Letter to Staff

It’s a good idea when starting or re-starting the program at your school to communicate a couple of things to other teachers and staff. The text below explains how the program makes a difference in your school and your district and lays the foundations for a school-wide conversation about how Texas is too good to waste. It also tells where students will be patrolling and how to return Watt Watchers notes and citations.

This letter is also available as a PDF for printing.

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Watt Watchers of Texas will be coming soon to a classroom near you! Student patrol groups will be auditing the school for energy waste in lighting and other areas. If students find lights on in empty rooms they will be leaving “tickets.” They will leave thank you notes where their recorded data shows consistent energy efficiency (you have turned off your lights when you leave your classroom). The focus of the program is on saving energy costs in the school and increasing student awareness of energy issues. In a typical Texas school, lighting alone can account for 1/3 of the entire utility bill! Watt Watchers of Texas has assisted hundreds of schools in reducing this cost. Watt Watchers energy patrols have saved participating schools around the nation from hundreds to thousands of dollars in energy costs each year.

The Watt Watchers program is a proven method of teaching energy efficient habits while reducing school electric bills. Our energy future depends on decisions students will make about energy use; Watt Watchers gives them the opportunity to make a difference now by “doing something” for their school. These same students often show increased self-esteem, leadership and responsibility back in their classrooms.

The students will be patrolling _____________________________________. They will not enter your classroom, or disturb classes already in session. The official Watt Watchers for that day will be wearing name badges and lanyards to identify them as such. They will leave their tickets on your door as a reminder to you to turn off your lights when you leave your room. Please return these ________________________ to be reused. Each month our energy use will be graphed ___________________________. Hopefully, this will show that our energy use is going down. The Watt Watchers students will give an end of the year presentation to the School Board and awards to the classrooms that showed consistent energy efficiency. There will also be an award for the classroom that showed the most improvement.

Thank you for your cooperation,

__________________________

Watt Watcher Sponsor

Letter to Staff