Principal Tom DeKeyser likes to describe Whitmore Lake's new high school as both morally and financially responsible.
The new school on Whitmore Lake Road (not far from Aeschliman Equipment) recently became the first school in the state to receive silver LEED certification. The school was designed and built in the mid 2000s and recently received LEED certification before it became all the rage.
But the reasoning behind the environmentally conscious move to make the building (a video tour of which is available here) as green as possible came down to financials as much as principles (...and principals).
"We always were trying to do something special for the kids," DeKeyser says. "And then we got smacked in the face with the energy prices."
A big energy saver for the school is the geothermal system that heats and cools it. Geothermal uses the constant temperature of the earth to help stabilize building temperatures. Although it has expensive up-front costs, it is much more efficient than traditional heating and cooling units. Whitmore Lake's new high school is 38 percent more efficient and saves the district at least $80,000 annually.
The building also saves on electricity costs by using multi-level switching for its lights. Occupancy sensors also turn off the lights automatically when no one is in a room, allowing fewer lights to be used during daylight hours. Even the bathroom hand dryers are 80 percent more energy efficient than traditional units.
A significant portion of the school's green credentials come from what it didn't build rather than what it did. The architects of the school took pains to shrink the school to eliminate redundant spaces and systems. For instance, science classrooms share labs and the theater expands into the cafeteria, helping save the school 35 million BTUs in energy costs each year.
A nearby pond also replaced an 80,000 gallon water storage tank for the school's fire suppression system. The same pond helps retain storm water runoff and irrigates the athletic fields. The building was also designed to conserve water, using 20 percent less than traditional plumbing systems.
Furthermore, the high school emphasizes recycling from construction to everyday use. More than 83 percent of the construction waste from building the new school was recycled. The school district also emphasized the use of recycled materials to build the school and encourage recycling programs in it today.
The school district even recycled old buildings on the site. It moved two mid 19th Century barns, a 1920s farmhouse and several other out buildings a half mile north on Whitmore Lake Road where they stand today. Preserving these structures helped keep nearly 208 tons of material out of landfills.
"We're going to show the kids that we really care about this community we live in," DeKeyser says.
Source: Tom DeKeyser, principal of Whitmore Lake High School
Writer: Jon Zemke
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