GREENING THE CLASSROOMS
They call themselves the “Energy Patrol.” Up and down
hallways they go, looking for glaring computer screens and lights left on by
forgetful classmates and teachers. Clad in their bright green T-shirts, they make
up cheers and hold pep rallies to spread the word about saving energy.
And while they keep it fun, this is serious business. This
year, students in Rochester’s “GreenSchool” clubs have saved the district
more than $100,000 in energy costs.
Students in 17 city schools have shown that changing simple
behaviors such as turning lights off when they aren’t in use can have a huge
impact. The schools have seen energy use reduced by between 5 and 15 percent. At
the end of the year, each club receives a rebate
of 50 percent of their savings for use in future energy-conservation
activities.
Megan Comstock, a second-grade teacher at School 41and one
of the club leaders, says she likes the program because it is science-based. And,
she says, students need to draw on their communications skills to be
effective.
“It’s really popular with students,” she says. “They really
get this. It’s very tangible, and they can see the results of their efforts. I
also like that we are teaching them that they can have some control over this.”
Students have also been working with the district’s
facilities manager, John Songer, to replace old light
switches with new sensor switches. And the schools have replaced more than 200 old
appliances with new, energy-efficient models. Some schools have
even planted trees around their parameters to help provide
shade and cool the building. Mentors from energy-related businesses have been
teaching students about the field of energy conservation and have been guiding
the GreenSchool
programs.
The clubs focus on conserving electricity, because it is a
major expense for the district, and that expense continues to rise, says
Maurice Bell, local coordinator for the Alliance
to Save Energy. Electricity is also something students at most grade levels
understand, because they use it, and they’ve learned that conserving
electricity also conserves on the non-renewable sources of energy needed to
produce it.
“The really interesting thing about this program is that
these students not only educate other students in their schools, but then they
go home and teach their parents and siblings about how to conserve
energy,” says Bell.
Most of the savings, Bell
says, come from finding places to eliminate electricity use, to neutralize the
impact of adding new equipment.
“We have to think in terms of eliminating costs, while
recognizing that our needs for electricity expand,” says Bell.
“As kilowatt prices go up and more computers are added, we have to find ways to
take costs out of the school somewhere else, because if we do nothing the bill
continues to rise.”
The Green Schools program originated with the Alliance
to Save Energy, a Maryland-based organization. Schools from all over the world
participate, and Rochester — which
joined the effort in 2004 — had the first Green Schools in New
York. This year, students and teachers from School 41
and WilsonMagnetHigh School will go to Washington
to receive awards for their efforts.
— Tim Louis Macaluso
WORTH SAVING?
What will become of a late-19th-century Queen Anne-style
house near the Little Theatre is unclear. Neighboring 2 Vine Restaurant owners
bought the house a few months ago to get rid of problem tenants there. “The
building itself was basically a slum,” says 2 Vine co-owner Jerry Serafine. “There were so many complaints, so many fines
levied against the building.”
Serafine says he initially
researched converting the building into an apartment or office space, but
decided that those projects would be too expensive. “To be honest with you,
economically, demolishing the building is really the only way to go,” says Serafine, who estimates that it would cost between $250,000
to $300,000 to gut and renovate the house. It was so badly neglected, says Serafine, that there was a sign in one of the kitchenettes
that read: “This is a sink, not a toilet.” Ideally, Serafine
would like to tear down the house and create a green space for special 2 Vine
events.
But city officials are reluctant to let 2 Vine’s owners
demolish the house without exploring all possibilities. “We need to pause
before we lose a building of importance,” says the city’s zoning director, Art Ientilucci.
The owners, who met with Ientilucci
Friday morning, agreed to halt talk of demolition — at least for the time
being. “To make a compromise, we’re offering this building up for sale,” Serafine said on Monday. The sale, though, comes with a few
stipulations: the building can’t be converted into a restaurant, café, or
rooming house.
Serafine says the building will be
on the market for 30 to 60 days, and if it’s bought, developers will have one
year after the sale to convert it. Interested parties can also buy the house
and move it within the area of the city bounded by the Inner Loop.
— Sujata Gupta
SOFT RUN
Rochester School Board member
Willa Powell is running for State Senate against Republican incumbent Joe
Robach — maybe.
“The straight-forward facts
are that my name is on the Democratic Party ticket because the deadline arrived
on Friday and no one had stepped forward,” says Powell. But she says she’s
interested in opposing Robach because he has endorsed the Senate Republicans’
position on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. New YorkState
has been ordered to provide substantially more funding for New York City schools, and it’s assumed that a revised state-aid
formula would benefit all urban districts, including Rochester.
