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Eco-friendly schools save money, too

Thursday, August 13, 2009

(Updated 3:00 am)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

Reedy Fork Elementary sits tucked away on the open fields of northern Guilford County behind the Reedy Fork housing development.

The backdrop of farm land and woods is fitting for one of the school system’s most environmentally sensitive building projects to date.

The school system opened the 86,847-square-foot building in 2007. Construction costs totaled $13.1 million, or about $152 per square foot — about 3 percent more than the average cost of similar traditional schools.

The school is home to 441 students and more than 10 green innovations.

Among the first things that strikes you about Reedy Fork are the arches in the classrooms. Each room has a long row of windows near the top of the outside wall. Below those are arches reaching off the wall and holding opaque panels. Those panels, and the room’s white ceilings, spread the light naturally over the entire room.

“The kids will say, 'Turn off the lights,’ but they’re always off,” said Amy Rhodes , a fifth-grade teacher at Reedy Fork.

Other innovations at the school include a heating and air conditioning system built below the suspended floor to heat and cool only the first 8 feet of the building and a rain-water collection system that provides the water for toilets.

Joe Hill, the school system’s facilities consultant, has led the system’s green efforts for about seven years but has been with the system for decades. Hill makes no bones about what he thought of green building when he first started to look into it.

“I tend to be pretty conservative myself and needed to see this wasn’t somebody blowing a lot of smoke,” he said.

He became a convert for one important reason: green — the folding kind, not the tree kind. Hill believes many of the new green building efforts can save cash-strapped school systems a hefty sum over time.

“If it’s designed properly, you can save a lot of money,” he said.

Reedy Fork is one of two major green building projects for Guilford County Schools.

Northern Guilford Middle School, built about the same time as Reedy Fork, has many of the same environmental innovations. It also has environmentally friendly adhesives in the carpeting and tiling.

The school system’s experiments with energy-saving technology goes back to the mid-1990s, when Hill oversaw the installation of occupancy sensors that turn lights off automatically and sensors that turn off sinks at Pilot Elementary School .

“Even then, it was a matter of trying to conserve energy,” Hill said. “That one thing has driven most of what we’ve done over time.”

Hill is still collecting data on how much money the green schools are saving the district, but he believes that over several decades those savings will total much more than the initial expense of going green.

Erin Collier, a fifth-grader at Reedy Fork, said she is glad her school is doing its part to preserve the environment for future generations.

“There are going to be more people on the Earth later on, and if we mess it up, it’s not going to be very good for them,” she said.

Plus, she said, the green technology makes her school cooler than other schools.

Guilford County Schools plans to build three schools before 2012 . Each will incorporate green technology, Hill said.

“What I would like to see is that this approach would become so commonplace it wouldn’t even be newsworthy,” he said.

Hill believes that will happen as the children who inhabit the buildings he has helped build take his place.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

H. Scott Hoffmann (News & Record)

Photo Caption: Lighting is often a mix of natural and artificial light at Reedy Fork Elementary School, as in the school's media center, in Greensboro, NC on Sept. 14, 2007.

School districts

ALAMANCE-BURLINGTON
2008-09 enrollment: 22,500
Average SAT score: 1456
Superintendent: Randy Bridges
Information: 570-6060, www.abss.k12.nc.us

ASHEBORO
2008-09 enrollment: 4,488
Average SAT score: 1488
Superintendent: Diane Frost
Information: 625-5104, www.asheboro.k12.nc.u s

DAVIDSON
2008-09 enrollment: 20,691
Average SAT score: 1493
Superintendent: Fred Mock
Information: 249-8182, www.davidson.k12.nc.us

GUILFORD
2008-09 enrollment: 71,000
Average SAT score: 1471
Superintendent: Maurice “Mo” Green
Information: 370-8100, www.gcsnc.com

LEXINGTON
2008-09 enrollment: 3,081
Average SAT score: 2978
Superintendent: Rebecca Bloxam
Information: 242-1527, www.lexcs.org

