Awarded by the editors of Building Operating Management Magazine

1. Apply for FMXcellence Recognition
Form must be completed in its entirety
Submitted information may be used in print, online or at conferences or other live events. Material marked
“confidential” will not appear in coverage.
1. Name R.C. Herrin
2. Title Executive Director of Maintenance and Operations
3. Company Hays Consolidated Independent School District
4. Street Address 155 Beacon Hill Road
City / State / Zip Buda / Texas / 78610
5. Phone number 512-268-8442
6. Email address herrinr@hayscisd.net
7. Square feet of space that the facility department is responsible for:
Data centers only: 5,000 or more of raised floor space
❑ 100,000 to 250,000
❑ more than 250,000 to 500,000
❑ more than 500,000 to 1,000,000
❑ more than 1,000,000 to 5,000,000
❑ more than 5,000,000
8. Please provide an overview of one completed FM project/initiative or ongoing FM practice/program
that supports the goals of the larger organization. Projects must be completed to be considered. (Limit
responses to no more than 2,000 words.) Briefly indicate:
• Major elements of the project or practice.
• Steps involved in developing the project or practice, including the start and completion dates, and if
applicable, completion date.
• Scope of the project or practice. Did it involve one building? A business unit or region? The entire
organization?
• Hard and soft costs of the project or practice. Please indicate when estimates are being used.
• Challenges involved in implementing or maintaining the project or practice.
• Ways those challenges were overcome.
• Lessons learned.
Apply for FMXcellence Recognition • page

2. 8. Overview (cont.)
History of Energy Management Hays CISD
In 2003, Hays CISD was audited using a Texas School Performance Review. Two findings of the TSPR audit were that
Hays CISD needed a funding mechanism to replace the trucks in the maintenance fleet and Hays CISD needed to
develop a energy management program.
Our energy management program is a Hays CISD school board approved process with the following actions:
All campuses built prior to 2002 would have a bench mark electricity cost of fiscal year 2002/2003. This campus dollar
amount would become the bench mark point for these campuses and funded as such. All campuses built after 2002 will
be funded at $1.00 per square foot for electricity costs. Savings are calculated based on those two factors.
Electricity savings each year is allocated as follows during the six years of the Hays CISD energy management program.
Hays CISD has re-purposed into the education process 2.5 MILLION dollars in the following manner:
-10% of the electricity savings returned to the campus. This money is allocated in December of the following fiscal year.
-15% of the electricity savings is placed in fund balance to offset any future electricity rate increases.
-25% of electricity savings to fund vehicle replacement for maintenance and operations vehicles. Maintenance and
operations vehicle fleet replacement was completed in 2008. We will purchase enough vehicles each year for the future
to continue in updating our vehicle fleet.
-25% of electricity savings to hire new personnel for energy management. We have hired two energy management
technicians in this category.
-25% of electricity savings to fund energy management projects.
The Energy Management program for Hays CISD includes all campuses. The entire program is self funding and is
school district policy. Initial startup of the program was looking for low or no cost projects to begin. Once all campuses
were audited and bench marked, we had our data to begin the work of lowering energy usage. We began with the
campuses with the highest electricity cost per square foot. Initial projects included ensuring our custodial staff turned
lights off once school dismissed. Next, we installed motion sensors in some of our buildings to help lower electricity
consumption. We then moved to commissioning our HVAC equipment to ensure our equipment was operating as
efficiently as possible. The first year of our energy management program began with hiring our coil cleaning technician.
This position was the first position hired using energy management savings and was also the beginning of our evening
maintenance program. Our evening maintenance hours are noon until 9:00PM Monday through Friday.
As our Energy Management Program matured through the years, we moved to continued commissioning of existing
HVAC equipment as well as replacing and upgrading HVAC equipment. In 2004, we hired our Direct Digital Technician
from energy management savings and this is the total of our hiring of personnel from energy management. In 2004,
Hays CISD had 67% of the HVAC on Direct Digital Controls. Using our Direct Digital Controls technician and personnel
from the Energy Management team Hays CISD has moved our percentage of HVAC under controls to 96%.
Over the years our energy management team has continued to install light motion sensors, delamping campuses, and
installing T-5 fixtures in gyms. In 2005, Energy Management savings paid for 50% of the replacement of a cooling tower
at one of our middle schools. Our Energy Management team began with one coil cleaner and has expanded to three coil
cleaners, one DDC controls Technician, and an Energy Management Supervisor.
This program was the beginning of Hays CISD evening maintenance program which began with a coil cleaner in 2003.
By 2010 the evening maintenance expanded to 13 personnel and covers all maintenance trades. In 2007, the billboard
for energy management for Hays CISD was unveiled. A 28- passenger school bus was converted into a rolling billboard
for energy management. The bus was painted white with logos describing energy management. This bus is a rolling
work shop and remains visible on a campus having energy management retrofits. Our energy management bus reminds
our stakeholders about energy management.
Apply for FMXcellence Recognition • page

