District Administration - July 2007 - (Page 16)

BRIEFINGS Facilities/ConstructionUpdate By Zach Miners Massachusetts School Goes Green and Portable IN DECEMBER THE NATION’S ﬁrst environmentally friendly, or “green,” modular classroom building opened at The Carroll School in Lincoln, Mass., an independent day school for elementary and middle school children diagnosed with learning disabilities. The SmartSpace classroom building is the newest product oﬀered by Triumph Leasing, New England’s largest modular building rental and leasing company. Steve Wilkins, headmaster of the school, says that it is too early to assess the degree of educational beneﬁts aﬀorded to the children by the building, but he notes that its mere presence at the school represents a way of looking at the world from a more environmental perspective, and many of the school’s students are already talking about the advantages of “going green.” Research by the Paciﬁc Gas and Electric Company has also shown that students in classrooms with ample natural daylight have fewer absences and perform up to 26 percent better on standardized tests. Carroll is designed for bright kids with disabilities, or “the next generation of students to solve the world’s problems,” Wilkins says. He feels that the building can be Carroll School students in Lincoln, Mass., walk past their an excellent teaching tool. new environmentally friendly modular classroom building. Currently the building is loaded with features to reduce energy use being used for one-on-one tutoring sessions and group work projects, and utility bills. According to the Harand he says that at any time there could vard, Mass.-based Hickory Consortium, be as many as 10 to 15 diﬀerent activities a sustainable building consortium, the building delivers up to 50 percent energy going on in the building. The building protects the health of the savings over normal maintenance costs. It includes a reﬂective roof to cut airenvironment, children and teachers, and is conditioning costs and lighting sensors that automatically dim the lights when the sun provides enough natural light. Its recycled steel construction makes its structure mold resistant because it’s cellulose-free. The interior walls are also Building upon a forty-year partnercovered with a formaldehyde-free prodship between Pine Jog Environmental uct made from recovered wood ﬁber that Education Center, a unit of the College helps to reduce deforestation. of Education at FAU, and the Palm Beach Cliﬀ Cort, president of Triumph LeasCounty school system, the district will ing, says that one of the biggest beneﬁts construct a 15,000-square-foot facility of housing portable classroom buildings for the center. The new school in turn on your campus is just that—they’re porwill coordinate with the academic protable. The ability to pack an entire classgrams and resources at FAU and provide room onto a truck and move it to another professional development opportunities school is a great beneﬁt to school boards for educators. The green elements of the trying to plan for changing enrollments. new elementary school will become an “Everyone is struggling with crumintegral part of the curriculum. bling educational facilities, but we can The new school and Pine Jog facilcreate high quality, sustainable classity are scheduled to open no later than rooms, and we can do it fast,” Cort states. August 2008. “It’s not pie in the sky anymore.” District Administration Palm Beach School District and FAU Break Ground for Green Initiative LEADERS FROM FLORIDA ATLANTIC University (FAU) and the Palm Beach County School District recently broke ground for two new projects: Florida’s ﬁrst “green” elementary school and a new facility for the Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, one of the oldest nature centers in the nation, serving over 25,000 students and 750 teachers annually from Palm Beach County and the surrounding counties. The school will be the ﬁrst in the state to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating and will be among only a dozen public schools in the nation to be LEED certiﬁed. 16 July 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July 2007

Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Facilities/Construction Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Cover Story: Rethinking School Bus Safety
Broadening Collective Bargaining
Searching for Subs
Jersey City’s Broad Appeal
Improving Nutrition in Schools
New Products
Computer Literature
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Research Corner
Problem Solution
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Supervisor’s Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - July 2007