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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SAN LEANDRO, Calif.—In a few years, the San Leandro Unified School District will be home to a $67 million gym, which will be one of the largest in the Bay Area when completed near the end of 2024.

In addition to competition and physical education space, the gym will also feature a weight room and updated locker rooms.�� As part of the enhancements to San Leandro High School, the school will also add a new southern entrance as well as updated parking.

The new gymnasium complex was designed by PBK Architects.�� Overaa Construction is working in partnership with construction manager RGM Kramer Incorporated on the project.

Funding will be largely provided thanks to funds from Measure N, a nearly $200-million improvement bond that was passed by voters in the spring of 2020 to facilitate renovation and new construction throughout the SLUSD.

“This facility will be a treasure for our entire San Leandro community,” Dr. Mike McLaughlin, SLUSD superintendent, said in a statement released in conjunction with the groundbreaking.�� “I am proud to serve this community that always comes through to show support for our children.”

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BAYTOWN, Texas—Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District’s (GCCISD) recently broke ground on November 18 for its new San Jacinto Elementary School in Baytown, which is located in the Houston metropolitan area.

With a completion date slated for December 2021, the approximately $22.6 million elementary school is one of the major components of the $335 million bond that the district passed in May 2019 to address its rapid growth. Driven by massive growth in southeast Houston, this property-wealthy district is projecting more than 2,250 new students over the next decade.

“The District is very excited to provide the children and families in this community a campus we know they will be proud of. It will also be an anchor in a long-awaited revitalization project for the West Baytown neighborhood,” said Brenda Garcia, director of facilities planning and construction at GCCISD, in a statement.

“Through the collaboration with community members, local businesses and the City of Baytown, the new San Jacinto Elementary School will continue its rich history and legacy.”

Lockwood, Andrews & Newman (LAN) is serving as the program manager for the bond program.

“The groundbreaking of the new San Jacinto Elementary School marks an important achievement toward managing the district’s growth and providing its students the educational needs of the 21st century,” said JP Grom, vice president at��Lockwood Andrews & Newnam, Inc., in a statement.

The new campus is located just a few blocks away from the current San Jacinto Elementary, which will be retired. To ensure the campus stayed a neighborhood school, the District worked diligently with surrounding businesses to acquire the land necessary to construct the new school.

Spanning 102,000 square feet, the facility will accommodate 800 students from grades PreK-5. It includes a media center, gym, playgrounds, multiple computer labs per grade level, and an outdoor learning center.

PBK Architects is the architect on this impressive project. Marshall Construction is the general contractor.

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Klein��Cain High School, which made its debut in Houston last August, was long in the making.

Its story begins in 2008 when the Klein Independent School District realized it needed a new 9-12 high school (its fifth) to address the demographic growth within the community. At that time, the district did a selection process through a design competition that was won by locally headquartered PBK Architects. But then the recession hit, demographic growth plateaued and the project was shelved until 2012.

While oftentimes pausing a major project like this can pose a challenge, this time it worked out in the school district’s favor, according to Ian Powell, partner with PBK Architects. During that time, a major shift in the ways teaching and learning occurred was happening, as schools moved away from instructional-based learning to more independent learning methods that require more flexible, open spaces.

The project came to fruition in February 2015 when construction broke ground, with locally based Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc. serving as the construction manager at-risk. The result: A school that combines flexibility and transparency for next-generation learning while simultaneously addressing school security needs and prepping the complex for natural disasters just like Hurricane Harvey that hit five days after its opening.

Collaboration Is Key

One of the district’s criteria in the original design competition was to create a facility that reflected the heritage of the community, paying homage to the German immigrants who settled here in the mid-1850s. As such, the exterior of the building reflects traditional German architecture, with the��steeply pitched��gable metal roof at��the entry,��the subdivided exterior��window��configuration, the patterning of��exterior brick masonry and��the��use of cast stone, according to Powell.

While that exterior element stayed the same between the 2008 and 2012 timeframe, the district wanted to do something completely different with the interiors when the project was greenlit again in 2012. “The district staff decided to make the inside much more transparent, open, collaborative and connected,” Powell said. “The school building is divided into six smaller learning communities (SLCs) that each have more transparency to classrooms and more openness.”

Each of the SLCs consist of about 20 to 24 classrooms, two collaboration spaces, a decentralized administrative/counseling suite and other support spaces, according to Powell. Classrooms are grouped��around a larger open space that is centrally located within each SLC, and a linear, flexible space for smaller groups��is located at the��end of each SLC��adjacent a circulation path. These spaces provide opportunity for teacher-dependent��and independent��activities, and are��equally beneficial for��study and��project-based activities that foster interaction and��collaborative efforts within��student��teams.

The design of the classrooms equally takes on a more collaborative approach using an L-shaped layout. “One of the concepts that the Klein administrators wanted to break the mold of was the traditional classroom, by changing the ‘box’ to more of an L-shaped classroom so that there are different zones in the classroom,” Powell said. “Teacher-dependent and teacher-independent instruction can occur as well as differentiated instruction (that involves all different kinds of instruction, not just the degrees of teacher dependency).”

That means students can use the space however they see fit, whether that be working collaboratively in groups, with or without a teacher’s participation, or working independently. Moveable glass partitions open up into the adjacent collaboration spaces for even greater flexibility. The majority of classrooms feature exterior windows that bring natural daylight into the space, while every classroom includes high transom windows that look onto adjacent circulation spaces. Both uses of windows help reduce the need for artificial lighting.

The high school teaching staff was a product of this environment, according to Powell. In fact, the school selected teaching staff that could accommodate the varying types of instructional settings, addressing any initial concerns as to if this classroom type and style would fit the nature of the individuals doing the instruction.

“They even did a post-occupancy survey, and greater than 75 percent were more pleased with this instructional space than the previous box-shaped space they had been in before,” Powell said.

Yet another example of the open design is the Learning Commons (or modern-day library), with a majority of its front being transparent and even having front walls that open up into the main corridor, dubbed “Main Street,” according to Powell. High ceilings and varied lighting adds to the open feel. And even private group study areas, such as the Think Tank, are lined with glass walls for better transparency.

Because the school district is very familiar with using data in decision-making, the design team surveyed both students and teachers at the four other high schools in the district early on in the design process. “They reinforced the choice to be intentional with the [design elements], including the transparency, openness, configuration of the classrooms, natural light in most of the classrooms and even the fronting of the Learning Commons right off the main circulation corridor,” Powell said. “All of these were thoughts we had, but the feedback we got was positive from both teachers and students.”

Of course, security was also top of mind for the new school. The main entrance features a safety vestibule, which has hardware that locks down if or when there is some form of a human threat. The school also has surveillance. While school district administrators are invested in designing schools that are more open and inviting, they have some provisioning related to safety and security that balances the need for the entrance to feel warm and open but also be able to be zoned off at the event of an emergency, according to Powell. He added that he can’t share some of those provisions to ensure the security strategies at the school remain confidential.

To read the entire article, check out the May/June issue of .

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