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The new Newark Science Park High School is 275,000 square-feet and situated on a six-acre site. Enrollment will not exceed 1200 students with a grade range between the 7th grade and 12th grades. The heart of the high school is an “Academic Village”. Four distinct “neighborhoods” or educational Learning Modules each house a maximum capacity of 300 students. Each comprise Home Base Classrooms, Science Labs, Teacher Planning, Lecture rooms and support bases.
The high school was developed and designed in partnership with University Heights/Science Park and the four Newark institutes of higher learning (Essex County College, N.J.I.T., Rutgers-Newark, and U.M.D.N.J.), collectively known as CHEN. The new high school is located in the designated Science Park development area, in close proximity to the CHEN institutions. This arrangement facilitates the planned close relationship between the high school and the universities.
Science Park High School incorporates performance features for LEED™ silver certification, made possible through the design team’s aggressive pursuit of utility and governmental rebates.
The school provides state-of-the-art experiment-based learning. Building design includes photovoltaic solar cells and geothermal energy sources for heating and cooling. The technology in the school is integrated into the CHEN technology system, with technical support provided by the universities.
The Geothermal Heating and Cooling is a closed loop heat pump system with 384 bore holes, 450 feet deep located over the playing fields and parking lot and serves the high efficiency water source heat pumps located in the elementary wing. Energy recovery units re-capture exhaust air temperature to provide energy savings and comfort.
Roof mounted photovoltaic panels generate a maximum of 25KW of electricity in a grid connected system. Power is also “Net-Metered” so that the school can benefit from selling electricity back to the Utility provider when excess power is produced.
Atrium and stair light wells, as well as sunscreens, will be utilized to control the natural light into spaces. Daylighting systems reduce the need for electric light thereby lowering the overall electricity usage costs while allowing the air conditioning system to be reduced in size.
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