Volunteers get big red ‘A’ for green schoolhouse build
Jun 19, 2012, 6:38 AM
PHOENIX — Classroom trailers common to school campuses nationwide have been taken off the grounds of Roadrunner Elementary School, to be replaced by an ultra environmentally friendly Safari building.
The $2.4 million building was funded by the California nonprofit Green Schoolhouse Series and was paid for by donations from various companies. The school is at 39th and Northern avenues.
The building is green from foundation to ceiling, with energy saving appliances, solar panels and built from recycled materials. Even the scraps are recycled.
Volunteer carpenter John Hall of Phoenix has been on the project for most of the past month.
“There’s no wood that’s treated with anything that’s harmful to students,” he said. “We should have been doing that years ago.”
Hall plans to be there when the final nail is pounded and the classroom opens.
“If you want to have any integrity at all, you’d better stick with what you say,” he said. “I volunteered and I’m here to do it.”
Other volunteers are building the classroom in addition to holding down day jobs.
Ground was broken June 7 at a second site at Orangewood School, also in the Washington Elementary School District.
That school will have a indoor/outdoor amphitheater and also all the green characteristics as the first build.
Live streaming of the Roadrunner build can be found at the Green Schoolhouse Series site.
