Olympia Regional Learning Academy could be most energy efficient school in state’s history

Olympia School District’s newest school, the Olympia Regional Learning Academy on Boulevard Road, may be the most energy efficient school ever built in Washington, according to contractor Drew Phillips.

Designed as a “net-zero” building, the 66,000-square-foot structure will draw less energy from the grid than it produces on site when all of its eco-friendly bells-and-whistles are in place.

The school district’s project manager Kurt Cross and Phillips, principal with Forma Construction, have been keeping tabs on the building’s rating using the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol, which is a planning tool related to site, water, materials, energy and other areas.

In order to meet the state’s standard, a building must achieve 45 of 119 points.

So far, ORLA has achieved 72 points, Cross said.

The school is scheduled to open in February, and features:

“We have 50 wells that are 300 feet deep,” Cross said. “That’s kind of a battery for this school.”

The $20 million, two-story school was designed for about 600 students. It has 27 classrooms, and a commons area that doubles as a cafeteria and a performing arts center.

ORLA currently operates out of the former John Rogers Elementary School, and serves about 500 students in preschool through grade 12.

It consists of three programs: hConnect, resources, classes and support for home-school families; iConnect, an online school for grades 6-12; and ORLA Montessori — the school’s newest and fastest-growing program — for children from preschool to sixth grade.

ORLA was founded in November 2006.

“We started at Saint John’s Church with 30 students in two programs,” said ORLA administrator Joy Walton Kawasaki. “I didn’t know how large it would grow.”

Besides being environmentally sound, the new school was designed to accommodate ORLA’s specific community, which includes a large number of home-school families.

For instance, there is a room for infants to sleep and a special play area for toddlers because home-school parents must stay on site while their elementary-school-age children takeORLA classes, Walton Kawasaki said.

Instead of a traditional library, the school will have a large “curriculum resource center” where home-school families can check out textbooks and other materials.

“We have a really high volume of parents that are on site every day,” Walton Kawasaki said.

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Olympia Regional Learning Academy could be most energy efficient school in state’s history."