As everyone knows, energy costs have been rising and placing a hamper on not only personal budgets, but budgets for business, governments and schools.

Hallberg Engineering, Inc., of White Bear Lake is partnering with schools for the Schools for Energy Efficiency (SEE) program in order to reduce energy costs by 10 percent.

The Columbia Heights School District signed up last fall. SEE discovered that the district was spending $150 per student on energy costs annually, or $444,300. The national average for energy costs is $100 per student, according to Anne Anderson, Energywise Consultant for SEE.

"Energy costs have been crazy lately," said Deb LaBounty, Director of Buildings and Grounds in the Columbia Heights district. "We're being proactive in trying to save money."

The SEE program emphasizes student and staff participation. Anderson said attitude changes lead to most of the cost reductions.

"It can cost between $4,000 and $6,000 a year to light a gym," Anderson said. "You get schools to not turn on the lights all day. Especially in the spring and fall, we find that many gym classes take roll call, then go outside and leave the lights on."

The Columbia Heights School Board adopted an energy savings policy Jan. 23, which calls for lights to be turned off in unoccupied areas unless lights are required by state code. Such areas that must be lit at all times during the school day are stairwells, corridors, exits and yes, gymnasiums.

However, gymnasium lighting would be limited to "walk-through lighting" in the fall and spring when activities are outdoors.

"The whole program is about eliminating waste," Anderson said.

Another suggestion is to shut off computer monitors when they are not in use rather than rely solely on the "sleep mode" option.

Classroom and office temperatures will be kept between 68 and 78 degrees depending on the season. Shop rooms, gymnasiums, locker rooms, hallways, kitchens and cafeterias could have temperatures as low as 65 degrees during the winter.

For one week each month at each school in the district, teachers and administrators will teach students how they can save energy. For one day that week, the ovens and stoves in the kitchen will stay off and only a cold lunch will be served. The high school always offers ala carte options so the plan would not have quite the effect there as at the elementary schools, LaBounty said.

"For the most part, the message gets across (to students)," said Hugh Brown, a second-grade teacher and energy efficiency coordinator at Highland Elementary. "They understand it's not free to turn on the lights, computer and TVs."

The Highland students drew placemats before their cold lunch last week, with each placemat spelling out one energy-saving tip. Brown said they do not ask the students to bring the message home to their parents as an assignment, but eventually may expand the program to raise awareness for parents.

Rikki, a second-grade student, said she is not allowed to watch television because her parents want to lower the electricity bill. Shaista, also a second-grade student at Highland, said her father watches a lot of television and leaves the lights on most of the time.