When New Hope Middle School sixth-grade science teacher Casey Mitchell heard about the Tennessee Valley Authority’s School Uplift program during a visit to the National Science Teacher Association conference in Atlanta, she knew it could help benefit the school.
Mitchell, who helps spearhead the school’s energy team along with fellow teacher Cami Baldivid, said TVA Uplift grants are “given to schools to help educate staff and students about energy conservation, like saving electricity, and making sure that we’re using our resources in a way that we can use the money that we normally spend on electricity and natural resources and put it back into the schools to fund other things.”
Because of the efforts from the energy team, which is made up of more than 30 students and 14 staff members, the school was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the program.
Earlier this month, TVA officials announced that New Hope Middle was one of 106 schools — and the only one in Georgia — in the agency’s seven-state service area to receive School Uplift grants totaling $3 million. The grants help “schools save about 10% on their energy bills through behavior changes alone,” TVA officials said in a press release.
“When combined with energy savings from grant-funded upgrades, this year’s participants will save an estimated nine (gigawatt hours) of energy or the amount of electricity used by 1,241 homes in one year,” the officials said in the press release. “TVA has invested $7.87 million and helped 225 schools save on their energy bills through the School Uplift program since 2021.”
During the last school year, members of New Hope Middle’s energy team have been “actively engaged in energy conservation efforts,” Mitchell said.
That included implementing energy-saving techniques such as turning off power during school breaks or holidays and changing regular lightbulbs throughout the school to LED bulbs, said Principal Belinda Sloan.
“TVA actually visited our school to see what we were doing and show us ways in which we could improve, so we had sort of an action plan in place and we just tried to follow as many of those steps as we could and see what we could accomplish this year,” Sloan said. “Any time we went on break, the kids on the energy team would go around to the grade level hallways and remind teachers to unplug their Chromebook (laptop) carts, power down their ViewSonic (smart)boards, just any of those little things that we could do to save energy and power.”
Sloan said the students on the energy team were “the boots on the ground.”
“But Casey Mitchell and Cami Baldivid really took it and ran with it,” she said. “They really took the leadership roles in this. (They are) very passionate about teaching and about getting kids involved in things.”
Mitchell said “everyone was crying and happy cheering” when school officials found out the school would receive the $25,000 grant.
“We had worked so hard,” she said. “It was a shock but we were so pumped.”
When applying for the grant, Mitchell said they “aimed low,” thinking they might only receive $10,000. She said the “whole school had to come up with three ways to spend the $10,000.”
“Then the kids all voted on the one they wanted, which was centered around health and wellness,” she said. “So, with the $10,000, we’re getting nice, weatherproof picnic tables so we can have outdoor classes, and we’re getting some more (physical education) equipment they can use outside.”
She said some of the grant will go toward the purchase of more books for the media center.
“And the school counselor is going to get some money as well, because mental health is a big part of health and wellness,” she said.
As for the other $15,000, Mitchell said, “We don’t know how we will spend that yet, because we were not sure we were going to get it in the first place.”
“We kind of want to work on our garden,” Mitchell said. “This has been a work in progress. I wrote a previous grant to the Whitfield Education Foundation and it allowed us to get some composting things and metal-raised beds for the garden out back.”
Mitchell said the garden was started this year for sixth-grade students to partner with seventh-graders to help with life science standards.
“TVA and our 153 local power company partners have worked to make a positive impact on the communities we serve, and we are especially proud of the impact of our School Uplift program since children are our most important asset,” said TVA Energy Services and Programs Vice President Monika Beckner in the press release. “Reducing energy costs makes more dollars available for educational purposes, and improving the quality of the learning environment for both students and teachers helps give every child the opportunity to succeed.”
Sloan said she’s not sure how the school will use the remaining $15,000.
“When you get a grant like this, you’re so excited but you want to use it wisely,” she said. “What do we spend it on that’s going to have the most impact? We want something that impacts our whole student body, that all of our kids in all grade levels can use. We want to make the biggest impact, not just for a small, specific group of students.”