New Heights High includes sustainability designs

Heights High design rendering.

Students, staff and the community will welcome, two years from now, a new Heights High, designed with sustainability characteristics, including being in the top 5 percent of energy-efficient schools nationwide. “The new Heights High is going to be a high-performing, energy-efficient building," stated Nancy Peppler, CH-UH Board of Education.

Peppler noted that, while students and staff will have to get used to doing things differently in terms of sustainability practices, it could be more difficult for staff members to make changes as adults. "The district needs to focus on behavioral changes over the next two years and these behavioral changes should start at Wiley, the temporary high school,” said Peppler.

At the June 16 board of education meeting, Laura Steinbrink of HLMS Sustainability Solutions outlined a PowerPoint presentation of the sustainable designs in the new high school, including constructing an energy-efficient building and using the building as a teaching tool, known as BaTT. A video, highlighting community values around sustainability and produced by the district's communications team, accompanied the presentation.

In the slideshow, the sustainability goals and individual design concepts—some still in progress—were generated through an integrated design event, called an eco-charrette, in May 2014.

The eco-charrette was an all-day session with attendees from the community, the sustainability working group (SWG), design and construction team, and district staff, where concepts were discussed and ideas brought forward to shape the design of the reconstructed high school with the goal of achieving a sustainable building, as well as identifying areas for sustainable concepts to be integrated into the building’s operations, culture and curriculum.

Most of the current high school at the corner of Cedar and Lee roads will be demolished during the summer of 2015, and a new high school will be reconstructed around the remaining historic portions of the building. Students will attend the temporary hight school on the Wiley campus in University Heights for two years.

Click here to see construction updates at the temporary Heights High. The reconstructed Heights High is scheduled to open August 2017.

Cynthia Barnes

Cynthia Barnes is the public relations liaison in the communications and community engagement department at Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District.

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Volume 8, Issue 8, Posted 10:12 AM, 07.06.2015