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Evergreen Elementary to be SMCPS' Shining Star
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Evergreen Elementary to be SMCPS' Shining Star
CALIFORNIA - 2/15/2009
By Pete Hurrey
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Evergreen Elementary School, set open for students for the 2009-2010 school year, is not only the most modern, state of the art school being built in Southern Maryland; it is being built when budget cuts are wreaking havoc with school systems across the nation. Consider that even though capital construction budgets have been left relatively intact, the operating budgets for most school systems are taking a beating across the state and elsewhere. In a recent media tour of the new facility, Dr. Michael J. Martirano explained that Evergreen will open and it will have funds with which to operate. “It is a balanced budget, but we had to get creative,” said Martirano.
The tour on Friday, Feb. 13 exclusively for media was arranged by Brad Clements, Chief Operating Officer for St. Mary’s County Public Schools. Setting aside the budgetary restrictions, Evergreen is, indeed a state-of-the-art, ‘green’ facility.
As designed, the school will recycle rainwater, storing it is huge cisterns with a maximum capacity of 15,000 gallons combined. “The rainwater will be used in the bathrooms to flush toilets,” said Clements. The design has also incorporated celestial lighting to reduce power consumption for lighting, but what shows the most promise of the incorporated use of geothermal heating.
Dr. Martirano explained that the school is a hybrid in that half the school will utilize geothermal and the other half will be conventionally heated. “We will be able to study the differences between the two areas of the same school which will provide an invaluable wealth of data for future use and design,” said Clements.
The school as described by Martirano is to be St. Mary’s Public Schools’ signature school and a model for all future school construction. As planned, Evergreen will save energy – up to 15 percent on electricity and 90 percent in water usage.
More important and definitely more exciting to Superintendent Martirano is the ability for students to use the facility as a tool for gaining knowledge. ”It will allow us to immerse students in the learning process while they interact with the science incorporated into the building itself,” said Martirano.
With the St. Mary’s School redistricting now passed, Evergreen ES will open to over 500 students and 76 staff. “We have capacity for 646. With all the construction planned in this area, we are leaving room for student growth,” said Bill Gross, Project Manager for SMCPS.
The school also incorporates the latest technology for security to keep students safer than at any time before. “Each door will have a lock that is operated by magnetic encoded strip built into each SMCPS employee ID badge,” said Martirano. The new building also will be better for overall student wellness. Gross explained that every aspect of the school construction, from paint to adhesives to carpets was chosen for their low off gas emissions. “Everything is designed with low volatile organic compound emissions, which will help keep students and staff healthier,” said Gross.
Martirano explained that Evergreen is to be used as the prototype for new school construction. “We will have already done the design, architectural engineering when we go to build the next new school,” said Martirano. “The only thing we want to change in new schools after this is to update the technology.”
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