TVA awards $200,000 grant to local high school
Coffeeville High School wins the regional grand prize for Tennessee Valley Authority's School Uplift program.
COFFEEVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Turning off a light can go a long way.
And in Coffeeville, that led to the local high school getting a $200,000 grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
This year, Coffeeville High Students participated in TVA’s School Uplift program.
“Energy efficiency is a great way not only to save money and to save energy, but to learn and educate. And that’s what we’re celebrating today… is education at the school and their tremendous success story,” said David Sparks, the senior sales consultant for TVA-Mississippi.
“We’re so excited about the $210,000 to be able to make improvements to our school from lighting to adding a media lab, which is one of the things the kids voted on that they wanted,” said CHS principal LeRhonda Warren.
The local utility company, Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association, told CHS about the program last spring.
At the beginning of the school year, Coffeeville teacher Felecia Hinton-Parker formed an energy team of nine freshman for the TVA program.
CHS won the regional grand prize by creating the best energy-saving plan for their school.
School and utility leaders celebrated the achievement on Tuesday at CHS.
“I feel incredibly blessed for not only myself but for my students and for this school and for this community as a whole,” said Hinton-Parker.
“It’s something you don’t expect here every day, but when I found out, I was glad and I was little bit surprised … fortunate it happened,” said CHS freshman and energy team member Markyle Pittmon.
Throughout the school year, the students created and implemented a plan to help CHS save the most energy.
One of their main strategies was spreading awareness through posters and intentional conversations.
“So, people started turning off the lights, we had checklists in the classrooms and just making sure that we were doing whatever we needed to do to conserve the power and the energy in the school,” said Hinton Parker.
CHS Principal LeRhonda Warren says the school will continue to use the plan beyond this year.
“It’s going to be for the best, especially in a small school district like us to help us save money,” said Warren.
Ten schools in Mississippi participated in TVA’s School Uplift Program, including Coffeeville Elementary.
CHS was the only school to win the grand prize in Mississippi.
Coffeeville High also got an additional $10,000 Learning Environment Grant for being a part of the program.
