I’d like to share some of our efforts with you.
Every day efforts to enhance efficiency
• We negotiated a 55.7 percent reduction in the cost of property, liability and fleet insurance between 2005 and 2011, despite growth in the district’s property value and transportation fleet. These savings — which amounted to $142,000 — were realized by improving safety and reducing risk.
• The school conducted analysis of existing facilities’ mechanical systems that helped us identify points of savings and led us to improvements that increased efficiencies and decreased overall energy consumption.
• Although the district has added 32 additional classrooms and 13 modular buildings since 2005, custodial staffing has remained the same.
• The school use purchasing cooperatives to buy supplies, materials and equipment at lower costs by pooling resources with other school districts. We also purchase items such as lightly-used furniture at school auctions for pennies on the dollar.
Rethinking educational delivery
We’re also considering new approaches to the delivery of education that will allow the district to save funds:
• A transition to all-day, every other day kindergarten, which will allow the district to increase efficiencies of operation and reduce fuel expenditures.
• Creating personnel savings by redistributing workloads of retiring staff members among existing employees whenever possible.
Renovation-related efficiencies
Finding ways to make our existing school buildings operate more efficiently over time also is key.
• We’re installing new digital energy control systems in all school buildings that allow school officials to remotely manage temperatures and energy usage in real time. Temperature settings can be programmed to school and occupancy schedules.
• We replaced 40-year-old boilers at Fairbrook and Parkwood elementaries with new boilers that are, at minimum, 35 percent more efficient than previous equipment and as much as 99 percent efficient at partial load conditions. Similar equipment will be installed at Shaw and Valley this summer.
• We worked with Dayton Power & Light to obtain nearly $34,000 in energy efficiency rebates tied to renovation improvements.
• We are replacing halide lights in the high school, Ankeney and Ferguson gymnasiums with more efficient fluorescent models that use one-third less energy. Unlike existing lights, these can be turned on and off instantaneously, reducing warm-up time. They also qualify for rebates from DP&L.
New construction efficiencies
Operational efficiencies are a primary consideration in the design of the new elementary and middle school building. Built-in efficiencies include:
• Exterior walls made of insulated concrete forms, which offer an exceptionally strong and super-insulated building envelope.
• A geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses approximately 40 percent less energy than conventional heating and cooling systems.
• A large number of insulated, energy-efficient windows that maximize natural light and significantly reduce energy usage related to lighting.
Beavercreek Schools operations staff are always seeking ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. We welcome suggestions from the community, employees and interested parties.
Gary Sattler is the director of business at Beavercreek City Schools.
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