By Susan Winlow | Daily Republic | July 17, 2009
Workers from On-Site Concrete Inc., of Rockland, build what will be a covered seating area for students behind Fairmont Charter Elementary School Friday. The school will be one of the first "green" schools in the county. Photo by Brad Zweerink
VACAVILLE - The building isn't painted green. The mascot colors at Fairmont Charter Elementary School aren't really green either.
But the school itself is undoubtedly green. Powered green, that is, and it's the first of its kind in Solano County.
The 'green' design, modeled after schools in the Lodi School District, will help lower energy bills for the cash-strapped Vacaville School District and help fight global warming. It could also be a model for future schools in the district, said Leigh Coop, director of facilities.
'It's a trend (you're) starting to see more and more of in California,' said Tracy Asher, project manager of Roebbelen, the general contractor of the Fairmont project.
The school is designated as a LEED Silver school. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a building rating system that provides design standards and check lists for constructing green buildings.
Slated to open next month, the students are getting a new two-story, single-building, environmentally friendly school, which now stands in complete contrast next to the old ramschackle Fairmont Elementary School on Marshall Road. The new building is designed to hold 617 students.
The old school buildings, which were built in 1968, were originally in pod formation that gave little class privacy and wasn't a popular model with teachers. It is in the process of being demolished to make room for hardcourt areas for the students.
The new building, nearly completed next to the old on the 12-acre school site, offers top-notch technology in the classrooms and just as important, environmentally friendly construction that Rochelle Sklansky, the principal, could only previously dream of.
She calls the project 'breathtaking.'
See the compete story at the Daily Republic online.
