Commonwealth Journal

For so many years, the color Tim Eaton was most associated with was maroon. In the near future, however, he’ll be going green.

Eaton is stepping down as superintendent of Pulaski County Schools in less than a month’s time. After 10 years at the helm of the county’s largest school system, Eaton announced his retirement in January. At the time, he stated that he would be pursuing “another career opportunity” after handing the reins over to his replacement (whom was eventually chosen to be Asst. Superintendent Steve Butcher).

As it turns out, Eaton will be staying quite busy following his retirement from Pulaski County Schools: He’ll be a project coordinator for the School Energy Manager Program (SEMP) here in southeastern Kentucky.

A federal program, SEMP is an initiative to assist school districts with efficient energy management, and specifically to jump-start to placement of a local energy manager. This individual, grant-funded for 22 months (80 percent the first year, 50 percent the second), would work to save school districts money on energy consumption, finding ways to cut unnecessary usage here and there.

SEMP is a collaboration between the Kentucky School Boards Association and the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence. On May 7, it was announced that $2.5 million had been dedicated to the cause, for which the University of Louisville will provide some technical support. 

“My familiarity with other superintendents is part of the reason I’m interested (in the job),” said Eaton. “I’m not an energy expert by any means, but I’ll be receiving training, and I’ll get to focus on one thing instead of 50.”

Moreover, he’ll get to work from home. Eaton will be one of four project coordinators covering the state — the others serve western, northern, and Bluegrass-area Kentucky, while Eaton will handle the eastern part of the state. 

Under him, local energy managers will cover smaller areas — like the one containing Pulaski County Schools along with those from Rockcastle and Casey County (or one with Somerset, Science Hill, and Wayne and McCreary County schools). Eaton will oversee these energy managers, who ideally will prove their worth to become permanent fixtures in schools once the grant runs out (the school systems fund the energy managers with the grant money, but the state funds Eaton’s coordinator position). 

There are 34 energy manager positions available in the Commonwealth, and over 600 interested parties are already seeking those jobs. The local school districts will choose the individual to fill the position (Pulaski County Schools had one in past years who performed a different duty and retired several months ago).

“They’ll be setting benchmarks for utilities in each district,” said Eaton of the energy manager’s job. “They’ll be tracking things like that — electric, gas, water, sewage — along with best practices in school on how to save energy with employees. The goal of the program is to roll this over into environmental studies for students.”

Specific ways the energy managers could influence a school would be in suggesting ways to limit energy use while out of schools — turning down the heat or air conditioning during spring break, for example — or making sure that a football field doesn’t run the sprinklers when it’s raining.

Simple enough, to be sure, but the need for being “greener” is well-known these days, and beginning July 1, Eaton will have a chance to lead local schools into a new era of environmental responsibility.

“Hopefully, the end result of this is to prove to as many schools districts as possible that, ‘Hey, you can maintain this person in the future.’ They will pay for themselves and save you money in the big, broad picture of energy management” said Eaton. “I’m kind of excited about it. I think it will be interesting.”