These are challenging times for all of us, but most of us don't have quite the same level of responsibilities as Lisa Wiles, Superintendent of the Ellenville Central School District.

The numbers are all you need to get a glimpse into what she's thinking about: Ellenville's schools cover 220,000 square feet; last year the school district burned 97,000 gallons of fuel oil to warm the space to the state mandated 65 degrees; the energy-use index is approximately 109,000 Btu/sq ft.

With the price of oil rising higher and higher, Wiles and her administration are well aware that there's a problem here. The bill for the heat and light in the school district is around $514,000, and, obviously, the aforementioned price of oil may send that bill higher at any time.

Recently, Wiles' administration had the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) complete a study of the school district's energy use and come up with suggestions for efficiencies.

"We're trying to conserve energy wherever we can," says Wiles. "We have taken a pro-active approach, we're aware of the problem with the rising cost of oil and energy generally, and we're working to make the school building as efficient as it can possibly be."

Among steps that the school is taking on NYSERDA's recommendation are changes to the thermostats that regulate heat throughout the school. "Can we be more efficient about where we heat, and when we heat it?" Wiles nods vigorously in answer to her own question. "We have to become more aware of energy and how we can save it. That means things like keeping the door of an air-conditioned room closed in the summer so you aren't losing energy to the hallway."

The same goes for lights, and as if to prove the point, the other end of her office suddenly goes dark about fifteen minutes into our interview.

"There's a motion sensor there, and after a while, if there's no movement, it turns the lights out. We have them in lots of places now, and we're putting in more of them. In the meantime, we need to encourage everyone to remember to turn out the lights when they leave the room."

Among the other points made by NYSERDA was that the boilers in the school are "oversized." Wiles agrees, but points out, "When you put boilers into a facility like this, you have to factor in the need for growth. The last thing you want to have to do is to rip out your boiler and put in a bigger one because what you have can't cope with expansion."

Turning from the overall energy problem to the very specific one of the state-mandated replacement of the oil tank, Wiles says they're looking at the options for doing the work in the spring.

"The reasons for choosing the spring are two-fold," she says. "First off, this involves a modification of our transportation routes, since the tank sits right in front of the main entrance to the high school. But we've done that before, and we can deal with it. Second, and more important, the approval only just came through. That's just the way it is; the state doesn't have enough staff and things take time to work their way through the approvals process. So, with an eight to 12 week time-frame for an order for the tank to be completed, that puts us into late October or early November when work would start. And that's if there isn't a problem that we haven't foreseen. We don't want to risk not having heat when it starts to get cold."

Looking past the winter and the cost of oil, next year the teachers' contract will be up. What are the prospects there?

"We aren't discussing anything yet. We'll probably start on that in the spring. When the time comes, the Board of Education will meet with the union reps and we'll come up with a calendar for negotiations. Right now I can't really say anything meaningful, other than that I don't want to be dismal about things. We all know that these are tough times and everything is going to be tough."

Wiles moves on to make an important point.

"When people look at the contract with the teachers that we have today, they have to remember that it isn't a new contract. We don't start with a blank page. The contract is something that has been worked out over a period of 30 years. So, things were put in that contract, 20, 25 years ago, and they just continue on. So, if a school district wants to make a change, well, they have to bargain…it's a long process, we have a negotiator, it's the school attorney and he knows the contract and the history behind it."

Wiles broadens the discussion, focusing on a more general train of thought.

"Public school is about teaching," she says. "What is a school program? It's not just books and classrooms, it's the teachers. It's students learning — from teachers. "The other side of things is that the state is not really some abstract thing, the state is us. We are the state, all of us. It's not just this machine in Albany. And each Board of Education will have to figure out how to deal with the funding crisis that's coming. And in Albany, the state legislators will have to look at the unfunded mandates, and perhaps some of those will have to go. In the end, we have to have education, we have to have teachers, and we have to pay them. You can't just say 'cut your programs,' but you'd have to have your head in the sand not to know that something is going to be cut. And if it's not state aid to the schools that gets cut it will be something else."

Wiles points to the red lines of democracy. "We're all taxpayers, and we're all citizens, and perhaps what this crisis will lead to is that we will have to realize that we can't have everything that we want. We will have to give up some things. That won't be easy, but these are going to be tough times."

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