By Darien Clary��

It’s a late afternoon in May, and the Texas heat settles over the city like a heavy blanket, taxing aging HVAC systems. Inside, students collaborate on projects, teachers guide discussions, and campuses work hard to maintain the comfortable learning environments as rising temperatures place growing demands on buildings and infrastructure. The Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD) is working to ensure these environmental factors do not limit a student’s potential. Through its bond programs, the district isn’t just building classrooms, it’s creating sustainable learning environments with clean air, efficient cooling, natural light, and shaded outdoor areas so students can stay focused and ready to thrive.��

Sustainability is a driving force behind Austin ISD’s mission to prepare every student with the knowledge and skills to thrive in college, career and life. The district’s schools sit at the center of Austin’s most pressing environmental challenges, including extreme heat, air quality, equitable access to green space and the responsible use of limited public resources. Austin ISD approaches sustainability as a shared responsibility — one that supports student learning, environmental stewardship and community well-being.��

Make Sustainability a Non-Negotiable��

Too often, sustainability is approached as a “nice-to-have” instead of a fundamental part of building performance, which can make features targets for cuts with tight budgets. A solution to this can be found in Austin ISD’s Educational Specifications (Ed Specs), a board-approved document defining what every modernized campus must be. Every major construction project under the 2017 and 2022 Bond Programs must pursue Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) and/or LEED certification. Additionally, the Ed Specs mandate 100% LED lighting with daylight sensors, energy-efficient HVAC, water-efficient fixtures, solar-ready roofs, and outdoor learning environments. When board members approved the Ed Specs, they made sustainability non-negotiable.��

Let the Community Define Sustainability��

Green building standards set the bar for resource efficiency and building performance, but sustainability is ultimately about people. Austin ISD centers a simple question: sustainable for whom? By working with the community, the district ensures every student has access to healthy, high-performing and inspiring learning environments that work for them.��

To do this, Austin ISD convenes a Campus Architectural Team (CAT) composed of teachers, parents, students and community members for every modernization project. They are co-designers, and what they know about their community shapes decisions no energy model can account for: which outdoor spaces will actually be used for learning, how a building should feel to the people spending their days inside it and what community values can be reflected in the design.��

An example of this process is designed by Perkins&Will. From the beginning, the CAT brought together staff, students, families, and alumni of the original L.C. Anderson High School, a cornerstone of East Austin’s African American community until its closure in 1971. What emerged is more than a high-performing building. Historic materials were salvaged and re-integrated, spaces like the original cafetorium were reimagined for modern learning, and the story of L.C. Anderson lives on through galleries. Paired with daylighting, efficient systems and reduced water use, the result is a school that reflects environmental responsibility and sustains cultural continuity.��

What It Looks Like in Practice��

At , designed by PBK Architects and modernized as part of the 2017 Bond Program, every dollar saved on energy is a dollar that stays focused on students, inside the classroom. Govalle now uses less energy per square foot than 95% of schools in the nation, according to data collected by the . That performance is driven by high-efficiency HVAC, a well-insulated building envelope and LED lighting paired with daylighting sensors. Heritage trees were preserved to cool the schoolyard and also help mitigate heat-island effect. Enhanced ventilation, high-efficiency air filtration, and low-emitting materials support strong indoor air quality, ensuring that efficiency gains also translate into healthier spaces.����

Govalle’s results are not isolated. Across the district, Austin ISD has avoided $15.4 million in energy costs and $6.7 million in water and wastewater costs since 2017 through sustainable design and resource conservation.��

Darien Clary is the Director of Sustainability, Energy & Environment at Austin ISD.

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By Erin Bellis, Senior Manager of Security Products & Specifications, McGrory Glass Systems

In K-12 school architecture, a shift is occurring. For years, school-safety discussions focused on reactive, visible reinforcements. The immediate response to security threats involved retrofitting schools with steel bars, security��shutters��and windowless concrete entryways. While these measures��were intended��to protect, they��frequently��transformed centers of learning into cold, institutional spaces. Today, educational architects and school districts recognize that physical security must coexist with a student’s psychological well-being.��

The mandate for school construction requires achieving life-safety protection while preserving an open,��transparent��and welcoming environment. This balance is known as Human-Centered Design��(HCD). By prioritizing daylighting, clear lines of sight, and biophilic connections, architects can foster an atmosphere where students focus on academics. Central to this design philosophy is the implementation of “invisible hardening”��—��advanced security glazing systems engineered to withstand physical and ballistic attacks while��remaining��indistinguishable from standard architectural glass.��

“We can make almost any space secure, but if you’re not careful, it can end up looking like a jail,” says Chad Snyder,��Senior��Director of the��Security��Division at McGrory Glass. “That challenge has forced manufacturers to develop security glazing that performs like a hardened product but��doesn’t��have to be installed in heavy, industrial-looking hollow-metal frames. Instead, these products can work in aluminum storefront systems and other framing while still providing attack resistance.”��

Two recent elementary school projects��demonstrate��how specialized glazing fabrication transforms security from an imposing obstacle into a protective layer of a��building’s��envelope.��

Unifying History and Security: DCPS Truesdell Elementary School��

In Washington, D.C., the modernization of DCPS Truesdell Elementary School presented an architectural challenge. Designed by VMDO Architects, the project required unifying historic 1920s structures with high-performance modern additions. The school needed to create an environment that felt open and connected to the surrounding��community, yet��structurally prepared for unauthorized��breach��attempts.��

To bridge the gap between life safety and aesthetic transparency, the design team��utilized��McGrory Glass’����security glazing. Engineered specifically for high-traffic educational environments, this attack-resistant glass features a proprietary interlayer designed to prevent body passage during physical attacks. Tested to standards such as ASTM F1233 and ASTM F3561, the glazing can withstand sustained physical assaults from tools like bats,��hammers��and crowbars for��nearly 15��minutes. This structural durability offers school administrators a tactical advantage: the time��required��to execute lockdown protocols and await emergency response.��

The baseline of how manufacturers approach these spaces has undergone��a paradigm shift. As Erin Bellis,��Senior��Manager of��Security��Products and��Performance��Specifications at McGrory Glass, points out, school security requirements look vastly different today than they did a couple of decades ago.��

“Fifteen years ago, the industry wasn’t really thinking about security glass in schools,” Bellis explains. “That changed significantly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It forced manufacturers to rethink their products, especially for schools that might not be able to afford more robust ballistic glazing.”��

What makes the Truesdell Elementary installation a benchmark for human-centered design is its technical integration. Rather than treating security zones as isolated barriers, the security glazing was integrated with��Solarban® low-e coatings. This allowed the specialized security panels to match the visual appearance of standard IGUs (insulated glass units) used throughout the rest of the campus.��

By��eliminating��the visual cues of a security barrier, the building��maintains��aesthetic uniformity. Students and staff move between security perimeters and open community spaces without any added psychological weight. Several of the security glass panels feature custom decorative gradient fades fabricated in-house. These gradients enhance occupant comfort and localized privacy while allowing natural light to flood into the learning spaces, proving that proactive school safety and clean design can coexist within the same square foot.��

Erin Bellis is the Senior Manager of Security Products & Specifications at McGrory Glass Systems.

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As educational institutions strive to create healthier, more energy-efficient and student-centered learning environments, natural daylighting has emerged as a key design strategy that supports sustainable and inclusive learning design. A well-planned daylighting strategy offers numerous sustainability benefits and can enhance key design principles that are shaping the future of educational spaces

The Benefits of Sustainable School Design

1. Healthier Indoor Environments

Sustainable school design creates healthier learning environments by improving indoor air quality, natural ventilation and daylighting. High-efficiency ventilation systems filter out airborne pollutants, while sustainable materials and finishes reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.

Natural daylight, a critical element of healthy indoor spaces, offers a dynamic lighting alternative to static electric lighting solutions, which can adversely affect the building occupants’ mood, sleep patterns and overall well-being. The daily progression from darkness to physiologically meaningful dynamic daylight and back supports the body’s time-dependent production of serotonin and melatonin, enhancing mood regulation, attention span and overall student engagement.

Recent discoveries about have further underscored the importance of daylight as a source for interior space illumination. These cells play a vital role in regulating circadian rhythms, paving the way for evidence-based daylighting design strategies. By integrating these insights with modern architectural and engineering principles, sustainable schools are better equipped to optimize learning environments.

2. Higher Attendance and Teacher-Retention Rates

Sustainable school design not only creates healthier learning environments—it also boosts attendance and teacher retention. A survey of 665 industry executives revealed that more than 70% of respondents saw reduced absenteeism and improved performance in green schools. Complementing this, a nationwide survey found that nearly all teachers (97%) consider effective learning environment design essential for student success, with 80% linking it to effective teaching and 68% factoring it into job decisions.

