Newsclip

Norfolk school goes green

Franklin Country Gazette | June 27, 2008

By Heather McCarron STAFF WRITER

The town's sdiool department has received a green thumbs up from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Renewable Energy Trust on proposed plans for reconstruction of the Freeman Centennial School on Boardman Street.

The Collaborative has awarded the school district a $50,000 design grant to help with school officials' vision for a school building that is more energy efficient and more earth friendly. Voters at Town Meeting last month approved $500,000 to fund a feasibility study for the school.

Danielle Rochefort, co-chairman of the School Building Task Force, said the town applied for the grant just before Town Meeting. With the positive vote for the feasibility study funding, she said the Collaborative informed the town earlier this month of the grant

"We were excited," Rochefort said. "It was just great news to have, especially as we move forward with the feasibility study."

The grant is among $15 miillion in awards the MTC is funding to encourage addition of solar electric panels, wind turbines, and other clean energy technologies, in addidon to green building design and planning assistance, at schools meeting new state guidelines for energy effidency, according to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

It's all part ofthe Green Schools Initiative, an effort of the MTC and the Massachusetts School Building Assistance (AISBA) program.

The town has already been placed on the state School Building Assistance program reimbursement list, and could be eligible for 51 to 55 percent reimbursement on any project that may ultimately be pursued, according to Superintendent Dr. Chris Augusta-Scott. She noted the amount of reimbursement depends on how many points the school system gets in different categories for its proposed project

MSBA could award up to an additional 2 percent of the approved, eligible project costs if the project is verified as a high-performance "green" school.

"Green schools are healthy and productive learning environments. They are also cost-effective facilities that conserve energy and use renewable resources," the MTC notes on its Web site.

The ultimate goal of Norfolk's green design grant is to seek verification as a high performance green school. The design grant will be used to incorporate green features into the building design funded by Town Meeting, including green team support, energy modeling, life-cycle costing, acoustic design, daylighting design and renewable energy system design.

Andy Bakinowski, who wrote the green grant application, said "green can mean a lot of things."

"There's daylighting, where it uses the natural light and placement of windows," he said, so uldmately, "you cut down on the amount of lighting you need."

"Energy modeling looks at heat loss during the winter or heat gain during the summer," he said, and influences how a building is oriented to take advantage of naturally occurring conditions.

In addition, he said, "we're definitely looking at putting renewable energy, primarily photovoltaics, on the roof," as well as capturing rain water and recycling water, then reusing it for flushing toilets.

"The way I look at it, from the big picture, this is a huge investment for the community," he said, noting it's always a plus "if you can construct a building that looks at minimizing your operating costs," especially with the cost of energy going through the roof."

"It (minimizing operating costs) now has to be one of the priorities on the list you look at when you design your building," Bakinowski said.

The town's state legislators are pleased with the green grant award to the town, saying it is an essential part of building for the future.

"This money is vitally important if we are to build a school that is energy efficient," said state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham. "I appredate the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's work on getting these funds to such deserving projects."

Rep. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, agrees.

"These funds will assist the town as they move forward in considering tlie construcdon of a 'green' school, which has long been the focus and priority," Ross noted.

Norfolk is following in the footsteps of 20 schools that took part in the pilot phase of the Green Schools Initiative. Schools utilizing green technologies have seen an average increase in energy effidency of 30 percent, saving them an estimated $50,000 to $100,000 a year for utilides, according to the MTC.

New state regulations that resulted from the Green Schools Initiative pilot require all new school projects and significant renovation projects receiving School Building Assistance funding approval after July 1, 2007 to incorporate green design elements.

The town's proposed school project is on the MSBA's short list, taking precedence over numerous requests from other communities in the state, according to Augusta-Scott. There were about 400 applications this year.