Student project will lead to energy savings at Cedar Rapids school

McKinley Middle School will likely see lower electric bills as a result of a collaboration with Kirkwood Community College students, Sam's Club and Alliant Energy.

Danielle Brazant, president of the Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) chapter at Kirkwood, said Sam's Club partners with SIFE nationally for environmental sustainability projects.

“We're a business club that does community service projects in local communities,” Brazant said. “For this project, we're getting a grant from Sam's Club. We've already received the first $1,000 and there's potentially another grant from Lowe's Companies to complete a project on environmental sustainability with a local K-through-12 public school.”

Brazant said Alliant Energy paid for an energy audit at McKinley this fall to determine ways to reduce electricity costs. Early efforts like student and teachers turning lights out or reducing lighting in classrooms that weren't in use led to a lower electric bill in November than the tally for October.

Brazant said the installation of motion-sensing light switches Tuesday in the 88-year-old school's six student bathrooms is expected to lower energy use even further and water restrictors are expected to reduce water consumption.

“The lights in the bathrooms are turned on when I get here each day at 6 a.m. and they stay on until 11 each night,” said Mary Church, head custodian at McKinley. “We have activities in the evening at the school. I think this will really saved us some money.”

Brazant said McKinley students and staff accompanied the energy auditor hired by Alliant Energy and found areas where lighting was brighter than necessary.

“We're replacing 35-watt fluorescent tubes with 25-watt units, which should save on electricity,” Brazant said. “In some areas, we're actually removing half the fluorescent tubes where less lighting is appropriate to reduce energy use.”

Brazant said McKinley staff and students have embraced energy conservation, recycling and other environmental sustainability efforts, including the formation of a McKinley Middle School Environmental Club. She said the Kirkwood chapter of SIFE hopes to receive additional grant funds to do similar projects at other area schools.

“We have certain criteria that we have to follow,” Brazant said. “The school cannot have more than a certain number of students and teachers.”

Kent Vogel, manager of the Cedar Rapids Sam's Club at 2605 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, was impressed with the interest level at McKinley when he initially toured the school.

“It was just an awesome experience to see the involvement of the school staff, the maintenance team, and the students,” Vogel said. “We've already implemented a lot of the ideas like energy-efficient lighting and timers at our Sam's Clubs and Walmart stores. We also have worked with a lot of retailers to reduce energy consumption and implement environmentally sustainable practices.

“Through the efforts of SIFE, we're able to get young people to think about energy conservation and environmental sustainability when they're not at school. Many of these young people possibly will go home and say ‘We need to turn off the light.'

“Hopefully, we're setting a new standard for the next generation.”