Tracy Press

A city recycling coordinator teamed up Thursday with someone from PG&E and the Tracy Unified School District to discuss conservation with Freiler first- and third-graders.

Freiler School’s Jade Beard holds a thermometer as she joins other students to take the classroom's air temperature. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

“If we all work together, we can make a big difference,” said Bob Corsaro, Tracy Unified School District’s energy management director, who tours schools to parade his energy conservation plan which has saved the district more than $900,000 on energy bills since 2005.

He was joined by the city’s interim recycling coordinator, Jennifer Cariglio, and Pacific, Gas & Electric Co. account executive Theresa Soto. They asked teachers to open the blinds to let in natural light, and only turn on half of the classroom’s lights. They also suggested teachers hand out paper fans to cool students off instead of cranking the air conditioners. They reminded the students to take used batteries to any city building to be recycled, instead of dumping them in the garbage, and to use lunch pales instead of paper bags.

“Just simply recycling your water bottles makes a better world for all of us,” Melissa Lewis told her first-grade students.

Corsaro’s energy conservation plan has kept the district's annual utility bills at $2.4 million for the past four years, that’s with a new school and 80 new portable classrooms.

"Even with all of our growth we are hoolding strong," Corsaro said.

In 2003, the district faced a budget cut which pushed the urgency of energy conservation. With Tracy Unified again facing another cut — this time the district will slash $7.1 million from its annual budget — Corsaro said they’re giving an extra push to use energy frugally.

“We’re continuing to save money,” he said. “It all adds up.”

Word spread quickly about Tracy Unified’s lucrative efforts. He will take the energy-saving message to a school district in Merced next week.

Much of Carsaro, Soto and Cariglio’s message came to little surprise to the 7- to 9-year-olds. Freiler School won the Wal-Mart Kids' Recycling Challenge last year and has already collected three times the amount of plastic bags this school year as they did last year.

Third-grader Asha Birdie said since she heard the recycling team speak at her school a couple weeks ago, she brought the message home. Each family member in her household is assigned a recyclable. Her mother takes care of the glass, her dad gathers the aluminum and she makes sure the newspapers go in the recycling bin.

Third-grader Branden Rabino has also made recycling into a daily habit.

“We can make sure all the trees don’t die so we have enough oxygen to breath,” Branden said. “We can save the earth.”

•We want to hear what you have to say. To reach Tracy Press reporter Danielle MacMurchy, call 830-4221 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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