valley central school district

group of parents from the Boulder Valley School District will ask the school board Tuesday to make sure planned school improvements are "green" enough.

In 2006, voters passed a massive bond issue that raised taxes to allow Boulder Valley to make $296.8 million worth of improvements to its aging schools. The language promised that the district would implement a "cost-effective, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient design and construction strategy."

"The school district is not making it a priority," said Bay Roberts, a Boulder Valley parent. "It's really frustrating as a taxpayer."


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The school district argues improvements are living up to the bond issue's language.

"We're in agreement with the parents ― it's the right thing to do," said Don Orr, director of bond planning, engineering and construction. "We've changed the culture to be more sensitive to green and sustainable features."

Language of the bond
Last year, voters in the Boulder Valley School District passed a $296.8 million bond issue ― the largest in the district's history ― for capital improvements to aging schools.

Money is scheduled for projects that include replacing boilers, adding classrooms, repairing roofs and upgrading science labs. The single biggest project is demolishing and rebuilding central Boulder's 1920s-era Casey Middle School for $31 million. Among other language, the issue specifically stated that a citizen's bond oversight committee would make sure that improvements were implemented with a "cost-effective, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient design and construction strategy."
Boulder Valley has a long list of measures it's implementing, including making sure that each school's architectural team has an experienced green builder on board, designing more daylight in the new construction and installing irrigation systems for sports fields that use 30 percent less water.

The question from the parents is whether that's enough.

"While all of the projects incorporate green elements," parent Jimmy McClements said in an e-mail, "reasonable trade-offs between necessary improvements such as classroom space, for example, and green elements such as high-performance windows ― as another example ― have meant that many green features have dropped from the schools' wish lists."

Though the bond issue was the largest ever passed in Boulder Valley's history, it was still more than $150 million shy of the amount the district assessed it would need to make all the necessary school improvements. That has left the district with a tight budget.

"We're trying to deliver this bond program," Orr said. "Some of what you're hearing we need to weigh against the budget."

The parents ― who have begun calling themselves the "Green School Initiative" ― are presenting a handful of options to bring down the costs, including grants through Xcel Energy and a program through the Governor's Energy Office that allows schools to pay for energy-efficient upgrades with future energy savings. District officials say they've looked into those options.

"The bond measure presents us with an opportunity that comes once in a generation," McClements said. "Coming at this particular moment, the opportunity requires us to go beyond business as usual and imagine ourselves two years from now, 10 years from now, and even 30 years from now, living with the choices we are making. There is little doubt that
Between helping students perform better in school and attracting more downtown businesses, parallel efforts are under way to map out a blueprint for Saucon Valley.

As the new year approaches, municipal and school officials are preparing two long-term plans for what Lower Saucon Township and Hellertown will be like down the road. Two meetings will be held this week as officials move forward with the separate projects.

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At 6:30 tonight, Saucon Valley School District officials will continue discussions about their six-year strategic plan.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Saucon Valley Partnership will meet with consultants from Environmental Planning and Design Inc. to discuss the comprehensive plan for future growth in the two municipalities.

That plan is only meant to serve as a guide, but it could pave the way for joint zoning between the township and the borough, Hellertown Manager Charles Luthar said.

The partnership includes representatives from the two municipalities and the school district.

About two months after beginning their own process, the school district's Strategic Plan Committee is starting to establish the goals that will guide its work over the next several months, Assistant Superintendent Ira Hiberman said.

Some of the "discussion points" that have emerged include improved communication throughout the school environment; school/community partnerships and curriculum improvements, Hiberman said.

With modest growth in its student population over the years, the district is able to focus its strategic planning on instruction and equipment needs not constructing school buildings, Hiberman said.

Between September 1998 and June 2006, the total number of Saucon Valley students increased from 2,124 to 2,393, he said.

In terms of build-out, 8,600 additional homes are possible under existing zoning but a preliminary analysis presented by the consultants in October suggests 8,400 homes.

Both meetings will take place in the school district's administrative offices