School board streamlines phone, light bill

The Santa Rosa County School District is looking to trim their budget in more ways than one.

Your mother always told you to turn off the lights when you leave a room, right? But Santa Rosa County School District has not held to that policy, and they never ever turn off their school's computers - not for overnight, not for weekends, and not even over the summer. Now some members of the district's Budget Task Force have done some research and found the district could save at least a quarter million dollars a year just by following your mother's policy.

Task Force Bill Emerson heard someone on the committee ask at last month's meeting about why the computers and lights were not turned off a the district schools even over vacation and weekends. So Emerson, principal of Navarre High School, made some calls and did some research to find out just how much his school, and how much the district, might save by flipping those switches. He reported to the Task Force last week, "I found out from Steve Ratliffe that even though we are not charged exactly the same rate as homeowners, we could possibly save at least two to three percent by turning off lights. Since the annual electricity cost of the school district is about $3.3 million, that would mean a savings of at least $60,000 - $90,000 a year."

But he discovered turning off computers could save even more. "And it looks like we could save at least $200,000 by turning off computers," Emerson reported. "This is a significant savings, and if we save enough, it would be worthwhile in my opinion to offer some incentive plan to employees to get them to help with this."

School District Superintendent John Rogers said, "In the past computers were different, and the decision was made not to turn them off because it took as much time and electric to turn them all back on every day. But now days, computers can be turned off and on so easily, and so quickly, I think it is a good idea to consider."

Rogers said he has been much more aware of turning off the lights in his own office since the last meeting. "Since you all brought up the issue last month, the last thing I do when I leave my office now is reach for that light switch," Rogers said. "You all really made me more aware of that - and my secretary can vouch for that, since she is left sitting in the dark sometimes now."

Rogers said it has never been a policy to have all lights turned off in the schools when janitors leave for the night. Some committee members said they had often wondered why so many lights were on in some schools when they drove by at night or on weekends. Rogers told the committee last month that it had been at the discretion of the maintenance crews what lights were left on or turned off.

Rogers said they need to do a little more research and get some hard numbers and perhaps ask the school board to change the policy. "I do think you could offer an employee incentive program to have all employees help make sure the lights and computers are turned off every day," Rogers said.

About 200 people working for the Santa Rosa County School District now carry cell phones supplied by the school board. And separating the school related calls from the personal calls each month has become an accounting nightmare, according to Rogers. So he is proposing a simple solution - a flat rate monthly supplement.

"I would be quick to point out, first, that school board members do not have district cell phones. They use their own private phones at all time," Rogers told the School District Budget Task Force last week. "But everyone else, including myself, who is on the emergency call list for the school district has a district provided cell phone. And I think in the long run it would be much cheaper to just pay everyone a $50 supplement instead of having someone take the time each month to separate out those calls and wait for checks to be sent back by the cell phone operators."

The Budget Task Force is meeting at least once a month now to find ways to save money in next year's school district budget. Rogers asked the committee for their blessing in making the recommendation to the school board to change the cell phone policy.

Rogers said this had been a recommendation of the auditor general, and some other school district's have gone to this policy. "Looking at the time it is now taking us to do the work of going through all the phone bills, and the billing, I believe we would actually save money by just paying a flat amount to those that we require to carry a cell phone," Rogers said. "And since it is something to bring us into line with the auditor general's guidelines, I would like to see this done by June 30, so we will have it implemented before our July 1 review."

The committee unanimously agreed Rogers should bring the new policy to the school board the last week of March.