New school designs to be safe and green

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005 | 11 a.m.

The student athletes take to the field for the football game, solar-powered stadium lights illuminating the artificial turf. As spectators pass through specially designed checkpoints, two people attempt a shortcut over a fence but are stopped by an officer alerted via closed-circuit video camera.

It's a scenario that combines environmental conservation with the latest in crowd control and security, and it's what Clark County School District officials are touting as their goal for the next generation of campus prototypes.

District officials say a new vocational high school, slated to be built on Tropical Parkway near Durango Drive in the northwest valley, will be a model of efficiency. The design calls for high-efficiency lighting and water, heating and cooling systems that maximize natural resources. The school, scheduled to open in 2007, will have six career academies: medical professions, media communications, pre-engineering, early childhood education, transportation and hospitality.

The new vocational high school will be the first of the district's campuses to seek a "silver rating" from the U.S. Green Building Council, said Dale Scheideman, director of engineering and planning.

"We've learned a great deal over the years from our conservation programs and now we're doing to apply that knowledge from the ground up," Scheideman said.

The district knows designs that emphasize daylight save money on utilities and studies have also shown that students learn better in classrooms that use natural lighting, Scheideman said.

"We have lower energy bills and the students are better off," Scheideman said. "It's two birds with one stone."

Clark County School Board members voted last week to allow the facilities and planning department staff to begin soliciting new prototype designs from interested architects. The designs, School Board members said, should be environmentally conscious without sacrificing safety. Additionally School Board members emphasized that while actual campuses may not decrease in size, new designs should "feel" smaller to the students and staff.

"Nobody wants our kids to feel lost or fall through the cracks," said School Board President Larry Mason.

Using "smaller learning community" grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the district is experimenting with new layouts and designs for schools. Clark County has some of the nation's largest schools, in terms of both student enrollment and class sizes. Several high schools and middle schools have organized students into "houses" by grade level and special-interest areas.

The district is also laying groundwork to go back to voters by 2008 for a new bond measure to build an additional 72 schools. That makes the next round of prototypes especially important, said School Board member Denise Brodsky.

"Voters want to know they're getting good value for their money," Brodsky said. "We have a responsibility to show them designs that reflect that."

The $3.5 billion 1998 construction program allows for new prototypes to be introduced every four years. Using the current prototypes, the district completed or has under construction 39 elementary schools and 16 middle schools. The first high school to open using the newest prototype will be Arbor View in August, a two-story mall design divided up by magnet schools, grades and special programs.

With bids on school projects up 21 percent for the 2004-05 academic year, district officials say they're struggling to find available contractors willing to meet the budgeted price. The new prototypes will minimize the use of the most expensive materials, such as steel, without compromising safety, Scheideman said.

The outcome of the 2005 legislative session could also affect prototypes, as the district waits to learn if full-day kindergarten programs will receive funding. If lawmakers back the idea, it will require more classroom space at existing schools as well as future campuses.

The district currently spends $40 million annually on energy costs. Through conservation measures the district has saved $3 million since July. Both small steps, such as disconnecting display lights in all vending machines, and bigger initiatives, including paying annual cash bonuses to schools that cut power bills by at least 10 percent, are paying off, said Dale Scott, energy manager for the district.

Other initiatives include potential sources of geothermal energy, Scheideman said. The district drilled under two elementary schools, Lummis and Glen Taylor, in order to test ground temperatures.

"At Lummis the ground was actually low enough that it might be of some help to us in cooling the school at some point," Sheideman said. "It raises all kinds of interesting possibilities."