OXFORD - Students, faculty and staff members at five Oxford schools have saved more than $23,000 in energy costs just by changing their behavior.

The savings represent a 7 percent conservation of the schools' use of energy compared to each of the two previous years.

The changes resulted from TVA's Green Initiative, a pilot program in which five schools in Oxford School District and three in Lafayette School District are in their second and final year of participation.

The initiative was designed to involve students, teacher and staff members in finding ways to lower their schools' energy use and to serve as a model for other schools in the TVA region.

The actions included changing thermostat settings, limiting buildings' hours of use and creating other policies that building users agree to follow.

Noting that many audience members at Monday night's board meeting kept their coats on in the Oxford High lecture hall, Interim Superintendent Brian Harvey joked, "We're certainly conserving energy here tonight."

Harvey said each school population was spurred by the promise that each dollar of savings would be put into the school's activity fund.

"Each school found different ways to save money," he said.

The two-year program requires no capital investment from the schools.

"That's just behavioral changes - no retrofitting, no output of funds to make any improvements in the buildings at all," said Alisa Fye, who oversees the program for TVA.

Green School Initiative participating schools get energy audit kits, an audit company compares current and past usage and Fye visits the campus monthly.

The University of Mississippi's success with TVA's Green Campus Initiative was one of the major reasons that Oxford and Lafayette schools were chosen for the K-12 energy program.

Ole Miss "has one of the best sustainability programs in the South," Fye said.

Figures for Lafayette School District's participating schools were not available Monday night.

errol.castens@journalinc.com