With the first shovelfuls of dirt on the site of a new school, Sanger school district officials broke ground this summer on a facility that will use innovative energy-efficient features that are unique to the district and state.

The district’s second elementary school — on Indian Lane, near Sanger High School — is planned to include two building features that are expected to conserve energy: a geothermal heating and air conditioning system and polystyrene-insulated concrete exterior walls.

The district plans to open the school next fall.

“Primarily, what we’ve done with this building is look at some things that would help us be more energy efficient,” Superintendent Jack Biggerstaff said.

According to a construction report from the district’s architectural firm, Huckabee Inc., the two “green” features will result in significant savings for the school district and are gradually becoming a part of schools throughout the nation and Texas.

The geothermal heating, ventilation and air conditioning system uses the ground to either heat or cool the air.

Water is pumped through underground pipes, which either absorbs the earth’s heat in the winter and carries it back to the building, or gives the earth the heat from the building, carried by the water. The water is then pumped into a heat exchanger, which heats or cools the air.

The insulated concrete form wall system, which will be used on portions of the school’s exterior, sandwiches a concrete formed wall between high-density expanded polystyrene forms.

“To date, no public schools in Texas have been designed with the ICF [insulated concrete form] system,” the Huckabee report states.

The insulation system’s thermal resistance make the walls “a viable high-performance building system and offers the Sanger ISD the opportunity, not only to be the first school in Texas to be designed with this system but to enjoy to savings on their utilities and have a building that is strong and energy efficient,” the report states.

Voters approved $12.9 million for the school in a bond election in November. Biggerstaff said the basic facility cost came in under budget at about $12.75 million, but the school board added about $2 million from the general fund to include additional features, such as the insulated concrete form wall.

The district had to do some minor work to the infrastructure for the school, including widening Indian Lane and providing an offsite sewer line connection, Biggerstaff said. He estimated that the energy-saving features cost around $200,000.

“But we feel like with rising [energy] costs, it will pay for itself in the long run,” Biggerstaff said.

Though Biggerstaff had worked with geothermal air systems in other school districts, he said he was not familiar about the insulated concrete form wall system.

“The hard sale was me,” he said. “We didn’t have anything to go by in the state of Texas.”

Since there were no subcontractors in the state familiar with the wall system on school buildings, the board had to look closely at the proposals submitted on the project for experience, particularly with multistory buildings, he said.

“School district people are very cautious. They don’t just jump out and do something,” Biggerstaff said.

School board member Lynn Stucky said the board also asked for feedback from Huckabee officials and area business representatives who were familiar with the insulated wall system.

Stucky said the school board has been focused, especially in the last few years, on building facilities that will be stronger and save money in the long run, even if that means spending a little extra money up front.

“We’re trying to use the taxpayers’ dollars as best as we can to make our structures very sound, very safe and very efficient,” he said.

The addition of another elementary school will free up space and could possibly eliminate the need for portables at the existing Chisholm Trail Elementary School, which has reached its maximum student capacity, Stucky said.

As Denton County continues to grow to the north, the Sanger school district needs to have sufficient facilities to handle the students who are expected to come in the near future, he said.

“We want to provide a quality education,” Stucky said. “We want people to be attracted to Sanger because of the school and the education students are going to get in these schools.”

SARAH CHACKO can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is schacko@dentonrc.com.