St. Paul Schools Target Classroom Appliances

When administrators in St. Paul, Minn., announced a policy to have school district employees voluntarily either unplug or pay for small appliances used in classrooms, they found the temperature dropping between them and some teachers.

Faced with soaring heating costs that are expected to put the 44,000-student district $2.4 million in the hole by spring, acting Superintendent Lou Kanavati has encouraged staff members to remove personally owned refrigerators, microwave ovens, space heaters, coffee pots, and window air conditioners from schools “wherever possible.”

But for appliances that remain, he asked employees to make a $25 “contribution” to offset the costs of running the appliances, which district administrators estimated would total almost $120,000 for the year. The annual costs per appliance varied from $22 for a microwave oven to $75 for a...