An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 17 – Construction

conduct inspections or maintain an AM Plan may be liable for civil penalties of up to $5,000 for each day of violation for each separate school building. 2307 E. G REEN B UILDING 1. G REEN C ONSTRUCTION S TANDARDS A ND LEED Schools may also want to consider updating or constructing facilities to make them more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Building green has many advantages for schools and their employees and students. Not only will schools have high performance and sustainable buildings on campus, but green building has been shown to increase student and employee productivity. 2308 Coupled with the expected savings of an energy efficient building, green buildings can often be more cost-effective than non-green buildings. Additionally, green buildings can serve as a wonderful tool to teach students about the benefits of energy efficiencies and environmental protections. Many green buildings contain touch screens displaying real time energy and efficiency tracking of the building. Schools can also permit students to access this information online or through tablet or mobile phone applications. These interactive and innovative tools permit students to learn about the efficiency features of the building and encourage them to practice an environmentally friendly and energy efficient lifestyle. Schools should examine the costs and expected energy savings before deciding to use innovative green technologies and systems in a new or existing building. Schools should select proven and tested green innovation to avoid losing money on experimental methods. If a school decides to construct a green building, it may want to comply with the California’s Building Energy Efficiency Standards 2309 , to ensure the project qualifies as a green building. The United Stated Green Building Counsel created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”) green building certification program as a way to define and measure green buildings. LEED is like a report card for buildings. It provides an internationally recognized certification system that measures the efficiency of a building’s design, construction, or operation. LEED uses several metrics for these measurements, including a building’s energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources. LEED certification provides an independent, third party verification that a building meets the appropriate green building and performance measures. LEED’s green building certification system is based on a 100-point rating scale, plus up to 10 bonus points. There are four levels LEED certifications: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Whether a school seeks to obtain LEED certification for its green building, or simply wants its buildings to use less energy and operate more efficiently, it should ensure its architect, engineer, construction manager, contractor, and any other staff or entities on the project work together to determine the best possible environment design methods to achieve the school’s goals for energy savings.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 553