M-W's post-hurricane damage: $250,000 added energy bill
Central Valley - The Monroe-Woodbury School District faces a $250,000 increase in the cost to heat its buildings and to bus its students. The quarter-million dollar shortfall could be absorbed through economies elsewhere in the district’s $117 million austerity budget. But Monroe-Woodbury is not alone. A report by the U.S. Department of Energy earlier this month indicated that home heating costs in the Northeast will jump hundreds of dollars this winter, with natural gas prices rising 29 percent and heating oil prices jumping 28 percent. For school districts in New York, that will mean an average shortfall of more than $155,000, or almost $90 million statewide, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer told the Associated Press last week. “The choice between books and fuel is not one that any school district should have to make,” Schumer said in proposing that oil companies should help pay the cost of heating schools this winter. Monroe-Woodbury was among the school districts that provided Schumer’s office with its figures. John A. Staiger, Monroe-Woodbury’s assistant superintendent for business, said the district budgeted $2.65 million to heat and light its classrooms and buildings for the 2005-06 school year; there is a shortfall of $100,000. The district also estimated that it would cost $510,000 to pay for the fuel for buses and other vehicles; the shortfall is $150,000. The district has about 150 buses, which collectively travel 1.8 million miles a year, Staiger said. Given the size of the district - and that voters have twice rejected spending plans in the last three years with complaints of high taxes, the search for efficiencies and economies is ongoing. For instance, the district has saved about $225,000 annually since 1997 through upgrades to boilers, switching to more efficient lighting and, more recently, adding solar power. Monroe-Woodbury also purchases fuels through a cooperative of other school districts in an attempt to realize other economies. And sometimes, savings are found on smaller scales: Drivers also are more apt to turn off their buses rather than let the vehicles idle while waiting for students. The temperature in most buildings, set at 70 degrees during the day, is set back in the evening. Staff and students are reminded to turn off a light or a computer when work is done. Budgets are based on trends. But even those who make forecasts for the federal government did not see the impact on energy costs from Hurricanes Katherine and Rita. And what that meant locally was this: When school administrators started preparing the current budget 18 months ago, Staiger said the cost of diesel fuel was about $1.15 a gallon. They expected a jump in cost, and so budgeted diesel at $1.66 per gallon. The price this week, Staiger said, was $2.09. “You get blown out of the water with a figure like that,” he said. “And what will it mean for next year?”