RANDOLPH
2008-09 enrollment: 18,396
Average SAT score: 1451
Superintendent: Donald Andrews
Information: 318-6100, www.randolph.k12.nc.us

ROCKINGHAM
2008-09 enrollment: 14,080
Average SAT score: 1433
Superintendent: Rodney Shotwell
Information: 627-2600, www.rock.k1 2.nc.us

THOMASVILLE
2008-09 enrollment: 2,522
Average SAT score: 1329
Superintendent: Keith Tobin
Information: 474-4200, www.tcs.k12.nc.us

WINSTON-SALEM/FORSYTH
2008-09 enrollment: 51,837
Average SAT score: 1497
Superintendent: Don Martin
Information: 727-2816, www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Charter Schools
Greensboro Academy (K-8), 4049 Battleground Ave., Greensboro.
286-8404
Guilford Preparatory Academy (K-8), 2207-A E. Cone Blvd., Greensboro. 954-1344
Phoenix Academy (K-5), 4020 Meeting Way, High Point. 869-0079
Triad Math and Science Academy (K-6), 900 16th St., Greensboro. 621-0061

Private Schools
American Hebrew Academy, 4334 Hobbs Road, Greensboro. 217-7000
Baldwin Chapel SDA School, 1202 Leonard Ave., High Point. 889-7930
B’Nai Shalom Day School, 804-A Winview Drive, Greensboro. 855-5091
Caldwell Academy, 2900 Horse Pen Creek Road, Greensboro. 665-1161
Canterbury School, 5400 Old Lake Jeanette Road, Greensboro. 288-2007
Covenant Christian Day School, 1414 Cliffwood Drive, Greensboro. 370-1222
Greensboro Day School, 5401 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro.
288-8590
Greensboro Montessori School, 2856 Horse Pen Creek Road, Greensboro. 668-0119
Guilford Day School, 3310 Horse Pen Creek Road, Greensboro. 282-7044
Hayworth Christian School, 1696 Westchester Drive, High Point.
882-3126
High Point Christian Academy, 307 N. Rotary Drive, High Point. 841-8702
High Point Friends School, 800-A Quaker Lane, High Point. 886-5516
Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School, 605 Barbee Ave., High Point. 887-2613
Napoleon B. Smith Seventh Day Adventist Academy and Preschool, 1802 E. Market St., Greensboro. 273-0054
New Garden Friends School, 1128 New Garden Road, Greensboro.
299-0964
Oak Ridge Military Academy, 2317 Oak Ridge Road, Oak Ridge. 643-4131
Our Lady of Grace Catholic School, 2205 W. Market St., Greensboro. 274-6520
The Piedmont School, 815 Old Mill Road, High Point. 883-0992
St. Pius X Catholic School, 2200 N. Elm St., Greensboro. 273-9865
Shining Light Academy, 4530 W. Wend over Ave., Greensboro.
299-9688
Tri-City Junior Academy, 8000 Clinard Farms Road, High Point. 665-9822
Triad Christian Academy, 5104 Dunstan Road, Greensboro. 621-3660
Vandalia Christian School, 3919 Pleasant Garden Road, Greensboro. 379-8380
Wesleyan Christian Academy, 1917 N. Centennial St., High Point. 884-3333
Westchester Country Day School, 2045 N. Old G reensboro Road, High Point. 869-2128
Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, 17 25 N.C. 66 South, Kernersville. 564-1010
St. Leo the Great Catholic School, 333 Springdale Ave., Winston-Salem. 748-8252
Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School, 1730 Link Road, Winston-Salem. 722-7204

Home-schooling sources
North Carolinians for Home Education: (919) 790-1100, http://nche.com
Homeschool Alliance of North Carolina: www.ha-nc.org
N.C. Division of Non-Public Education: (919) 733-4276, www.ncdnpe.org