For school children, Syracuse is still planning to turn some of its schools green.
“People always think the goal of ‘go green’ has something to do with recycling,” said Martin Walls, communications manager of Syracuse Center of Excellence in environmental and energy innovations. “Actually, reconstructing more green buildings makes them more energy-efficient and avoids waste, which helps to decrease greenhouse effect.”
Renewing school buildings increases students’ learning quality, and makes them healthier, said Walls, of the Syracuse Center of Excellence.
Syracuse Center of Excellence, funded by the state’s Department of Energy, is one of the institutions collaborating with Syracuse government on some school renovations. The renovations are under a 10-year, district-wide renovation plan to make many schools energy-efficient, to clean out environmental hazards like poor air quality, and to redecorate with furniture made of newer, healthier materials.
“We don’t want students to take classes in an uncomfortable classroom that affects their learning quality,” Walls said. “But the schools selected in the project have very old buildings and facilities such as old carpets and bad air conditioning, which influence students’ health.”
The plan is also part of Syracuse’s overall effort to become environmentally, in keeping with its new nickname of the “Emerald City.” This name was first mentioned as a marketing plan to publicize Syracuse’s environmental efforts.
The renovations have been controversial because of delays. The first phase was to begin in 2007. But Syracuse government had a hard time finding adequate funding. The project was postponed until the Common Council passed the budget last year.
Ron Kenyon, staff architect of Syracuse City School District the renovations, said the delay was just for more planning. The renovations are now on track and will begin by this summer, Kenyon said.
School officials are more pessimistic about the project’s future.
At H.W. Smith Elementary School, one of the schools in the phase one, for example, Principal Sharon Birnkrant, said she didn’t think the project will really start in summer, because of the recent economic crises.
“The mayor brought up this idea five years ago, but the prices of materials have been higher recently. The amount of budget would not meet current prices,” Birnkrant said.
The exterior of the campus’ main building looks new, but actually it was built in the 1960s, Birnkrant said. It didn’t have handicapped facilities, for example. “The facilities cannot keep up with current needs,” Birnkrant said.
Another official at H.W. Smith Elementary School, Vice Principal Craig Martin, also agrees the whole project is progressing slowly. “It’s frustrating. I believe the government officials should have done things quickly, but they haven’t,” Martin said.
The government officials often deal with the renovation project like kicking a ball, Martin said. They construct an ideal blueprint to the schools, but fail to work on them efficiently.
“They gave us a thick file and asked us to list all the facilities needed to be renewed and added. But after we finish it, nobody cares about taking back it. When you call them and ask questions, they rarely give you an absolute answer and take responsibility for it,” Martin said.
As an alumnus of H.W. Smith Elementary School himself, Martin said, he knows the school facilities almost haven’t changed at all for 20 years. “The government really needs to step up and do something to change,” Martin said.
(Amy Su is a graduate student in magazine-newspaper-online journalism.)
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