When students at Napa’s Bel Aire Park Elementary School wanted to learn about energy and how to build a greener school, they didn’t have travel far, or go outside the county.

They got on a school bus and rode down to American Canyon.

There, they got a tour of the “greenest high school” in the country, a label bestowed upon American Canyon High School by Carl Pope, the former national leader of the Sierra Club, shortly after it first opened its doors in 2010.

Half a dozen years later, ACHS is still serving as a model for efficiency and learning.

Three classes of Bel Aire Park fourth graders numbering about 80 kids were given a grand tour just before the holidays of the high school campus, which features an array of solar technology, from panels on rooftops to photovoltaic windows, as well as methods for conserving energy and water.

“We’re all about being green and helping the environment,” ACHS student Allison Dugdale told the field trip of youngsters as she and other members of the Tourism and Marketing class guided them around the school.

The kids not only learned about ACHS’ array of solar infrastructure, they were told the athletic fields sit atop underground wells that store water at a constant 55 degrees to make it easier for the school’s heating and cooling system.

They also learned how the installation of skylights helped cut down on the need for electrical lighting, and how low-flush toilets decrease water consumption. 

But the thing that really impressed the kids was seeing the cattle that graze just behind the school buildings. Dugdale explained ACHS uses the cows to keep the grass down without resorting to mowing, which uses gasoline and produces carbon dioxide.

“We should have cows at our school!” exclaimed a fourth grader from the crowd.

Bel Aire Park teacher Leanna Alcayaga said the visit made their school project on energy a real experience for her students.

“They were very much into that field trip,” she said afterwards. “They were totally engaged in their learning. They weren’t talking to each other, they weren’t goofing around.”

That was evident even after they finished with the tour and sat down inside the ACHS Theater, where Don Evans, who’s been building schools for the Napa Valley Unified School District for decades, talked more about the high school’s green qualities.

“American Canyon High is one of the best-constructed high schools in the nation because it is environmentally friendly,” said Evans, who was peppered with questions from his young audience.

One student asked Evans how much the high school’s energy bill was.

“We generate enough electricity so the school doesn’t have an electric bill,” he informed the kids.

Evans explained if ACHS didn’t have solar technology, the school’s annual PG&E bill would be $250,000.

Technically, the school does have an electric bill. But it only amounts to about $100 a year, Evans said.

When the kids returned to Bel Aire Park, they continued learning about alternative forms of energy. The project was intended to better educate them about power and electricity in a time of global warming.

“We all know climate change is a problem for the whole globe,” said Alcayaga, so we are teaching the kids “how we get electricity and what are the alternative measures” available to reduce carbon footprints.

At the end of the project, the kids had to act like engineers and offer up ideas for redesigning Bel Aire Park to make it more green and reduce the elementary school’s impact on the earth. They were also required to explain the reasoning behind their recommendations in an effort to get them to develop critical thinking skills.

They were given numerous options for presenting their ideas. They could build a model, create a poster, or develop a keynote presentation, similar to PowerPoint.

“We try to let them be creative on how they present their knowledge,” Alcayaga said.

NapaValleyRegister