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Eagle County schools won’t borrow from green building fund

Lauren Glendenning
lglendenning@vaildaily.com
Eagle County, CO Colorado

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado “-The Eagle County School District won’t be taking advantage of low-interest loan money for green building projects that the Colorado House of Representatives passed last week.

The loan program for school districts would encourage green building through loans from the state treasurer’s office, but the Eagle County School District doesn’t have any projects that need borrowing right now, said Phil Onofrio, the school district’s chief financial officer.

“We have the funds available from our own sources for these projects,” he said. “It does not make sense, at this time, to borrow for projects that are not absolutely necessary just because we can borrow inexpensively.”



The school district does have so-called “green” building projects either in progress, planned or finished.

A few Eagle County School District “green” practices:

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– schools recycle as much it’s possible and feasible

– ditch water for landscaping to save on municipal sewer costs

– all school buses have had emissions controls on them since 2007

– Human Resources has tried to reduce paper use, such as with paychecks and other paper-distributed employee information, by creating an electronic “employee portal”

– The school district did an energy audit to see where it can improve its energy consumption and efficiency

– light fixtures

– digitally monitor buildings online for energy consumption and turn down temperatures when rooms and schools aren’t being used

Green practices in Battle Mountain High School’s construction:

– About 75 percent of the waste from construction is being recycled

– High efficiency motors and fans throughout the new facility

– natural lighting in almost every classroom and throughout the school

– low volatile organic compounds adhesives in paint, an emerging green building practice

– rooms fit with occupancy sensors, so lights will automatically turn off when no one is in the room

– Artificial turf on the fields require no watering

– air conditioning only in computer rooms and administration offices (which are used all year)

Lauren Glendenning can be reached at 970-748-2983 or lglendenning@vaildaily.com


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