Denton school officials say they expect to lay the foundation for the district’s 21st elementary school next week.

Construction began May 30, district construction coordinator Glen Martin said, and work on the site is less than 5 percent complete. Workers have drilled more than 130 holes underground for a geothermal heating and cooling unit, he said.

The campus will be one of the first two in the school district to use such a system and other environmentally friendly features, which over time are expected to save taxpayer money, district officials have said.

The other is the Gonzalez School for Young Children, which also is under construction. “It’s a modified version of our elementary prototype,” Martin said.

The campus, expected to be named by its land donor, is being built in the Cross Oaks Ranch development near FM720 and U.S. Highway 380.

Expected to open next fall, the 91,000-square-foot campus is located at 600 Liberty Blvd.

Approved in a 2007 bond referendum, the campus will include a water well and cistern that will allow use of “nature’s stored water” for irrigation, Martin said. Additional windows and a sophisticated lighting system will be featured, allowing for more sunlight in the building and a reduction of lighting system use on sunny days, he said. Other features include solar-powered water heaters and a storm drainage system.

Construction cost for the project is about $16.4 million. The school is being built by SHW Group, an architecture firm that was responsible for building the district’s previous eight prototype schools.

The new school, which will serve up to 650 children in kindergarten through fifth grade, will be led by Eric Harting.

He served as interim principal at Stephens Elementary School in Shady Shores during the 2008-09 school year.

The school will serve students who live south of U.S. 380, east of Naylor Road, west of Lake Lewisville and north of the Denton school district’s southern boundary with the Little Elm school district.

Space is being made for two future pre-kindergarten classes, district officials said.

The new school is expected to relieve some of the overcrowding at nearby Providence Elementary School.

The Cross Oaks Ranch campus will be the first elementary built south of rapid-growth areas along U.S. 380.

The elementary will be the third built in the area in five years.

“I think the community will be very welcoming to have another campus near Providence,” said Mike Mattingly, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. “I think it’s going to be very, very good for those children once we’re able to move them into a home campus.”

Jimetra Alexander, a Cross Oaks Ranch resident who has two daughters who will attend the school next fall, said she and her neighbors are anticipating its opening.

The children in the neighborhood already are putting together groups to bike to school, she said, and they are just as anxious as the parents to see the school go up.

“We’re all talking about it,” Alexander said. “We just can’t wait. We’re all excited about it.”

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com .