The Republicans’ position is
that “12 percent of all new state education
funding will go to Long
Island,” says Powell. “And
I will add, whether they need it or not. That means that the high-risk
districts that really need the extra aid
targeted to them will have to fight for what’s left over.”
Powell says she doesn’t
expect to win, but the closer she can get to winning, the more uncomfortable
it’s going to be for Robach.
“He’s going to have to go
back to his Republican Party bosses and say that this position on education
spending is untenable,” she says. “I also think that the Senate is going to
flip this year” — that Democrats will take control — “and Rochester is going to need its own representative, because Robach
and [James] Alesi are not going to be bringing home the bacon.”
Powell says she doesn’t want
to be seen as a one-issue candidate just because she’s on the School Board.
“Republicans are always
saying the state’s taxes are too high and they are the party that’s going to
cut them, but really, all they are doing is shifting the burden on to property
owners, and people in every county in the state are seeing this,” she says.
“Their avoidance of health-care reform and support of corporate welfare are
what’s really driving the state’s high tax rates.”
If a stronger candidate
comes along, Powell says, she will step aside. And she’s not the only one who
questions whether the seat is winnable.
“She’s definitely running,”
says Colleen McCarthy, a spokesperson for the Monroe County Democratic Committee.
“We’re not expecting her to win, necessarily, and we won’t be putting a lot of
our resources behind it, but obviously we want someone running for that seat.”
The bigger question may be
whether Party Chair (and State Assemblymember) Joe Morelle can keep his party
behind Powell. In Robach’s last Senate race, he was endorsed by a number of
prominent Democrats.
— by Tim Louis Macaluso and Krestia DeGeorge
RIJF
ON TV
WXXI
will be filming select performances of this year’s Rochester International Jazz
Festival and offering them to public stations around the country. WXXI plans to
develop the footage into three 60-minute, high-definition programs, called “Live from the Rochester International Jazz
Festival.”
The
programs will feature live performances at Kilbourn
Hall, interviews, and scenes from the Festival. Broadcasts are scheduled for
some time in 2007, with cities and their PBS stations to be announced at a
later date.
— Frank De Blase
WHAT’S YOUR ‘SECTOR?
For its Neighbors Building Neighborhoods effort, city
officials divided Rochester into
“sectors.” And they’ve been using that term ever since. City residents, in all
likelihood, don’t think that way. And to at least two city councilmembers
— Lois Giess and Carolee
Conklin — it’s time for the city to rethink the use of the term “sector.”
“People in Rochester think in
neighborhoods. They don’t think in sector numbers,” Conklin commented at a
recent City Hall budget meeting. “We need to start looking at identifying
neighborhoods that people relate to.” Neighborhoods, perhaps, like Corn Hill or
the 19th Ward.
— Sujata Gupta
NEW APPROACH, OLD WAYS
It comes from the Latin paganus, meaning “rural” or
“rustic,” and the Oxford English Dictionary defines it simply as “a person
holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions.” So why
is it that for many people the word “pagan” still conjures negative images of
devil worship and human sacrifice?
Suite D233
is a cozy and inviting space in Village Gate, 274
North Goodman Street, and since April it’s been
home to the Paths of the OldWaysPaganOutreachCenter,
a nonprofit organization that board co-chair Char Hacker hopes will “help
educate some people about what we are and what we aren’t.”
Hacker and treasurer Michele Morgan, both practicing Wiccans, have seen public perception of paganism —
actually an umbrella term that covers religions as varied as Wicca, Druidism,
Freemasonry, and SanterÃa — evolve over the years, thanks
to positive portrayals in pop culture, but they find that misperceptions still
persist. Besides hosting assorted classes and workshops related to the pagan
faiths, Paths of the OldWaysPaganOutreachCenter
is designed to be a community resource, “a safe place for people to come and
ask questions or to worship together or just network,” says Hacker.
“People would say Rochester
is conservative; I would disagree,” says Hacker, who also owns Psychic’s Thyme
on University Avenue. “Rochester
is very progressive. There are a lot of religions in Rochester
who are supported by our diverse community, and we’re just another one of those
groups who are starting to step forward, be a little more visible.”
The Center’s website — offers more about Paths of the Old
Ways, and members are holding a grand opening
fundraiser — which will include psychic readings, vendors, lectures, and
raffles — on Saturday, June 10, from 10 a.m.
to 7 p.m., and on Sunday, June 11,
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
— Dayna Papaleo
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2006.
