Tuesday, January 17th
by mikecarroll
Worcester Academy’s Strategic Plan commitments include “the execution of a carbon neutrality plan that will result in reducing the Academy’s carbon footprint by 30% within 5 years.”
As part of the school’s neutrality plan the office of sustainability with support from the maintenance, athletic, and business offices recently completed the Worcester Academy 2006-2011 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Working Report . The report compiled six years worth of relevant data, which was then entered into the Clean-Air Cool Planet (CA-CP) campus emissions calculator. The CA-CP calculator is used by over 500 schools across North America, follows the methodologies of the GHG Protocol Initiative, and accounts for the greenhouse gases specified in the Kyoto Protocol (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride).
In the 2010-2011 fiscal year, W.A. emitted an estimated 2,115 metric tons of equivalent CO2 from emission sources owned or controlled by the school (heating fuels, vehicle use, refrigerants), generated by purchased electricity, and indirectly by municipal solid waste, wastewater, and paper production.
2011 emissions were reduced from the 2006 baseline year by 12%. Reductions were achieved nearly equally as a result of campus electricity efficiency programs and decreased carbon intensity of the New England electricity utility grid.
Analyzing the total school emissions and related resource use production and consumption by student in 2011 provides context for our connectivity on local-global socio-ecological scales. Per student, WA produces or consumes 3.25 metric tonnes of eCO2, 364.2 lbs of municipal solid waste, 6,050 gallons of wastewater, 8.3 million btus from direct electricity use, 34.8 million btus of final energy heating fuel, 23 pounds of paper, and 17,350 gallons of municipal potable water.
The inventory did not account for so called Scope 3 source emissions from travel activities, which were estimated to increase 2011 net emissions by 7% (employee and athletics travel) or 55% (for all related emissions including student travel).
Popularity: 1% [?]
Friday, January 13th
by frank.callahan
Today’s Union Hill School is a direct descendant of a public grammar school that dates back to 1853. In its early days, the school was situated on land that is now on the Worcester Academy campus; moreover, it was located in what would become an iconic structure in Worcester Academy’s history. However, the building had a checkered history, and that story is integral to the beginnings of Union Hill School.
In 1846, Dr. Calvin Newton founded the Botanico-Medical College in rented space in downtown Worcester. He had ambitious plans and in 1851, the college acquired three acres of land at the corner of Providence Street and Union Avenue (now Dorchester Street). Local architect Eldridge Boyden was hired and he designed a grand three-story Romanesque building featuring four towers in the central section surrounded by four circular turrets jutting out at each corner. Construction began in July, 1851, but lack of funding delayed completion until 1852. That year, ten physicians, including one woman, graduated and the exercises were held in the auditorium, named Aesculapian Hall, after the Greco-Roman God of Medicine. Dr. Newton died in 1853. This was a was a severe blow because he was the college’s moving spirit. As a result, the college closed within two years.
The Worcester Botanco Medical College
Due to the college’s problems, the town fathers of Worcester seized the opportunity to use the vacant space to educate the growing population of children who lived nearby. The 1853 municipal report gives the first indication of the school, but minimizes its less-than-desirable circumstances– namely that a large number students of various ages were all taught the same subject by one teacher. The following is a summary from the 1853 town report:
Providence St. School. This is a new suburban school, located for the present in the Medical College. It has been taught by Mrs. E. Coe, a teacher of long-tried experience, who has given entire satisfaction to the friends of the school. The number of pupils has been unusually large. The limits of the school have been reduced at two several times, and the present average is over fifty pupils. The labors of instructing are too great for one teacher and it will necessary before long, either to provide an assistant teacher, or to establish a primary school. No teacher can do justice, in a mixed school of over fifty pupils, either to herself or to the scholars. The number of classes must always be large, as it is not possible to reduce them as in the graded schools, and the labors of the teachers are necessarily arduous. The studies embrace those of the grammar, secondary, and primary grades, and the salary of the teacher ought to compare with those of the graded schools. (1853 town report, page 35)
Medical College Catalog
The following year’s report indicates that the school was under pressure for another reason, “The Trustees of the Medical College also, have intimated that they will not desire much longer to rent their room for the Providence Street School. Of course other provision must be made for the scholars composing that School”. (1854 Report, P. 60).
The 1855 report paints a rosy picture, but ends on a sad note which must have been related to the lack of adequate staffing, “This School is the nearest to the city of our suburban schools, and is a very good specimen of them. The teacher, Miss Williams, is patient and every way competent, and the loss of her services is to be regretted”. (1855, P. 85)
Eldridge Boyden's design for the Medical College
The following year report shows the temporary nature of the space:
SCHOOL HOUSES All the schools above named are kept in twenty-three different houses, nine of them being located in the central and fourteen in the suburban districts. The are all, except one, (that in which the Providence St. School is kept,) the property of the city, and are under the care of the School Committee. (1856, P. 64)
It was obvious that another space was needed, but the decision as to where had not yet been made.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Worcester Academy’s Strategic Plan commitments include “the execution of a carbon neutrality plan that will result in reducing the Academy’s carbon footprint by 30% within 5 years.”
