The Boulder Valley School District in Colorado has a plan that will save $300,000 at the flip of a switch. They're shutting off their computers—no, not all day, just overnight. The district is installing power management software on its 10,000 computers. That software allows the IT department to program automatic startup and shutdown times. Come 7 p.m., if no one is working on a computer, boom! down it goes.
Total projected savings: $300,000, or $30 per computer.
The Boulder Valley district is a bit bigger than Sioux Falls, with about 27,000 students versus about 21,000 in Sioux Falls. I don't know if the Sioux Falls district has already implemented similar power-saving measures, and alas, I don't have a computer count handy for the district, but if Sioux Falls's computer-to-kid ratio is comparable to Boulder's, PC power management could save Sioux Falls about $230,000, enough to pay just about six teachers. By the same math, in Madison, with 1150 students, PC power management might save about $13,000.
And remember: sleep mode isn't the same as off. Put your computer in sleep or suspend mode but still leave it plugged in, and it may draw 8% to 30% of its normal power usage. Turn it off-off, flip the power strip switch, or pull the plug.
Bonus Budget Blast from the Past: When their computers are on, the Sioux Falls School District is celebrating 140 years of operation by blogging its old school board minutes. In Monday's post, we learn that, at their meeting on April 27, 1906, Sioux Falls School Board members felt the Junior-Senior dance was "against the best interests of the high school" and urged those classes to end the tradition so the school could operate less expensively. Yes! End prom! The board also tabled a motion to give $2 to each graduating senior.
Check out the link in the URL slot. SFSD's cost-cutting Energy Education. This board report was from 2010, and changes have already gone into effect. Just FYI.
Thanks for that link, Ben!
I have always wondered how much the school systems would save by switching from premium office software like Microsoft Office to freeware like Libre http://www.libreoffice.org or OpenOffice http://www.openoffice.org.
Granted, these software packages might lack some integration with Microsoft IIS servers the schools use (which aren't free operating systems either apache.org is). These are only two easy examples of premium software used by public schools for which there are comparable free replacement options. Those would be great ways schools could save money and reallocate it to paying the hardworking teachers and support staff that run the show.
I have no idea what schools pay (annually) to license microsoft office on all their machines, but I imagine it is considerable and would be one way to make a cut to the budget and carry on with business as usual (in my opinion).
Perhaps the moderator of this website can do some investigative journalism and crunch some numbers on what kinds of budget cuts school systems could make by replacing premium software products with freeware products when there are suitable options. I would love to see that story!