The Arabia Heritage Alliance, headed by Kelly Jordan, Arabia Mountain Alliance Chair, has been acquiring land in Southeast Dekalb and surrounding counties for several years now. In fact, it will soon be possible to take a bike path from Lithonia all the way to the southern end of the county and right through the middle of this extensive heritage area. Through Jordan’s vision and the help of the Arabia Mountain Environmental School Steering Committee, a parcel of land from this heritage site has been committed to Dekalb County for the purposes of building a school.

Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, we at Southface have been busy developing strategies and management plans for administering the United States Department of Energy’s Energy Smart Schools program. This program has been instrumental in helping decision makers in education understand the many benefits of building a high performance, high efficiency Energy Smart School. These benefits include verified increases in student performance based on grades and test scores. Increases in library book checkouts. Reduced absenteeism. Increased teacher retention. Declining need for substitute teachers. In addition, the school system pays significantly lower operating costs, while indoor air quality is improved and water consumption is reduced. The building itself becomes an instrument of education.

Almost two years ago, the Dekalb County School system began considering a school for this area and, through the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Johnny Brown and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Stan Pritchett, began researching the possibilities of bringing a landmark school that would exemplify the significance of the area to this portion of Dekalb County. The school system tagged Dr. Jennie Springer as the project leader, and the Arabia Mountain Environmental School project began to materialize. As it turns out, the desires of the Dekalb County School system and the concepts of the Energy Smart School program were a perfect match.

So, for more than 12 months now, Southface has been involved with the Arabia Mountain Schools Committee in establishing criteria, plans and strategies to make this Energy Smart School a central feature of this area. Meanwhile, the steering committee was also preparing fundamental goals in the form of a belief statement as well as mission and vision statements for the school. Strategic action teams were formed to strategically optimize the building and student performance with an emphasis on

• School Board adoption
• Parks and Recreation interface
• Community outreach
• Funding issues
• Curriculum
• Site and Building design issues
• Staffing
• Monitoring

The leadership, skill, passion and persistence of this team is beginning to bear fruit. Presently, the school is targeted to become a reality for the 2007 academic year. Of particular note is the extent of community involvement in the process, primarily due to local awareness of the heritage area.

The architectural firm R.L. Brown and Associates in Decatur has been selected to lead the design process. Southface will be supporting the architectural and engineering design team by ensuring that environmental, high performance and energy efficient principles and strategies are incorporated into the design. Preliminary site assessments have already been prepared by the Atlanta landscape and site design firm ECOS under the project management of Alfie Vick. Vick has prepared an extensive site study identifying vegetation, soil type and drainage patterns for optimum building placement. This discovery process results in a building that has minimum impact on a site.

Southface applauds the Dekalb County School system and the Arabia Mountain Heritage Alliance for taking this important step for our youth, for Dekalb County, for Atlanta and for Georgia. Though challenges exist, most of these are only perceived barriers because of lack of awareness. However, high performance Energy Smart Schools have been built in other states with resounding success. In fact, once the first such school is built, school administrators realize the many benefits, including lower cost as well as increased student and teacher performance. So from that point on, school systems understand using the Energy Smart School principles is the only way to build schools because it just makes sense.

Now for the big showstopper that is heard from all corners…”It’s too expensive!?!” Luckily, there are enough high performance schools in the Southeast to prove to Georgia that increased costs are a myth. Many Energy Smart Schools have been built for lower cost than traditional facilities, many for the same price and a few for a little more than traditional schools. The “first cost is too high” argument really does not hold water, even before considering the lifetime of low energy bills and increased student performance these schools generate. What is required, however, is an owner and design team that is excited, motivated and takes a positive approach to working outside the box to improve our current formula of school design. It is just the kind of thinking we want from our children and all future generations.

The Arabia Mountain Nature Center has served as a venue for many of the Arabia Mountain Environmental School Project meetings. For more information on this center, go to: www.arabiaalliance.org.