Special care must be applied to the proper planning and design of public school facilities. Student populations for this age group are prone toward high levels of inner ear deficiencies, and they struggle in difficult acoustical environments. Additionally, students with asthma conditions must contend daily in building environments with marginal ventilation systems. What can be done? Schools must be free from unnecessary ambient noise and indoor air pollutants. The design professional must provide extraordinary design leadership through the use of natural day lighting and daylight modeling. Qualified acousticians should be engaged to evaluate designs for better learning environments. Operations and maintenance staff can be trained in the benefits of good indoor air quality. Pesticides and herbicide use can be reduced or eliminated. Town constituency, school board members, parents, staff and students should be educated on the benefits of the LEED initiatives and the certification process. Since children spend vast amounts of time in these facilities during critical physical growth periods, they need to be afforded the protection of such building design and construction.Accordingly, in Radnor, Pennsylvania, such an initiative is underway -the construction of a LEED driven middle school with a different twist. For this project, the school district, the engineer, and the architect have all completed "green" projects in the last few years. Armed with the experience of lessons learned, the project team is endeavoring to provide a high performance school for the township. A school that is not only energy efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and providing all the amenities needed for a quality education.
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