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TOWAMENCIN — With a major renovation being planned at North Penn High School, students in one high school club are ready to have their say.

School board members heard from the high school EnAct club recently on green-friendly approaches and strategies the district could consider when renovating the high school.

“These renovations are a long-term commitment, and our impact should be too. It wouldn’t be fair to our students to be shortsighted in our commitment to sustainability. Our school can set an example for the community,” said NPHS senior and club co-president Ashli Lao.

Starting in early 2019, the school board and staff have discussed the need for major renovations of the high school, to modernize and replace infrastructure that dates back to the early 1970s, incorporate the former WNPV parcel adjacent to the school acquired in 2020, and consider whether to add a new wing of the school for ninth grade students that would be shifted out of the district’s three middle schools.

While a high school master plan study is still underway, members of the high school EnAct (“Environmental Action”) club spoke to the district’s facilities and operations committee in late August on what they’ve done to go green, and how the high school renovations could be a chance to go greener.

“This year, we’ve sold over 700 trees, we recycled 32,000 pounds of electronics, educated over 100 elementary school students in our district, and we have donated $450 toward the National Wildlife Fund and local conservancies,” said Lao.

Co-president Abby Holmberg then showed the committee a long list of ways the high school renovations could go green, including using sustainable building materials in the construction, permeable pavement surfaces to reduce runoff, green roofs atop the building to better absorb rainwater, and composting in the school cafeteria to reduce food waste.

“We have gathered a wide variety of building renovation ideas, that could apply to any of the buildings in the school district,” Holmberg said.

“Most surfaces are impermeable, which means water can’t drain through them, such as pavement, like parking lots, sidewalks, al of those hard surfaces. So using permeable paving instead, such as interlocking bricks — there’s a bunch of different ways to do it — will reduce runoff and flooding, making it easier to pass codes, and also just helps make the environment in general healthier,” she said.

The renovations could also include shifting other fuel sources such as fuel heating to electricity, which could be powered by solar panels and/or small wind turbines, while heat pumps could be used to better control temperatures from warm outsides to cool insides of buildings, power use could be cut by sensors turning lights out in empty rooms, and electric car charging stations could encourage staff to drive those vehicles. ‘Passive solar’ could also be incorporated into the building design, by using large windows to draw more light and heat from the sun and shade to help with cooling, and club treasurer Bella Leonardo said conservation ideas aren’t limited to just energy use.

“Rain barrels can collect water that can be used in school. They also can be used to turn into our possible green roof,” she said. Solar or electric heating of water could cut fossil fuel use, low-flow pumping would reduce water usage, and bio-swales and rain gardens could reduce runoff — and those plastic grocery bags can be used for a longer-term benefit too.

“EnAct, this past year, has been running a plastic bag collection, and then we take these plastic bags and send them to a company which turns them into benches. We could turn this into a large scale project, and create an outdoor classroom space with these benches,” she said, adding that the club has already received two new plastic benches for the school by doing so.

As she spoke, Leonardo showed an overhead photo of the high school campus with buildings, paved areas including driveways and parking lots highlighted, and wooded areas near the Valley Forge Road and Snyder Road entrances and the WNPV property that the club uses now.

“We use this nature center in our EnAct meetings, and hold events there. We think that more green spaces would also benefit the students and the staff in the future, and can be really beneficial for learning environments, and really good to have for the school,” she said.

Stormwater runoff could be reduced by better landscaping the site, Leonardo added, showing two schematics, one with rainwater running down a slope next to houses and causing flooding, while the other includes flat terraces, paving, and absorptive surfaces and plantings to reduce that flooding. Club historian Natalia Dello Buono told the committee that the club’s ‘Green Gazette’ newsletter and social media presence could help mobilize volunteers, community support, and fundraisers for green upgrades to the high school, and club VP Nicole Mattiacci said the club could help apply for grants from nonprofits, state and federal programs, and private initiatives.

“Sustainability is not just a concept, but also a community, with many organizations willing to help us out financially, and also educationally, through countless different resources,” Mattiacci said.

Club advisor and high school environmental science teacher John Collier said he’s currently teaching eight sections of environmental science, across AP and non-AP levels, and told the committee “it’s exciting to see so many students in the North Penn area so excited about this topic.”

And club secretary Samiha Alam showed a schematic of a possible sustainable school, with solar panels atop, heat pumps transferring temperatures throughout, and underground stormwater management systems below permeable paving surfaces.

“We are delighted that you were willing to take time out of your day to listen to us. We look forward to continuing the conversation regarding sustainable renovations in the future,” Alam said.

Superintendent Todd Bauer — Nicholson’s predecessor as NPHS principal — added that he saw similarities with ideas from the presentation and visits administrators have made to other schools in preparing the high school master plan, such as different wings of a building featuring different green upgrades.

“We’re excited about the opportunities that our 550,000-square-foot building gives us, and happy to have the kids be part of that,” Bauer said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 11 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street in Lansdale, and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 online. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.

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