saving measures in six historical schools were studied. The experiences of this study were combined with the knowledge of a Dutch network where cities and the State Agency for the Cultural Heritage participate. This led to innovative technical and process related solutions for historical school buildings.