Parents want sustainable features at new school

Parents and other supporters of Highlands Elementary School in Mission, Kan., are trying to raise money so that a new school being planned will have environmentally conscious enhancements. The Shawnee Mission School District plans to tear down the existing Highlands next year and replace it with a larger, modern facility that is scheduled to open in 2010. "Our community’s preference for a school flooded with natural day lighting is highly interrelated with our shared sense of value for a facility that is environmentally responsible, efficient and a healthy place to live and work," says the school's education foundation. The desired enhancements to the school design include more classroom windows and a rain garden to reduce storm-water runoff. In addition to those sustainable features, the school community also hopes to raise enough funds to enlarge the school's gymnasium, add an outdoor amphitheater, and enhance the school's technology and science equipment. The foundation's goal through 2010 is to raise $300,000.

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