A vacant field right next to the current Deer Park Elementary School in Baltimore County will transform into Maryland’s first net-zero elementary school by 2025.
County and state leaders joined Deer Park students and staff to break ground on the $70.6-million-dollar project on Monday morning, wearing white and yellow construction hats to mark the occasion.
Superintendent Myriam Rogers said the new school will serve as a leading example for state environmental efforts, by producing and saving as much – or more – energy than it uses each year.
“You will see solar paneling on the roof, geothermal heating in the boiler room, smart technology that monitors when lights are on and off and when electric plugs can be used,” Rogers said. “I’m especially interested in seeing the school’s light tubes, which will be used to import natural sunlight to use in classrooms instead of artificial lighting.”
The new school will also alleviate enrollment pressures in a rapidly-growing community, Rogers said.
“Even as the neighborhoods grew and grew and grew, the original Deer Park Elementary School building has served generation after generation of children,” Rogers said. “Sixty-three years after Deer Park’s doors opened to students, a new Deer Park Elementary begins to rise. We know that it will pay dividends for the students of our county for decades to come.”
I question that the current Deer Park elementary school opened 63 years ago. I am 63 years old and I attended the school when it first opened- I was in the 4th grade- so I am thinking it opened 53 years ago. I remember it because the school was not ready so they put us in Randallstown High School for 1 year since it had just opened and only had sophomores and juniors attending.
Ann – the original construction drawings for the school are dated 1968, which makes an opening date of 1970 very likely. Your estimated age of the school (53) would appear to be correct.