When Harold "Chuck" Hatfield became Superintendent of                                   Putnam County                                   Schools, one of his                             foremost goals was                                 fiscal responsibility.                                  Educating                                             approximately 9,000                            students and                                         maintaining more than 1,000,000 square-feet of facilities space at 22 sites makes cost savings a vital aspect of his job. “The bottom line is -- it’s the public’s money,” states Hatfield, “We have to do everything within our power to be good stewards.”

One measure that Hatfield and Putnam County Schools instituted to cut spending is an energy conservation program that has thus far saved the county school system nearly half a million dollars in energy costs. Hatfield says the system has saved $461,034.13 to date by taking responsibility for energy management.

Energy Manager Gary Sigman has become the face of energy savings in Putnam County Schools. Along with Energy Education, Incorporated, a company with more than 16 years of experience in assisting school districts in saving substantial amounts of money through energy conservation, Sigman has developed and implemented a customized program for Putnam.

“I do building audits twice a week at various times of day, and I check every facility once a month,” says Sigman. “Basically, I try to get the staffs and students to treat the schools like they would their own homes: last person out turns off the lights and closes the door,” he states.

Energy-saving measures obviously include much more than turning off the classroom lights, however. Sigman also conducts multiple building walk-throughs with custodians to check for water leaks, maintain appropriate classroom and office temperatures, regulate appliance and office machinery usage, and spot potential energy waste. In addition, as he calculates each school’s consumption, Sigman uses a formula to estimate the amount of savings, or “Cost Avoidance” for each site and provides each school with a report of their actual usage and cost avoidance. In August, 2007, alone, Putnam County Schools saved more than $21,000 in energy costs.