A group of Deer Path Middle School students stood before the District 67 Board of Education in June and made their case: nine fluorescent emergency lights in the school's hallways are wasting energy and money, and they have the data to prove it.

The DPM Green Team, led by seventh-grade teacher Nicole Burmingham, presented "Operation Light Swap" as the student spotlight at the board's regular meeting. The project would retrofit nine fluorescent fixtures with LED troffers. Because the emergency fixtures run around the clock, the students estimate the swap would cut fixture energy use by about two-thirds, save the school $241 per year in electricity costs, and eliminate roughly 2 tons of carbon emissions annually.

The idea grew out of an energy audit the students conducted through the Illinois Green Schools Project, a K-12 sustainability program run by the Illinois Green Alliance. After identifying the inefficient emergency lights, students partnered with the school's facilities team to collect real energy data before designing the fix.

Funding comes from a $1,000 Student Innovation Grant provided through EcoRise's Student Innovation Fund. The students framed the nine-light swap as a proof of concept, building a data-backed argument to convince administrators to replace all remaining fluorescent emergency lights on campus.

The Green Team has been active at Deer Path since spring 2022. Last year, the group won third place in the statewide Illinois Green Schools Project for "Operation Water Catcher," which installed two rain barrels to irrigate the school's vegetable garden and projected savings of 5,760 gallons of water per season.

Deer Path Middle School, at 95 W. Deerpath Rd., serves 746 students in grades 5 through 8. If the nine-light pilot performs as projected, the team plans to push for a full campus retrofit.