Rob Cook (left), with State Architect David
Thorman. |
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Green
Schools Funding Waiting for Takers:
a Conversation with Rob Cook
by Barbara Crane
"Green schools don't happen by accident," says Rob Cook, executive officer
of the California Office of Public School Construction (OPSC).
"It all starts with how you envision your facility. If you're trying to
push energy saving features into the design at the back end, it's too
little and too late."
In 2006, when voters passed Proposition 1D, a $10.4 billion statewide
school bond measure, they also gave the nod to allocating $100 million of
incentive grants for green, or high performance, K-12 schools (see related
article). Much of this funding is still
waiting for school districts to take advantage of it.
The State of California adopted criteria developed by the Coalition for
High Performance Schools (CHPS)
to allocate the high performance grants. The OPSC receives approximately
56 new construction and modernization funding applications a month plus
additional applications for special programs, such as career technical and
charter schools. Once a month the approved applications are sent to the
State Allocation Board (SAB) for funding.
In June, 2008, for example, the SAB awarded nearly $412 million in
construction grants to 109 schools throughout California. More than $219
million was allocated from Proposition 1D funds; the remainder came from
earlier school bond measures. From January to June 2008, the SAB approved
over $3.4 billion for school facilities projects. During the same period
the board allocated over $10 million to projects for high performance
schools.
The OPSC receives approximately three applications for green schools every
month. Cook attributes the relatively few applications to a variety of
factors, the primary one being a misapprehension among school district
personnel that a high performance school will cost more to build than a
conventional one. To the contrary, says Cook. "We're finding that the
grants are more than covering the incremental cost of meeting the CHPS
criteria."
What's more, green schools make great economic sense over the long term.
"It's a win/win," Cook says. "If implemented properly, you have very
little additional cost to invest in your facility. You have a great return
on your investment, and you reduce your operating costs for the life of
the facility. Also, features such as daylighting and improved acoustics
have great payoffs for the educational environment. In the current period
of tight budgets, green schools make more sense than ever."
Awareness of the benefits of green schools may be accelerated by the
Green Building Code, adopted in July 2008
by the California Building Standards Commission. The standards cover
commercial and residential construction, as well as schools, and address
energy efficiency, water consumption, diversion of construction waste from
landfills and use of environmentally sensitive materials in construction
and design-categories similar to those covered by CHPS criteria.
"The high performance grants in Prop 1D will not yet be affected by the
Green Building Code, since it becomes mandatory in 2010," Cook says. "But
the objective for the incentive grant is to encourage new and modernized
facilities to exceed minimum requirements. The enhanced building code
will ensure that all schools are moving in the right direction."
Cook sees the need to make school districts more aware of high performance
incentive grants. He says, "David Thorman, the state architect, and I are
looking forward to doing much more outreach." Cook serves on the advisory
board of the
Green California Schools Summit, which
will take place from December 8 to 10 in Anaheim, California.
"It's
very important that those who are responsible for building and modernizing
schools know what's possible," he said. "I toured the vendor expo at the
conference last year with seasoned facility people who were excited about
the new approaches they saw. I look forward to the event this year as
another opportunity to push the envelope a bit.
"Ten years ago there were only a few pioneers of green building out
there," Cook continues. "Now there's a lot of momentum. The longevity of
the positive impacts in terms of energy savings and benefits to children's
education is hard to comprehend. Prop 1D incentive grants provide the
financing to make it happen. We just need to educate school boards,
superintendents, and facilities managers to demand high performance school
designs."
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