Green plan for new Watauga High School OK’ed
By Caroline Monday
cmonday@mountaintimes.com

The Watauga County Board of Education met Monday night for its November meeting, discussing plans for the new high school and plans to improve services offered to at risk students.

Jennifer Sisak of SFL+A Architects gave a 3D presentation of plans for the new high school, being built in the Perkinsville area, with construction slated to be complete in 2010.

Crews are currently in the process of grading the land and preparing it for construction.

Sisak said the architecture firm uses 3D models not only as presentation tools, but also as part of the design process.

The model serves a purpose that formerly would have been served by a cardboard model. She showed those at the meeting a 3D rendering of the building's exterior, which will be primarily red brick with accents of cultured stone.

The board and other attendees were able to view an animated tour of the common area, to be located inside the building. Sisak said the 3D model and animated tour are still in the process of being developed, but the existing work gave an idea as to how the completed building would look.

The model showed the building as a contemporary structure with large windows for day lighting and an open feel. The board then approved the pursuit of LEED certification for the new school. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy Efficiency Design and there are various levels of LEED certification that can be attained: basic, silver, gold and platinum.

The new Watauga High School will be pursuing a silver level certification, though, Sisak said, if construction goes according to plan, it will land on the cusp of the gold level. Sisak said the platinum level is extremely hard to achieve and reaching the gold level was a possibility for the school building.

She said achieving that rating would depend on decisions for improvements that could be made further along in the construction process.

LEED would be an expensive venture, superintendent Bobbie Short said, but the school system would save money by taking advantage of LEED resources available at Appalachian State University.

She said that the construction of a LEED certified building would be beneficial in terms of energy efficiency, and also as a tool for teaching and learning for both the school system and the university.

"It’s a win-win situation to go this route, I think," board chair Lowell Younce said. The county commissioners have already decided that pursuing LEED certification is finically feasible and have approved that pursuit.

Short then came before the board to "ask their blessing" for the school system to a pursue a grant that could fund a drop out prevention measure at Watauga High School.

She said legislation has appropriated $7 million to the be given to schools in the form of grants for drop out prevention programs.

The grants will be for up to $150,000 each and will made available early in 2008.

Short said Watauga's grant proposal will be for funds used to create an assessment center at the high school. It would pay for the purchase of a modular unit to house the program, for the salaries of a full time psychiatrist and a transition counselor and for a few other supplies needed to launch the center.

Short said the grant would only be available for one year and the school system would have to find funding for the two additional salaries the next year.

She said she hoped the modular unit can be used to house an alternative site for at risk middle-schoolers once the new high school has been completed. "I feel strongly that we should not allow this opportunity to go by," Short said.

The high school has offered some access to a social worker supplied by the Department of Social Services and to psychiatric services made available through a partnership with Appalachian State University.

The board members gave the pursuit of the grant their blessing, agreeing to work to find funding for the two additional salaries after the grant has expired.

"If it starts the process toward an alternative site, then it's worth it," board member Ron Henries said.

In other business, the board voted to dissolve the after school program at Bethel School. Marshall Ashcraft, who heads up the county's after school programs said the program at Bethel had not been successful in its attempts to recruit students to attend. He said one student had enrolled in the program, but no students actually attended. Bethel's program was launched at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.