VINTON–The Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) has named Roanoke County Public Schools second in the state in the VSBA Green Schools Challenge for schools with 10,000+ student populations. They received the honor for their efforts in “implementing environmental policies and practical actions to reduce carbon emissions.”
For the competition, school systems completed an extensive survey detailing efforts the division is making to be “environmentally friendly”, encompassing everything from a stated School Board policy on their commitment, to audits of the division’s facilities for energy consumption, to reduction in paper usage, to innovations specific to each school system.
Roanoke County Schools made their commitment to “becoming environmentally conscious to reduce energy usage” in 2005 when they joined with the Board of Supervisors to fund a Capital Improvement Plan resulting in renovations to existing schools and construction of new facilities. The Board made a choice to use best environmental practices in renovations and construction to save energy and lower energy costs now and in the future.
The School Board pledged to provide information to building principals reflecting the energy consumption for each building on a monthly basis, to set an energy management budget, and to hire an energy manager, whose task is to review energy usage and works to identify areas where energy can be conserved. As a result of these efforts, RCPS says they are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Dexter Hurt is in his third year as Energy Manager for RCPS. He uses an energy conservation program through Cenergistic, which provides a vast amount of information on the energy consumption in each building. He continually monitors the data and assists facility managers in making adjustments to lower energy consumption and energy costs, through what he calls a “cost avoidance” program.
Hurt is able to remotely monitor and remotely control individual classrooms and spaces for temperature and lighting. At a glance, he can determine which areas of a building are too cool, too warm, and even which ones are occupied at the time.
Hurt says that RCPS has 59 acres under-roof with 16,000 people to please in temperature and other energy-related issues, so his job could be complicated.
However, he says that the program is working in the County Schools because it involves everyone in the system from the School Board who invested in the plan, to the Central Office and Building Administrators who supervise and monitor energy usage on a daily basis, to maintenance staff across the district, to the teachers in each classroom who turn off lights and unplug electronic devices to save energy. Most everyone has bought into the program.
“The staff and students do a wonderful job of keeping our utility costs as low as possible at all of our schools,” said Hurt. “The staff unplugs, turns off computers and lights, and turns back speakers which draw power. It also helps when they take their computers home to recharge, as plugged in computer chargers cost 37cents each a year to operate. It adds up.”
Last year the school system dropped from $2.9 million to $2.8 million in energy costs when would normally it would have been two to three times higher.
Just as in individual homes, the key to lowering costs and consumption is in the small things.
“If it doesn’t need to be on, it’s not on, except for temperature, where we use a turn-back, not turn off policy,” said Hurt.
As for the local schools, he says that all Vinton area schools are now “experiencing reduced energy consumption.”
At William Byrd High School, data shows that energy costs have dropped from $209,000 to $195,000 in the last year (from 8.6 billion BTU’s to 8.1 billion), which Hurt says is pretty amazing as “it’s hard just to hold your own these days.”
Dexter Hurt, Energy Manager for Roanoke County Public Schools, is able to monitor energy consumption and energy costs in individual schools. This graph shows decreasing energy costs and consumption at William Byrd High School during the past year. Most schools in the County have a similar profile.
He credits Principal Richard Turner and Building Manager Bryant Pohlman with steps taken to reduce costs. Byrd has a new chiller which has helped save money. They also have light sensors in the classrooms; newer schools also have them in hallways.
“Our school just continues to make the effort to turn lights off when not using a room and making sure all electronics are turned off and shut down prior to leaving for the day,” said William Byrd Middle School Principal Tammy Newcomb. “One thing that has made the biggest difference is the new Chiller that was installed. We haven’t done anything out of the ordinary; we’re just persistent.”
Herman L. Horn Principal Susan Brown says that their savings are the result of “trying to turn out lights as we leave rooms. Several switches have been put on timers so lights go on and off automatically. We had some issues with a boiler that was fixed and helped our usage a good deal.”
The Green Schools Challenge encourages school systems to adopt programs to teach students about saving energy. Teacher Krista Lyle at Mount Pleasant Elementary initiated an educational program this year as part of the US Green Building Council Green Apple Day of Service to make their school and students more “energy responsible.”
“We installed several Energy Modlets in our classroom and plugged our classroom devices, including lights, computers, White Board, etc., into the the Modlets,” said Lyle. “These Modlets automatically track and display our daily energy use on a web-based dashboard. My students will be working on a year-long project in which they will establish energy conservation plans and monitor how much energy they are actually saving in our classroom. At the end of our project we will present our findings to another grade level in the hope of demonstrating how we can make our school more energy efficient, save money and teach our children how to be better stewards of our environment.”
Mount Pleasant is one of the County schools with a geothermal heating and cooling system, installed during its latest renovations.
A geothermal heating and cooling system was installed at Mount Pleasant Elementary School during their last renovations.
According to RCPS, “While geothermal systems represent a significant initial investment, the cost savings in utility expenses pays for the system within about seven years. This represents a tremendous future savings.”
The School Board wanted the new Mason’s Cover Elementary to be a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified building, so many energy-saving measures were implemented. Subsequently the school has become one of only ten in the state to receive Gold Level LEED certification for environmental building features.
Two of the most notable features of the school are the geothermal heating system and natural lighting from skylights and strategically placed windows. Mason’s Cove is also able to generate hot water on its roof with solar propane technology.
Many classrooms and spaces in the County Schools now have auto-dimmers that sense when the room is not occupied. This is the library at Cave Spring Middle School.
Many County schools are Energy Star certified. Others have day light harvesting, in which a sensor measures daylight levels and adjusts the electric lighting to maintain a desired light level. Hurt says the system is so subtle that students don’t even realize it.
“I’m so proud of the hard work of our staff,” said Superintendent Dr. Lorraine Lange. “Our administration and school board understand that being green is not only good for the environment, it also is a fiscally responsible way to operate our facilities. Being green saves money.”