Benton County Daily Record By Jamie Brunk Staff Writer BENTONVILLE — There are times at night when the lone light in a given Bentonville school building comes from Matt Hedstrom’s flashlight. That’s a good thing. Matt Hedstrom is the district’s energy manager, which is a new position designed to administer the school district’s energy policies and procedures. The district contracted with a company named Energy Education Inc., which trains people like Hedstrom to analyze bills, work with staff and students to reduce costs as well as monitor compliance. The savings that come from drastically reduced utility costs more than make up for the fees the company charges the first couple of years. “ This program saves districts lots of money, ” Hedstrom said. Part of Hedstrom’s job is to go through each of the district’s buildings when it’s not occupied, which usually means late at night. He uses a flashlight to guide his way as he checks temperature gauges and makes sure everyone is following the new guidelines designed to save energy. Such guidelines include turning off all computer monitors and other electronic equipment and shutting room doors to keep the air contained. “ It’s a lot of simple procedures, ” he said. Another part of Hedstrom’s job — bill analysis — is just now in its beginning stages. He’s busy entering every bit of data from the previous year’s utility bills so over the next year, he can compare usage. Because the program is in its initial stages at Bentonville, his time is spent about 50 / 50 between being in the schools and working with data. Once he’s done creating a data baseline, the time will change to about 80 percent in the schools during both occupied and unoccupied times. Hedstrom’s job is made easier by his familiarity with teachers and the classroom setting. He has been a teacher in the district for several years and has been a bus driver. Last year he was the part-time director of transportation. With having a different job comes a very different schedule. “ When I was a teacher it was 6: 30 (a. m. ) to 5: 30 (p. m. ), ” Hedstrom said. “ Very cut and dry. But now my schedule is very flexible. ” There are some days he’s at work during times similar to his old schedule and there are other days he’s working partly during the day then he returns later at night to inspect schools. The flexibility and time in various buildings not only gives Hedstrom variety, but it allows him to get acquainted with new people. “ I’m getting to know the night staff, ” he said. Hedstrom also has the chance to see a variety of classrooms, which is interesting to him as a teacher. He had some reservations about leaving the classroom, but Hedstrom said he’s glad he got the new position. “ Sometimes it’s good to go outside your comfort zone, ” he said. The ironic thing is, he isn’t fully outside that zone — after all, he’s now teaching people about saving energy. Copyright © 2001-2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. Contact: webmaster@nwanews.com