3. 9. Describe the larger organizational goals or challenges addressed by the project or practice. Include any
impacts that the project or practice had on building occupants. Limit responses to 1,000 words.
The school district goals addressed with our energy management project are many and
diverse. First, we looked at utilizing our limited school funds and re-purposing existing money
to fund future needs. This means we have not asked for any NEW money. To date, our
energy management program has returned to our campuses $250,000 to use in ways to help
the schools. One campus principal described the savings as follows, It allows me to say yes
to my teachers' great ideas.
The second re-purposing of savings has allowed the district to install, retrofit, or
commission energy management projects for a total of $625,000. These projects while saving
future energy usage also had a secondary effect. We discovered that the harder we pursued
energy management in the form of building efficiencies, our systems operated as designed
and our building inhabitant comfort levels improved drastically. More important than comfort
was the improvement of Indoor Air Quality through out the district. As we know, 90% of our
IAQ problems develop in our HVAC systems. With HVAC systems operating as designed we
ensure outside make up air levels being introduced to our buildings are correct without over
ventilating our buildings. This holistic approach to energy management has also improved the
Integrated Pest Management of our buildings. When we look at ways of excluding our
buildings to prevent conditioned air from escaping the building envelope, we also deny pests
an opening for harborage in our buildings.
The third re-purposing of savings has utilized $625,000 to purchased a replacement
maintenance truck fleet. In 2002, our maintenance fleet exceeded a truck replacement cycle
of 7 years or 100,000 miles. In 2010, the oldest truck in our fleet is a 2004 model with less
than 100,000 miles.
The fourth re-purposing of savings include $375,000 placed in our fund balance to offset
any future electricity rate increases that our energy management team cannot overcome. To
date none of this money has been needed.
Energy management moved from a good program in 2003 to a better program in 2010. In
2010, we uploaded all of our utility data to the Department of Energy's portfolio manager. We
submitted 13 campuses to be rated Energy Star in 2010. All thirteen campuses have been
designated as Energy Star buildings with ratings from 75 to 98. This positions the district into
the future direction of our school district's 2010 5-year Strategic Plan. A major tenant of our
2010 Strategic Plan calls to create greater environmental awareness throughout Hays CISD
through implementing sound environmental practices. We will move in this direction by
moving our energy management program from a better program to a best program. Our
current program is moving all campuses into the DOE Energy Star program. We will extend
this by incorporating Leadership for Energy and Environmental Practices or LEED EB OM
best practices into the operations of our buildings.
Apply for FMXcellence Recognition • page

