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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School facilities built in the mid-20th century often have structural limitations that make it difficult to support the delivery of a 21st century curriculum. For example, double-loaded corridors with homogenous classrooms can challenge the delivery of project-based learning, such as small group activities, and are not conducive to outdoor learning.

Many teachers are masters at flexibility and working around these limitations, but a better approach is to renovate school facilities so they enhance instruction. Most facility directors and chief operating officers do not have the luxury of large budgets to completely renovate their longstanding buildings. However, modest capital investments can have a massive impact when made judiciously.

Jerry Perry (AIA, REFP), an architect with Jacobs Engineering, has created school standards and designed schools worldwide for the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). Recently, Perry created sketches to demonstrate how targeted, relatively small renovations can provide educators and students with enhanced learning environments. The following examples highlight common limitations of school facilities and strategies to overcome them.

Limitation: A “sea of concrete”

Renovation: Build exterior courtyard classrooms

This high school campus is a “sea of concrete” and lacks exterior learning spaces. Adding just a few courtyards (shown in green) provides exterior classrooms. The courtyards are flanked by tiered seating (illustrated by the gray textured areas). Brick paver stones (tan areas) break up the sea of concrete and serve as visual wayfinding to the courtyard classrooms. By simply adding four courtyards, the high school makes better use of outdoor space and provides direct access to the exterior from multiple classrooms.

Limitation: Side-by-side, double-loaded corridors with dead space in between

Renovation: Add extended learning area “bump outs” and create an exterior courtyard

A mid-20th century flat-roofed, brick elementary school has two sets of double-loaded corridors and lacks space for extended learning areas. By “bumping out” a bit on each side of each corridor, extended learning spaces can be created (light blue areas). Surrounding them with tempered glass — even the rooftop — lets in natural light, breaks up the brick exterior and enables visual supervision. Tempered glass also enables visual supervision into the courtyard, which previously was dead space. Now, the courtyard can be used for outdoor education.

Limitation: A forested hill

Renovation: Add an outdoor amphitheater that is adjacent to the auditorium stage

This elementary school is adjacent to a forested hill owned by the school district. Instead of removing dirt and leveling the area to construct another brick-and-mortar facility, the hillside can become an outdoor amphitheater. An amphitheater not only provides space for school performances and presentations during the day, it also allows for community use after school. Since the hillside is adjacent to the auditorium stage, the exterior wall of the existing facility can become a mobile wall to allow the stage to double as both an interior stage for the auditorium and an exterior stage for the amphitheater. Terraced steps (concrete with grass infill) provide ample seating. Mini platforms on the steps would facilitate group fitness classes.

Limitation: A growing number of portable classrooms

Renovation: Connect portable classrooms with existing buildings

This middle school has three permanent buildings and several portables. To connect the three buildings and create a permanent structure in place of the portables, a 12-classroom structure with extended learning areas can be constructed (in blue). Building this permanent structure not only consolidates the portables, but also reunites the existing permanent facilities while providing interior access throughout the entire facility.

Limitation: Multiple double-loaded corridors with no room for flexible spaces

Renovation: Repurpose existing classrooms into extended learning areas and small-group rooms

A high school with double-loaded corridors throughout the campus lacks extended learning areas and small-group rooms. However, one side of each corridor can be renovated to add extended learning areas and small-group rooms. On the exterior of the renovated side, new classrooms can be constructed. This expands each double-loaded corridor by one-third, allowing for the new extended learning areas and small-group rooms to serve the original classrooms and the newly constructed classrooms. Each addition (in blue) has four classrooms (on the current exterior side of the facility), two extended learning areas on each end (with the green tables) and small-group rooms in the middle.

Check out the article in the January/February issue of .

Kerrianne Wolf, REFP, is the educational specifications specialist for Cooperative Strategies, a national company that assists educational
agencies in providing quality facilities to students.

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