Europe District, partners break ground on 21st-century elementary school in Kaiserslautern

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Miniature air conditioners at every desk, comfortable seats (not metal), hoverboards and glass ceilings are just a few things a 21st-century school in Germany should have, said three students at the Kaiserslautern Elementary School groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 29.

Officials with Europe District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Defense Education Activity-Europe, U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, 86th Airlift Wing, German Ministry of Construction and the construction contractor team of Peter Gross, Zueblin, and Wolf and Mueller joined Principal Penelope Miller-Smith's three students and two teachers in celebrating the Kaiserslautern Mustangs' future home.

Miller-Smith told the audience the first schools for the Kaiserslautern military community opened in 1952 and she was excited to be part of the change.

"We are proud to be one of the 166 DoDEA schools that are being replaced with 21st-century buildings," she said listing some features of 21-century learning environments: personal space, physical comfort and varying scales of learning spaces.

"Over the past six years, our staff has worked in collaboration with DoDEA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the bauamt (German building authority) and a host of others to develop a student-centered facility that is flexible and adaptable to accommodate multiple learning modalities and allow for future changes as programs evolve and grow," Miller-Smith said.

The school will be Army Green Boot certified, Miller-Smith said. The program encourages ecological awareness to save money and the environment. Sustainable features will include low-flow plumbing fixtures and a rainwater cistern that improve water conservation by 60 percent. The building is projected to consume 36 percent less energy that a typical U.S. school and more than 20 percent of the building materials will be derived from postconsumer recycled content.

Although the school won't have a glass ceiling like Jasmyn Salas suggested, more than 90 percent of the building has a view to the outdoors, said John Campbell, a district project manager.

The school will feature eight neighborhoods that will branch off the commons area, connecting all the neighborhoods. And will feature a wind turbine and photovoltaic system as teaching tools, Campbell said.

A theme of 21st-century building design is the building becomes a teaching tool with systems and building components exposed to provide real-world relevance and examples to reinforce the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math curriculum, according to DoDEA.

At a cost of nearly $50 million, the Kaiserslautern Elementary School will encompass 118,446 square feet and support a student population of 655, Campbell said.

"Our team has been very motivated and inspired knowing that this project will support the education of the children of our troops for years to come," he said.

"Europe District is a team that makes a difference, building things that matter," said Lt. Col. John McNamara, Europe District deputy commander, as he told those in attendance the district built the old school the new one will replace.

"(The district is) proud to enable a larger, collective goal to provide first-class education to our children," he said.

The district is managing more than 30 school projects in Germany and Belgium, valued at more than $1 billion, he said. The majority of the schools are located in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, currently 11 schools and facilities with a budget of more than $600 million through fiscal 2020.

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