Posted: February 5, 2008
By Christina Gould, Lander Journal, Lander, Wyo.
The future Lander middle school will be the first of its kind for Fremont County — it will be “green.”
The Fremont County School District 1 Board of Education unanimously approved during its January meeting last week that the future middle school will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
The decision came after an ad-hoc group — which had the responsibility of presenting a recommendation to the board after two months of researching LEED including an informative trip to a Greybull school to see LEED first-hand — recommended District 1 to pursue the certification.
“Basically, the sorts of things we found out were if we proceeded on the regular track without getting certified we would be well on our way to LEED,” school board member and ad-hoc group representative Bruce Palmer said via telephone during the Tuesday meeting. “And there is a lot of community support for this.”
LEED certification is a set of voluntary specifications for a design, construction and operation of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly building certification.
Palmer came to the recommendation with the support of other members of the ad-hoc group — school board members Stephanie Kessler and Dave Clark, assistant superintendent Kirk Schmidt, District 1 employee David Ayers, a representative from both the architect firm and the construction company, and community members Darci Jones and Randy Craft.
“Our recommendation to the board is that we go forward with LEED certification and pursue it for both the middle and elementary schools,” Palmer said.
Palmer said the group decided it would be best for the district to pursue a gold standard (second level) of certification while also recognizing it may fall short of even earning the silver standard, which is a notch below. The four levels of certification with the U.S. Green Building Council’s rating system are, from high to low, platinum, gold, silver and certified.
Palmer also said the group acknowledges this decision could cost the district another $300,000 in building costs — expenses not covered by the School Facilities Commission.
Board member Bob Budd said the decision to go “green” only should be in regard to the middle school, not the elementary school.
“We wouldn’t want to legally bind a future board,” Budd said.
Board chair Tom Ryder agreed.
“It will also give us a chance to evaluate it and see if it is worth doing again, or if some alterations are needed,” Ryder said.
Board member Y.T. Sempert brought up a concern about the funding.
“Do we have the money?” he asked the board.
Superintendent Paige Fenton Hughes said the district does. She also said the estimated $300,000 in extra costs is based on the original design plan, which had the facility at just over 100,000 square feet. Because of issues brought up regarding enrollment numbers for the future school in recent months, the district and SFC are in the process of hashing out what will be the final size. Currently, the SFC has the size of the facility at 78,200 square feet, a significant decrease.
“I think it is a good thing,” Palmer said. “We do recognize there will be some bumps in the road, but I am a component of this and I think it’s really exciting.”
The decision to pursue LEED certification also was heard from members of the community during the public comment time of the meeting, including from Sonjia Weinstein, who has been a prominent advocate for LEED certification.
“LEED is the only nationwide standard that provides third-party assurance that a building meets certain sustainable building criteria,” Weinstein said. “Building to LEED standards is especially crucial when constructing a school as it creates a better learning environment, with children showing higher test scores in LEED schools. Teacher retention rates in LEED schools are also higher than non-LEED schools, further reducing administration costs associated with recruiting and hiring staff.”
At the board meeting, Kessler said that during a visit to the Greybull site many teachers were pleased with the LEED certification.
“They definitely said they see great improvements,” Kessler said.
The issue of LEED certification for future Lander schools came about in October after the first-ever LEED certified school for the state was built in Greybull. The energy-efficient design of the elementary school in Greybull sparked interest in the Lander community. Since then, many community members have urged the district to look into the certification. There have been several occasions when members of the community have spoken about LEED.
An open house in November to update the public on the plans and construction of the two schools also had attendees asking school officials about LEED certification.
A citizen-organized informative meeting about LEED took place in November, which also was organized by Weinstein. The meeting was attended by about 20 community members who asked questions and discussed ways to address the board about looking into getting certified.
The meeting prompted several individuals to write letters to the editor, contact school board members and attend school board meetings to show their support for LEED.
Encourage green schools leadership at the federal level! Learn about the newly formed Green Schools Caucus and find out if your Congress member is on board.
Find green schools near you with our Green Schools Maps.