During the first tour of the Minneota School last week, Supt. Dan Deitte (center) brought the visitors to the locker rooms in the basement of the school. One thing noted was the poor lighting. “The hallways were even more dingy and in need of new lighting,” said Supt. Deitte.

School needs new LED lighting

I’m Les Engler, Head Custodian at the Minneota Public School District. The Minneota School isn’t always the brightest place in the world. Here’s a brief explanation of the need for LED lighting to replace light bulbs/ballasts throughout our school district, which is part of the upcoming bond vote scheduled on August 22, 2017.

Since March 7, when I started in this position, the custodians have changed approximately 140 fluorescent light bulbs and 11 ballasts, with many of these in our two gymnasiums.

In order to change these in the gyms, we need to use a power lift to reach them. We also have to change them when the gyms are unoccupied. In order to achieve this, we have to wait for the students to leave from class and change a couple quickly before another class comes in.

This process takes a lot of time away from our other duties. Many of our classrooms also have bulbs and ballasts that need changing on a regular basis. Again, this is challenging and time consuming, since we cannot do it during the day when students are using the rooms.

There is some time involved in the process, and changing light bulbs takes us away from many other items that we could be doing to help the look and cleanliness of our building. We always have things we can clean or repair, and LED lights will help to give us more time for these tasks. A clean, updated and energy efficient school is what I’m striving for in this position. I believe LED lights will help with all of this.

LED lights are much brighter than normal light bulbs, they are more energy efficient, and they pay for themselves within five to six years after installation.

LED lighting will help my crew be more efficient with our time as custodians, since the life expectancy is about 15 times longer than the fluorescent bulbs. As a reminder, absentee ballots are available starting July 7 in the District Office.

Also, please consider attending an informational session to learn more about the bond vote.

The remaining informational sessions will be held on Thursday, July 13 and Monday, August 14 at 7 p.m. in the choir room at the school.

Les Engler

Contact Us

The Minneota Mascot
Address: 201 N. Jefferson
Minneota, MN 56264

Phone:(507) 872-6492