Hitting switches is saving schools $100,000 a year
Posted on Sunday, September 3, 2006
SILOAM SPRINGS — The sun has set over Northside Elementary School, and the energy cop is on patrol.
Like a hunter, Mike Rogers uses all his senses as he prowls the school’s empty classrooms in search of tell-tale signs of wasteful electricity: the hum of computer processors, the glow of monitors that haven’t been turned off.
He reaches Room 25 — the computer lab. Rogers, wearing cowboy boots and a gold belt buckle, finds 10 speakers, four monitors and one computer station still running. The machines are guzzling electricity, and money, with each tick of the clock.
“This is just unacceptable,” Rogers says as he slides along the computer row, powering down the Gateway E-Series hardware. “This might be a new teacher, but that’s no excuse.”
Rogers, whom colleagues have nicknamed “Energy Nazi” and “Prince of Darkness,” spends his evenings in the Siloam Springs School District’s schools looking for unnecessary power usage.
The tasks may seem mundane, but Rogers, the district’s energy manager, has helped save the district more than $ 500, 000 since its school board enacted an energy-conservation policy four years ago.
The largest school districts in Benton and Washington counties cut checks totaling millions of dollars each year for electricity, natural gas, water and sewer services. So administrators go to extreme lengths to manage those utility bills.
It’s an uphill battle, however. They’re paying more to keep the lights on than they did five years ago.
They cite two factors for the increase: the construction of new buildings to accommodate student growth and across-theboard rate increases — particularly for electricity and natural gas.
The rapidly expanding Bentonville School District opened two schools in August. The district also expanded its high school by 300, 000 square feet.
“Utilities is the single largest nonsalaried item in a district’s budget,” said Doug Eaton, director of the Arkansas Department of Education’s Division of Facilities and Transportation. “And it’s the most volatile item in the budget, because controlling it is largely beyond your ability.
“ Prices change, and you’ve got to go with them.”
The Rogers School District spent $ 2. 2 million on utilities for the 2005-06 school year, $ 478, 496 more than the previous year. Rogers’ utilities budget was nearly equal to its English as a Second Language program, which served 3, 000 students.
Rogers’ utility bills grew by $ 869, 870 over the last five years.
“The costs have all increased, and it’s significant,” said David Cauldwell, the district’s busi- ness manager.
That’s why districts in Northwest Arkansas and across the state are trying to lower their energy consumption.
They are weather-stripping doorways and adding insulation, retrofitting buildings with energysaving light bulbs and installing computerized ventilation control systems that keep temperatures within certain ranges and can be adjusted to scale back heating and cooling when buildings are empty.
A few districts run buses with biodiesel fuel and use geothermal heating systems to warm buildings. And some are turning to performance contracts based on energy-efficient equipment, particularly when they build new schools.
This fall, the Bryant School District (Saline County ) will open the first school in the state certified by the U. S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, or LEED. Bethel Middle School will meet stringent energy efficiency standards set by the nonprofit Washington D. C.-based council.
Many districts are just starting to get serious about energy management, Cauldwell said.
Some schools have been playing the game for years.
The Alma School District (Crawford County ) installed its first temperature-control system following the 1970 s oil crisis, said David Woolly, Alma’s deputy superintendent. Now every Alma school has one.
The systems save Alma between $ 100, 000 and $ 150, 000 each year, Woolly said.
“It’s almost a selfish thing,” Woolly said. “We want to spend all the money we can on things that directly affect the education of children. I don’t know why every school, every office building, every everything isn’t already doing this.”
Some districts are hiring energy conservation consultants.
Siloam Springs paid Energy Education of Wichita Falls, Texas, more than $ 130, 000 over the last four years for an energy conservation program.
Rogers, that district’s energy manager, earns an extra $ 15, 000 annually to administer the Energy Education program. He teaches agriculture at the high school. Rogers jokes that he took on the extra responsibility not to make the schools more “green” but for the “green” he puts in his wallet.
The program has helped the district avoid $ 569, 400 in utility expenses, Rogers said. The Siloam Springs School Board credited the savings when signing off on two recent teacher raises.
Jan Noel-Smith, a spokesman for Energy Education, said the company has contracts with 780 districts across the U. S., including 14 in Arkansas. Energy Education performs a complete analysis of each district, suggests ways to cut power and then provides software to track compliance and savings.
The company usually charges a flat fee and guarantees the district’s energy savings will cover it.
The Bentonville district became the latest to contract with Energy Education, which guaranteed $ 100, 000 in energy savings in the first year. The Bentonville School Board appointed its own energy manager in late August and began to craft conservation guidelines for teachers.
They include behavioral requirements like turning off coffee machines at night, keeping thermostats at specific points and closing classroom doors during teaching to preserve cool or warm air. Superintendent Gary Compton said the move will change the way the district looks and does business. For example, the evening lighting at Mary Mae Jones Elementary School will be reduced substantially. Bentonville School Board member Travis Riggs said the building glows so strongly that it appears fully occupied at night. “My Lord, the building looks beautiful, but there’s no reason for us to do that,” Compton said.
To contact this reporter: jkrupa@arkansasonline. com
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