Glacial Drumlin Blog

Thanks to the anonymous commenter for pointing out the Glacial Drumlin Blog. Among other things you will find schedules for next year and the behaviour program overview posted. Let Paul Herrick or Renee Tennant know if you find this a useful communication channel.

Are you aware of MGSD related blogs others might useful? Please post them here!

Open Houses

At Wednesday's meeting the board tentatively scheduled open houses for the Glacial Drumlin School and the renovated Winnequah school. The Glacial Drumlin event is scheduled for Sunday August 17th and the Winnequah event for Sunday September 7th. The construction schedule prevents us from having the Winnequah event before school starts.

The Glacial Drumlin School is on or ahead of schedule although Mike Huffman reports the recent weather has delayed the landscaping. Recent pictures of the school can be found here.

The two story atrium behind the curved glass wall in the front of the building is just crying out for a big piece of art - such as a suspended mobile.

Garden Drumlin School

Kristi Williams presented her vision for a community supported school garden on the Glacial Drumlin grounds at today's Business Services Committee meeting. Kristi plans to connect teaching staff and community members to develop a school garden as a way to educate and provide enrichment to our middle school students. The committee has recommended to the board approval of the proposal to use the identified property for the purpose of the garden.

Interested gardeners can contact Kristi by phone at 839-4758.

Energy Efficiency at GDS

The Glacial Drumlin Middle School construction was audited by Alliant Energy and received their highest rating, both due to its energy efficient construction with a well designed building "envelope", daylighting and a highly efficient HVAC system with geothermal source. Alliant is certain that the building will receive Energy Star certification. More importantly they estimate savings of $114,000 per year (at current energy costs) over more conventional construction. The extra investment in energy efficient construction will be paid back in savings pretty quickly.

Based on these savings Alliant is offering us a low interest loan that we could use to perform energy efficiency improvements elsewhere in the district. Hopefully we can net additional savings while at the same time reducing the environmental footprint of the district.