District Administration - May 2012 - (Page 23)

Br iefings Sustainability by Courtney Williams Green Literacy K1 School Supports Reading Success ImAGInE A SChooL WIth classrooms on only one side of the building, windows that look out onto picturesque landscape, a path outside that features the ABCs, and a forest area with a tree house where a classroom of kids can read. The Springfield Literacy Center is that place, and 600 kindergartners and first-graders in the Springfield (Pa.) School District gather for school there every day. “We weren’t looking for a cookie- cutter double-corridor, rectangular school. We wanted to construct a building in such a way that it would help kids read,” says Superintendent Jim Capolupo. The building, which has won six awards for sustainability by the American Institute of Architects and the Council of Educational Facility Planners International, is Gold-certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Students at the Springfield Literacy Center learn about (LEED) program man- sustainability through the architecture of the green school. One design element includes rain chains, which distribute run-off aged by the U.S. Green water from a rooftop gutter down through metal cups or links. Building Council. The school cost $20 million to build and every child to be reading on grade level. It features a library rather than a received funding through a low-interest bond. Driven by a positive mission, “We lobby as the hub of the school, a soundbelieve every kid can read,” the Spring- proof room with glass walls in the center field Literacy Center opened in the fall of every classroom, where a few students of 2010. According to Capolupo, this can read quietly yet the teacher can still school is the foundation of Springfield’s watch them, and a green roof where kids Literacy First initiative, whose goal is for can grow plants and flowers. Daylighting Increases Productivity Solatube International produces daylighting systems that harvest natural daylight on the rooftop of buildings and disperses it inside. Several schools have installed these systems, including MUSE School CA (left), and Red Hawk Elementary School (right). MUSE SChool CA, A NoN-profit k8 SChool iN MAlibU, CAlif., partnered with Solatube international last year to provide natural daylight in school classrooms, increase the performance of students and teachers and enrich the sustainable design. Solatube Daylighting Systems harvest daylight on the rooftop and allocate light evenly into a room with a highly reflective tube and diffuser at the ceiling. Daylighting is a major part of the design of red hawk Elementary School in the St. Vrain Valley (Colo.) School District, which won a 2011 www.DistrictAdministration.com Solatube Award for inspired and Creative Excellence in the use of daylighting design. research by the heschong Mahone Group—a consulting firm specializing in energy efficiency—found positive correlations between classrooms with daylight and productivity. the group tested 21,000 students across three states and found that students in classrooms with more daylight processed 20 percent faster on math tests and 26 percent faster on reading tests in one year than those with the least. May 2012 23 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - May 2012

District Administration - May 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Sustainability Update
Conversations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Problem/Solution
Product Focus
Digital Reading Empowers Students
The Critical Task of Hiring a New Chief
Hard Acts to Follow
Leading the Way
Sally Reis & Joe Renzulli
CIO News
Not Your Mother’s Student Information System
Professional Opinion
Noteworthy Books
New Products
Going Mobile

District Administration - May 2012