Key features—such as improved indoor air quality, reduced chemical emissions, abundant natural daylight and better humidity control—yield environmental, fiscal and health benefits. These advantages lead to lower absenteeism, reduced turnover and enhanced performance, with a 2011 study showing up to 7.5% improvement in attendance and an 8% to 19% boost in student performance when compared to conventional schools.

3. Improved Student Performance and Test Scores

The relationship between sustainable school design and academic performance is also well documented. from the Lighting Research Center (LRC) and other academic institutions shows that exposure to natural daylight in classrooms enhances cognitive function, improves memory retention and reduces stress and fatigue. In fact, a by the Heschong Mahone Group revealed that students in naturally daylit classrooms advanced 20% faster in math and 26% faster in reading compared to those in environments with limited daylight. Additional studies indicate that classrooms with optimized natural daylighting contribute to increased productivity, better concentration and higher overall academic achievement.

4. Reduced Environmental Impact

K-12 schools spend roughly $8 billion annually on energy and emit approximately 72 million metric tons of CO₂—equivalent to 18 coal-fired power plants per year—according to the U.S. Department of Energy. By adopting sustainable design strategies, especially natural daylighting, schools can lower energy consumption, reduce emissions and create healthier learning environments.

A well-designed daylighting system reduces reliance on electric lighting, which can account for 35% to 50% of a school’s annual energy use. Daylight has a higher efficacy factor compared to electric lighting, providing more light with less heat. As a result, maximizing daylight can lower cooling demands by up to , easing the load on HVAC systems, and can reduce electric lighting consumption by up to . These energy efficiencies translate into significant cost savings and a reduced environmental footprint.

5. Lower Operating Costs

Lastly, schools designed with sustainability in mind benefit from significantly lower long-term operational costs. High-performance buildings utilize strategies such as natural ventilation, enhanced insulation and geothermal heating to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency. According to the , green schools, on average, use 33% less energy and 32% less water than their conventional counterparts, saving roughly $100,000 per year in direct operating costs.

Read the full story in the of ���سԹ� and learn more about natural daylighting and sustainable design principles that can support biophilic design, neuro-inclusive learning spaces, resiliency and more.

Neall Digert, Ph.D., MIES, is vice president of Innovation and Market Development, for Kingspan Light + Air North America.

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MIDVALE, Utah — Anyone who has ever muddled with programming will know the turn of phrase “feature or bug?” It’s the industry’s glib way of spinning what might be an interesting deviation in the code. The same applies to interior design when it comes to schools — at least according to a recent newscast on New4Utah regarding a pending $100 million retrofit to��Hillcrest High School (HHS) in Midvale, Utah, which is still in the design phase. The question at hand is “Are large windows a design feature or potentially fatal flaw?”

Included in the proposed design is plenty of��“” in the form of large windows, which the area’s Canyon��School District has been employing throughout its schools. The premise holds that natural light is not only good for defraying electricity and infrastructure costs but it’s also healthier for students and promotes a positive learning environment. At least one teacher, however, believes the new window design makes students and faculty vulnerable to school shooting incidents, according to the report.

Katie Bullock, a language arts teacher at the high school, candidly told the TV station, that she believes greater visibility of students essentially makes them easier to target and that the design represents “negligence” on the part of the district. Jeff Haney, a Canyons School District spokesperson disagreed with the observation, countering that “These are schools, not prisons.” Though there were discussions of reducing the size of the window to 10 by 6 feet, Bullock pointed out that they will not be made of bullet-proof glass, which moots the point of shrinking the windows in the first place.

HHS principal��Gregory Leavitt posted a message on the school’s following a recent parent and student public forum. “We had over 250 students share their thoughts and opinions about HHS. Our parent meeting had 25 participants, and we are hoping for more next time. We have published a summary of our student and patron comments and the HHS response for your review on our web page. We hope you take the time to look them over and join us in our next public forum,” wrote Leavitt.

To that end, the district and�� Architects, a Salt Lake City-based firm that designed the proposed upgrades, will share renderings of the new HHS on April 18. The public is invited to come look over the architectural drawings and speak with school officials and architects.��Construction of the new school is slated to begin this Spring and��could take up to three years to complete.

HHS has a total enrollment of about 2,250 students and is ranked No. 7 in the state of Utah. Students from HHS participated in a walkout one week after 17 people were killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Fla., in February. In February of the previous year, the school went on lockdown when an anonymous caller phoned the police to say that a gunman was barricaded inside the school and firing shots. The incident turned out to be a hoax.

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