4. 10. Describe results achieved. Include quantitative and qualitative results. For quantitative results, describe the way
that results were measured or evaluated. It is helpful to put savings results in some context – as a percentage
of the overall facility or energy budget, for example. Energy and water savings results should be based on hard
data, e.g. metered data or utility bills. If the project or practice involved the creation of metrics/measurements,
use this space to provide more detail about the metrics program. Limit responses to 1,000 words.
The results in our electricity energy management program continue to improve. In the school
year 2002/2003 our electricity usage in kilowatts hours was 24,657,614 kwh covering
1,488,174 square feet of buildings. In school year 2008/2009 our electricity usage in kilowatts
hours was 24,507,084 kwh covering 2,600,438 square feet of buildings. This is an increase of
75% in total building square footage without any additional electricity used.
While our reduction in electricity usage has been phenomenal over the years, another
factor continues to play an important part in our utilities savings. In 2002/2003 our kwh cost
was .065 cents; this cost has increased dramatically over the 6 years of our energy program.
In 2008/2009 our cost per kwh increased to .102 cents. This is a 36% cost increase for
purchasing electricity. Even with the cost increase for electricity, our energy management
program has continued to overcome the increases with reductions in electricity usage. The
cheapest form of renewable energy is the energy that is not consumed.
An important factor to follow has been Hays CISD kilowatt hour per square foot. In
2002/2003 our district kwh per square foot was 16.57. In 2008/2009 our kwh per square foot
was reduced to 9.42. This is a decrease of 43% in our electricity usage for all of our
campuses.
The last important factor to discuss in our energy management program has been the
same schools avoided costs. Each year we reduced electricity consumption by varying
amounts. Also each year our cost per kwh has increased drastically during the same time
frame. In 2008/2009 our avoided costs for same schools in the 2002/2003 school year is
almost one million dollars per year.
Apply for FMXcellence Recognition • page

5. 11. Describe methods used to communicate the results of the project or practice to the greater organization.
(If the project or practice was a communications effort, use this space to provide more detail about the
communications program.) Limit responses to no more than 500 words.
Methods our School District currently employs to communicate our celebrations of the success
of our Energy Management Program. First, we use a visible billboard in our conversion of a
school bus into our energy management bus. Second, we use monthly usage and costs reports
to our campuses and administration. We use this information to track and trend in real time how
our electricity usage is progressing campus by campus. Third, our energy management
supervisor personally walks the campus with the campus Principal prior to any energy
management work commencing. This ensures that our campuses know what projects are being
conducted and has the opportunity to ask questions prior to the start of any program. Fourth, we
send out yearly close out newsletters to celebrate our successes in energy management and to
detail all work conducted by the energy management team. Fifth, in October we report to our
school board the progress of our energy management program and the board approves
distribution of savings. In December savings are re-purposed as follows:
10% to campus.
15% in fund balance to offset any future electricity rate increases.
25% to fund future energy management projects.
25% to pay for energy management personnel.
25% to purchased maintenance and operation vehicles
12. In order to verify the effectiveness of the project or practice being submitted for consideration, attach a letter
from a key manager outside the facility/real estate department describing the impact of the project or prac-
tice. If a letter is not possible, please provide the name, phone number and email address for a key manager
outside the facility/real estate department who we can contact (examples of key managers: CEO, CFO, COO,
business unit manager, vice president, etc.).
Key Manager Name: Carter Scherff
Title: Deputy Superintendent
Phone: 512-268-2141
Email: scherffc@hayscisd.net
13. Attach a list of key in-house participants in the project or practice, both those who work in the facility depart-
ment and those from other departments. (Do not include outside service providers, contractors, etc.)
14. Attach any other material to support the application. Attachments can be related to any of the questions on
this form or can provide relevant information on areas outside those questions. Limit additional material (not
counting the letter and list of participants) to no more than 20 pages. Using sample pages, tables of con-
tents, etc., can reduce the number of additional pages submitted.
❑ I have read the guidelines and to the best of my knowledge, I am eligible to submit and all the information
supplied is correct. I understand the information submitted here could be used by Building Operating Manage-
ment magazine and NFMT for their own purposes if my submission is selected (other than material marked
confidential). The box must be checked to submit entry.
Please save this document on your PC and send as an attachment, along with supporting documents, to
edward.sullivan@tradepress.com. If you have any questions, please contact edward.sullivan@tradepress.com.
Apply for FMXcellence Recognition • page