Flocktown-Kossmann School Goes Green!

May 2011 Report:

Flocktown-Kossmann Green Team announces that proceeds from the "Totally Green" T-shirts sales will be used to purchase three trees to be planted on the grounds of Flocktown-Kossmann School.  We have been working with local landscaper, Mark Frederickson of Frederickson Landscaping, to identify the proper cultivars for our zone that will be fast growing and provide shade on our property.  Two mature ornamental plum trees will be planted near the "Fitness America" playground and one dwarf ornamental tree will be planted by a back entrance to the Kossmann building to replace a diseased tree that was removed more than a year ago.  To celebrate the efforts of the "Green Team" and the wonderful students of Flocktown-Kossmann School all students and staff are encouraged to wear their "Totally Green" shirt on planting day - Friday, May 6th.  Check out pictures of the planting. 

April 2011 Report: 

Flocktown-Kossmann Green Team announces Earth Day Celebration activities.  Due to school closure on April 22nd, the students will celebrate Earth Day on April 21st.  We will be sponsoring a Litter-Less Lunch and don't forget to wear your Totally Green shirt.

Litter-Less Lunch Results:

Congratulations to all of us at Flocktown-Kossmann school for decreasing the amount of garbage we threw out at lunch last Thursday. The results are as follows:

·         Grade 1 - Decreased litter by 4.6 pounds, or 1.15 pounds of litter per class

·         Grade 2 - Decreased litter by 9.3 pounds, or 1.86 pounds per class

·         Grade 3 - Decreased litter by 4.75 pounds, or 3.5 pounds per class

·         Grade 4 - Decreased litter by 13.75 pounds, or 2.75 pounds per class

·         Grade 5 - Decreased letter by 2.5 pounds,  or 0.5 pounds per class

For a total of 34.9 pounds of garbage that did not end up in a landfill  - an average of over 1.5 pounds per class!

 Overall 4^th grade won the challenge, for decreasing their garbage the most pounds , but 3^rd grade decreased their garbage by the most pounds per classroom. Although, we all won for trying to throw out less garbage and most importantly, it was good for the environment. Thank you to our custodians for weighing the garbage and to our school’s Green Team for organizing this activity. Do your best to do something positive for the environment everyday!

GOING GREEN ENRICHMENT:

Selected students in grades 1 and 2 participated in the "Going Green" enrichment program which was designed to help our school conserve energy.  We started by learning about where energy comes from and what types are renewable and what types are nonrenewable.  Then we discussed why it is so important for our school to conserve energy.  We used the light meter to assess the lighting levels in the school.  This helped us recommend that teachers use only one light switch to light their classrooms.  We put star stickers on the appropriate light switch.  We also used the kilowatt meter to figure out how much money the school could save if teachers unplugged certain appliances at the end of each day.  The group used that information to give speeches to homerooms about turning off lights and unplugging appliances.  We also added a reminder on the morning announcements to be green and turn off lights.  The group also created posters to hang around the school reminding everyone of different ways to conserve energy!  Hopefully this will have an impact on the entire school as well as the students in the group! 

March 2011 Report:

Flocktown-Kossmann School will celebrate Earth Day on April 21nd by wearing our Totally Green Shirts.  Click here to order shirt. In addition to the shirts and Earth Day celebration, our green team members are conducting an enrichment course for students about being environmentally friendly.  The school buildings have been surveyed for energy efficiencies in lighting and heating.  Appliances have also been monitored to seek out economies. 

Custodial Report:  We have evaluated our energy usage and made the following changes -

Building Lighting:

Full lighting evaluation performed on buildings.

Action taken:

• Reduced lighting by 30% in Flocktowns upper corridor while still maintaining guidelines for amount of candle power recommended.

• Parlayed lighting classrooms upon opening building until staff arrives in rooms.
• Replaced all exit light incandescent bulbs with energy saving LED bulbs.
• Reduced lighting by 30% in various spaces throughout building. Leaving required candle power per space.
• Note: The Kossman building was found to be energy efficient on its lighting.

General energy savings:

Action taken:

• Set auto boot and shutdown tasks on all computer lab pc’s in both buildings.
• Also auto shut down on all library computers, faculty room and custodial. Will continue to monitor and see if it is possible to do the same on any other computers.
• Manually shut off all power to computer lab pc’s on weekdays when school is not in session to prevent auto booting.
• Adjusted run times of central HVAC units to start one hour later. Also to shut down two hours earlier. Saving three hours run time per day yet maintaining optimal temps.
• Performed kilowatt usage tests between older Vulcan freezer and new Frigidaire in kitchen. Found New unit runs at 0.08 kWh and old Vulcan at .51 correlating an energy use difference of approx $560 per year between the two if calculated at 15 cents per kWh. Received quote on replacement freezer at $575.00 (Can recoup the cost in one year) Presented proposal to board office.
• Tested various settings on boilers and found I can set boiler temp down approx 7 degrees without affecting the building temperature, or run times of the boilers.
• Also we are in the process of assessing whether it would be beneficial to install a timer on the hot water heater for non heat season use. This depends on standby temp loss of heater and whether a timer would actually produce savings. Will have results in