OXFORD – About 7:30 Monday night, SAD 17 directors were told the temperature in a Waterford Elementary School classroom was 68 degrees.

A moment later it was down to 66 degrees.

“It’s as simple as point and click,” said Siemens Corporation’s Mike Linehan as he clicked through a series of school buildings showing individual classroom temperatures.

Linehan, operations supervisor for Siemens Building Corp. in Scarborough, was showing directors the energy management and access system technology that allows SAD 17 to be an award-winning model for the state’s energy saving program.

“It saves a lot of time,” facilities manager David Marshall said Tuesday afternoon. “I can diagnose what’s wrong right from my office.”

The system, first used in Norway’s Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in the 1980s, was upgraded this past year with construction of the Paris Elementary School to tie all but three district schools into one program. The Hebron Elementary School, Oxford Hills Middle School in Paris and the Otisfield Community School operate on a separate panel.

“It’s automation,” said Marshall, who noted that one of the biggest pluses is the ability to keep the schools in either the unoccupied or off mode when a snow day occurs. Instead of hiring a man to run around to each room in every school to reset temperatures, one click of the button sets the unoccupied setting in motion.

The program is password-protected but a number of people, including the custodians, have been trained on how to use it.

The system allows Marshall not only to watch the temperature in each room, it allows him to see if any of the equipment, such as water pumps, are down and then make appropriate adjustments. School temperatures can be lowered during the night (to above 55 degrees) and then reset instantly early in the morning.

“It’s like in your home,” explained Linehan, who was accompanied by account manager Thomas Seekins at Monday’s board meeting. “To get energy savings you have to conserve.”

SAD 17’s efforts have paid off in savings – and awards.

The district received two major energy efficiency awards this year, including one from the Maine Public Utilities Commission and Maine Efficiency and the Northeast Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency.

Because of the energy savings programs, SAD 17 has shown a 17 to 30 percent reduction in annual energy consumption and an annual savings of $247,942, according to numbers provided at the end of the last school year.