Raytown School District saves thousands of dollars by saving energy

RAYTOWN, Mo. - The Raytown School District started a new program this past year called Energy Education and they hired an energy specialist to examine anything that plugs in, uses energy or costs money. The specialist figures out how to eliminate the waste. After a year of teaching employees how conserve energy and other cost cutting measures, the district was able to save more than $500,000 dollars.

The district has been so successful that the EPA is reviewing the district and considering them for several awards.

During tight budget times, the district found a way to save half a million dollars.

“In these tight fiscal times, when the state comes out to say we have less money to give the schools, we are trying to find every way we can to cut spending in areas that don’t affect education,” explained assistant superintendent Travis Hux.

Hux said in the last year, the district had to absorb 16.5 percent increase in electrical rates and 11 percent increase in water rates. He said they are saving about a thousand dollars a day which is 25 percent of their $1.9 million utility budget.

Their motto is a dollar saved in energy is a dollar for education, and Hux claims it’s helped the district avoid harsh cuts to the educational program.

The breakdown on how they saved is simple: stop running what’s not in use.

Every night, teachers turn off their computers.

“We cut out eight to 10 hours a day of the computers running. We have over 5,000 computers in the district and that added up to a little over $100,000 dollars a year, just to turn computers off,” said Hux.

Teachers said the kids are taking their lessons home.

Austin Purvis, a teacher at Little Blue Elementary, said his class has learned to save.

“I have learned that the little things matter, everything matters. The kids have learned that too and telling them and reinforcing them with that they are going home and doing the same thing. I am going home and doing the same thing,” said Purvis.

The district also started unplugging things like milk coolers over breaks and weekend.

The energy specialist, Richard Cusick, said, “We figure turning off the milk coolers on weekends and holidays saves around $7,000 a school year.”

They also made a change in the restroom. Their urinals used to run water constantly that cost the district about $20 dollars a day per urinal. Now they have put them on timers.

“Switching the constant flow urinals in one school will save about $2,000 a year,” said Cusick.

Cusick also found errors with some of the utility bills.

“We are a government entity and we were being charged tax on a bill. He found that and had it corrected and had the money credited back to us. At another building, we had two meters on the building and we were being charged for two meters for over 10 years, which was about $40,000 dollars, so we got that money back as well,” explained Hux.

Hux said they have been aided by federal dollars to supplement in the budget and that will be gone after this year, so Hux said this money saved will save the district from more cuts.

Rodney Dayton, the head custodian, said he spends his time, when children are not in the school, making sure temperatures are never too high or too low. And all of the money has added up.

Their advice for you to save at home is to turn off your lights, unplug things not in use and carefully look at your utility bills. Over time, it can all add up.

Visit energyeducation.com to learn more about the program.