By Greg Hunt
greg.hunt@ecm-inc.com
A burst of positive energy began the Aug. 20 District 911 School Board meeting when its energy-saving program received several accolades.
The district earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Energy Star Award” by reducing its energy consumption by 27 percent since joining the Schools for Energy Efficiency (SEE) Program four and a half years ago. Presenting that award at the meeting was Bill Glahn, director of the MN Dept. of Commerce’s Office of Energy Security.
Pictured: District 911 Board Chairman Ed Hill accepts the Energy Star top performance award from Bill Glahn, director of the Office of Energy Security, at the Aug. 20 school board meeting.
“Your school district is the fourth in Minnesota to receive the Energy Star Leader Award and one of only 66 across the country who achieved over 23.4 percent energy savings,” spoke Glahn. “We at the state of Minnesota ask a lot of the public regarding fiscal constraint. I applaud you for your early application of this process, and your dedication to keep working on it year after year.”
Hallberg Engineering is the firm consulting District 911 on its SEE plan. Joe Hallberg and Becky Saas of that firm were present at Thursday’s meeting to share in the excitement, along with passing out conservation awards to each district building for reaching goals.
“You have met and exceeded your SEE goals. Plus you have engaged students with energy conservation education,” said Hallberg, whose company works with entities across the nation. Added Saas, “It’s totally awesome and exciting when a road map comes to life. You are our poster child on how a SEE program should be implemented.”
District 911 Building & Grounds Director Mark Eisenbacher was very pleased to pass on the energy saving figures to those in attendance, calculated at $1.25 million over the plan’s tenure. He was also very proud that the district’s part-time coordinator Nancy Johnson was the recipient of Hallberg’s first “Energy Efficiency Coordinator of the Year” award.
“We consider this whole plan a journey, not a destination,” explained Eisenbacher. “We’re always looking for ways to cut consumption. Increasing our water conservation is a next step.”
Eisenbacher listed several bricks that must be set in place for a successful energy saving plan:
• A forward-looking school board
• Support and encour-agement from administration
• Ongoing measurement and accounting
• Developing key partner-ships and working with utility companies
• Maximize internal resources through leadership of part-time coordinator Johnson and building head custodians Jim Bulera, Rand Budnik, Bob Hansen, Curtis Fritz, Larry Lundeen and Mike White
• Employees embracing an energy-conscious outlook.
District 911’s Energy Saving
In the last four and a half years, Cambridge-Isanti School District has reduced consumption by 7.491 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 377,000 therms of gas for heating.
This is equivalent to:
• 7.265 metric tons of greenhouse gases not emitted into the atmosphere
• CO2 emissions from 1,330 cars
• CO2 emissions from burning 824,635 gallons of gasoline
* Total savings achieved over these years in Schools for Energy Efficiency Program: $1,250,895
Energy consumption reduction: 27%
Energy-Saving methods
• Turning off lights, computer monitors
• Shutting off electronics at night
• Turning off faucets tightly
• Turning down thermostats 2° in winter and turning up 2° in summer
• Upgrading to more energy-efficient lighting, heating, ventilation, AC
• Installing water conservation equipment
• Installing swimming pool cover
- Source, District 911 Building & GroundsOnline opportunities
Online opportunities
In the “Education Starts Here” segment of the meeting, Cambridge-Isanti High School Principal Mitch Clausen updated the board about online opportunities currently available through the school. CIHS offers online coursework through the Infinity system. Primary reasons students are directed to go the online route are when they just can’t get into one of the CIHS classes or when they are planning to leave the district for another online program.
Clausen explained that it takes a student with high self-motivation to achieve success in online courses. Of 10 CIHS students who went that route last year, Clausen said, two are passing, one is doing “okay,” and seven either returned to school or dropped out completely.
“It’s good we have the opportunity to offer choices for students, but we want them to be successful,” said Clausen.
Approximately 60 schools belong to the Infinity system. The district pays the $350 per credit cost for a student to take the online class. Clausen rhetorically questioned how much the district should market the online program.
He added that an example of a future online offering CIHS could lean toward would be a science class directed to home-school students, where students would meet with a teacher once a week.
Clausen finished his presentation touting the school’s ITV program which is flourishing. CIHS sends out French I, II and III interactive courses to participating schools through instructor Jim Gottfried and CISCO computer networking training through instructor Jason Kopp. In turn, CIHS students may take Chinese I, College Medical Terminology, AP European History and American Sign Language through ITV classes.
Clausen said a new ITV room was added at CIHS. The equipment and installation was free due to the amount of teaching the school provides the ITV system.
In other action, the board:
• Heard in Supt. Bruce Novak’s report that both Cambridge and Isanti’s kindergarten enrollments are up considerably, warranting the addition of one teacher in each building.
• Hired the following personnel: Tracy Fredlund, part-time CPS Special Education; Mary Sima, full-time ALC Special Education; Nichole Yung, full-time Rum River South Language Arts; Courtney Paul, part-time CIHS FACS.
• Denied by 4-2 vote the one-year leave request from Kathy Belsheim (Minnesota Center Math/Language Arts). Belsheim was approached by Ogilvie to fill an administration position. The denial was based mainly on the timing of the request since the Minnesota Center year-round school was already one month into its 2009-2010 schedule.
• Heard Board Member Dan Fosse’s update on the grievance process involving technology coordinators/teachers’ stipend payments.
— Next regular meeting: Thursday, Sept. 24, 7 p.m. School building tours Tuesday, Sept. 1.
