GUILDERLAND — The school district has its first energy manager — Fred Tresselt.
He doesn’t drive to his job, teaching at Farnsworth Middle School. In the spring and fall, Tresselt walks. "In the winter, I snowshoe through the woods to school or cross-country ski," he said.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders described Tresselt as a technology expert who is well respected by the staff. He will oversee a program that has the potential of saving the district $2.3 million over seven years, said Sanders.
"The energy program has a great deal of potential," Tresselt told The Enterprise this week. "It will be my job to communicate that in an understandable manner."
He has already been to the district’s five elementary schools for "background information," he said, and is eager to meet with energy consultants. "The goal is to get a lot of this in place before the start of the heating season," he said.
Tresselt went on, "A lot of people want to cooperate. They just need to be shown how."

A math and science teacher at Farnsworth, Tresselt has worked for the district for 21 years.

Tresselt will do his work as energy manger outside of the school day, said Susan Tangorre, the district’s personnel director.
He will begin work early, "even earlier than earth science," Tangorre quipped.

Tresselt has been involved in many aspects of the school; he has served on the Farnsworth building cabinet and on the district’s technology committee, he said.

He knows the schools from a parents’ perspective, too, since his three children — now grown — attended Guilderland schools.

Tresselt, who grew up in western New York, has had a long-standing interest in the environment and conservation issues. He was a forestry major at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks and went on to study physical education at Brockport. He earned a master’s degree at Colby College in Maine on a National Science Foundation scholarship.
His first teaching job was in Herkimer. "I was in Herkimer in 1970. April 20, 1970 was the very first Earth Day," he said. "We got a program together."
Tresselt went on about energy conservation, "It’s always been on my mind. You can save a lot of energy if you put your mind to it."
At 58, Tresselt is past the age when many teachers retire. "I’m just happy with what I’m doing," he said.

His wife, Janet, also a teacher, has recently retired.

The two just returned this week from a sojourn to Alaska.
The couple has traveled widely, teaching in Norway and Italy, and spending a year-and-a-half backpacking through Asia, Turkey, and India, "right down to Australia," said Tresselt.
"Traveling overseas, you see how little energy is needed for a good life," Tresselt said.

Energy Education
Guilderland has contracted with Energy Education Inc., a Texas company that markets, Sanders said earlier, "a guaranteed energy-saving program based on reducing consumption in facilities while maintaining occupancy comfort."
Sanders told the school board in November, when it first considered the plan, "There’s no need for people to be in the cold or work in the dark."
The program had been successfully used by 600 school districts nation-wide, he said, including Bethlehem and South Colonie locally. The large savings, Sanders said, come from "a combination of very small savings." One example he gave was of South Colonie saving $8,000 a year by shutting off the lights in its vending machines.

The Energy Education approach is comprehensive across the district and it focuses on changing people’s habits, Sanders said. Consultants identify energy use and consumption patterns, devise ways to save energy, and train the energy manager to see that people conserve while encouraging teamwork.

The program costs average $150,000 for the first four years, which Sanders described as being broken down this way:

— $120,000 for the consultants and training;

— $23,000 for the salary of the part-time energy manager;

— $3,000 for the annual seminar travel expenses for ongoing training; and

— $10,000 for the first-year payment on energy-accounting software with a $1,000 annual maintenance fee thereafter.

Savings are projected to average about $360,000 per year for an average net annual savings after expenses of over $200,000 per year, Sanders said. Savings increase considerably, averaging $500,000 per year in the fifth, sixth, and seventh year as the fees for Energy Education Inc. disappear, he said.

Raises

The board approved raises at its July 5 meeting for the 2005-06 school year, effective July 1, for employees who are not represented by negotiating units.

Daily rates remain at $80 for substitute teachers, $90 following a total of 40 days of district service, and $145 for long-term substitutes who teach 15 consecutive days for the same teacher.

Hourly pay rates for substitute custodial workers went up to $8.30, and to $9.40 for those who have worked four years or more in the district.

Hourly wages also went up for substitute mechanics to $10.35, and to $12.40 for those who have worked four years or more in the district.

Hourly rates for substitute bus drivers went up to $10.75 for workers with up to six months with the district, $11.50 after six months and a minimum of 100 hours substitute driving, $12.25 for after 12 months and a minimum of 200 hours; and $15.25 after 30 months and a minimum of 500 hours.

Pay rates for substitute nurses went up to $15.70 per hour up to 25 days, and to $19.25 per hour after 25 days of work in the district as a nurse substitute.

Rates for student workers also went up, to $6.25 per hour. For student videographers, the rate went up to $7 an hour the first year and $7.75 after that.

Tutor rates went up to $21.35 per hour up to four years, and then to $29.85 per hour after four years and a minimum of 50 hours tutoring each year.

The rate for election inspectors went up to $9 per hour,

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Authorized the superintendent to execute an option-to-purchase agreement with the Capital District YMCA for an annual fee of $2,775.

This will give the district, until June 1, 2007, the exclusive option to purchase two adjoining parcels of property along Western Avenue adjacent to Guilderland Elementary School.

Board member Peter Golden asked if the district had any plans for the land besides discouraging development.
"We really have no specific plans per se," said Superintendent Gregory Aidala. If the district wanted to purchase the eight-tenths of an acre in front of the school, on Western Avenue, voters would have to approve in the purchase for $175,000 in May of 2006, Aidala said. The price is based on its assessed value.

Board member Richard Weisz said the YMCA had acquired the land, across Western Avenue from the entrance road to its facility, and now has no plans for it.

The option, he said, gives the district time to determine if it would be better not to have development or to pick who develops the land;

— Approved a BOCES classroom rental and ancillary service agreement for the next school year.

The Board Of Cooperative Educational Services rents rooms from the district. The rent for 2005-06 is to remain at $12,000, for a total of $180,000 for 15 rooms.

The district also furnishes ancillary services for children with handicapping conditions assigned to the leased classrooms. The ancillary services base is rising from $14,000 in 2004-05 to $14,250 in 2005-06;
— Approved higher fees for building use. "The fees were last reviewed in 1998," Sanders wrote to the board. "Since that time the costs of operating and maintaining our facilities has increased."

An hour of use of the high school gym, for example, is going up $10 to $135; for the high school auditorium, up $5 an hour to $80; and for the middle-school cafetorium, up $5 to $65.

Hourly fees to be paid for custodial work are going up, too — $5 an hour to $25 for weekdays and to $55 for holidays;

— Heard congratulations for Stephanie Keller, a fifth-grader at Pine Bush Elementary School who placed second in the Upstate New York Celebrate America Creative Writing Contest.

Her essay was selected from 300 entries. She received a check and an autographed copy of Project Mulberry, a novel by Linda Sue Park;

— Heard from board member Thomas Nachod a suggestion that the board allow residents viewing board meetings on the cable access channel at home to e-mail comments to the board.

Aidala recommended the communications committee discuss the matter.

And board member Barbara Fraterrigo reiterated her suggestion that the board schedule public dialogue sessions before designated meetings;

— Heard praise from board member Colleen O’Connell for the high school graduation exercises.

Board President Gene Danese again encouraged board members to sit on stage during the ceremony.
"We should attend," he said.
And Golden, alluding to the fact that this year’s graduation was scheduled on Sunday morning, said the district should show respect "for the religiously observant in our community."