from the bcct:
Districts saving energy, cash
By: JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times
Reducing building usage during the summer is one way to cut energy costs.
Facing tighter budgets and ever-increasing expenses, local schools and school districts are taking various steps to reduce energy costs during their summer breaks.
Bucks County Technical High School and the Bensalem, Council Rock and Pennsbury school districts are among the local public schools that have adjusted building usage and made other moves to conserve energy, officials said.
Council Rock began a year-round energy conservation effort four years ago. During the summer, the initiative includes adjustments of air-conditioning levels and most buildings are open four days a week with extended hours.
The schedule revisions have helped the district realize savings of between $150,000 and $300,000 each month during the summer over the last couple of years, according to Council Rock's Web site.
The school system has earned national recognition for its efforts while saving about $6.27 million, or about 45 percent in energy usage, during the four years of the program, according to district officials.
Bensalem, which has about seven fewer buildings to operate than Council Rock, started a similar cost-cutting move this summer by curtailing building usage, officials said.
Officials in that district expect to save between $30,000 and $35,000 in utility costs by closing all buildings on Fridays except the administrative office and Benjamin Rush Elementary School, which houses a summer camp program, spokeswoman Susan Phy said.
Bensalem's summer schedule runs from late June until Aug. 24, Phy said.
The comprehensive tech school, which serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts, also is operating on a four-day schedule from mid-July through Aug. 14, officials said. Operating hours are 6:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday for the school off Wistar Road in Bristol Township.
Closing the school on Fridays during the summer and modifying the air-conditioning levels in non-occupied rooms will save about $12,000 in energy costs, tech school business administrator Sharon Rendeiro said.
Pennsbury officials are determining how much their district is saving by consolidating summer operations into seven of its 16 buildings, spokeswoman Ann Langtry said.
Other local school systems, including Bristol Township and Centennial, have looked into reducing summer energy costs, but cannot do so because buildings in those districts are in high use, officials said.
In addition, several construction projects under way in Centennial would not allow for a consolidation of building usage, said Acting Superintendent Sandy Homel.
However, the district could see some benefit from the mild summer the area has enjoyed thus far because air conditioners have not been in heavy use, Homel said.
