LISC, Global Green Move Forward With 'Green' Charter Schools in L.A.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 16, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has joined forces with Global Green USA on a pilot program to create five "green" charter schools that serve low-income children in the Los Angeles area. Two projects are now complete, with children attending classes, and three others will be considered for the pilot in the coming months.

The LISC + Global Green partnership is intended to not only provide green funding and technical assistance to these new schools, but to also help develop best practices that can be implemented in other green school development efforts across the country. To date, LISC has invested more than $400 million to support green development in disinvested areas.

"Green schools are yet another way LISC is transforming distressed low-income communities into Sustainable Communities...good places to live, work, do business and raise families," commented Michael Rubinger, LISC president and CEO. "Schools are critical community assets, and our partnership with Global Green USA will help these facilities deliver better health, better academic performance and better school operations for their students and the broader community."

LISC + Global Green provides each pilot school development project with a $75,000 green grant and architectural assistance to maximize the use of the grant funds. Those dollars are in addition to the LISC financing that is helping support the broader physical development effort at each site.

The first of these -- the 27th Street Learning Complex -- was completed last month and involved the substantial rehabilitation of a 55,000 sq. ft. former garment manufacturing facility in South Los Angeles to create two side-by-side high schools for Green Dot Public Schools, serving 1,050 students. Pacific Charter School Development is the nonprofit developer, and the project is expected to be LEED certified. LISC, in concert with Clearinghouse CDFI, provided $4.4 million in acquisition financing for this project.

The second project involved the rehabilitation of a 4,200 sq. ft. office building by Tzicatl Community Development Corporation to create 100 new seats for Academia Semillas del Pueblo (Seeds of the People Academy). This K-9 public charter school is located in the El Sereno community of East Los Angeles. LISC provided $1.6 million to Tzicatl CDC for the acquisition and rehabilitation of this site, and for the acquisition of another site the school had previously improved and was renting nearby.

Beyond the LISC+Global Green partnership, LISC recently provided green funds to the Watts Learning Center so it could add a solar hot water system to its new school building, which is replacing portable and temporary classrooms. This project was underway before work on the five-school pilot project with Global Green began. LISC participated in the lending consortium that provided a portion of the acquisition funds for Watts Learning Center and is also an investor in the Los Angeles Charter Schools New Markets Fund that is providing permanent financing for this project.

"Is it possible that green outcomes could become a standard for new schools?" asked LISC's Rubinger. "Maybe. That's one of the questions we will be asking ourselves as this pilot moves forward. Our goal is to help create healthier communities, and to do that we also need to think about healthier school environments. We're very excited about where this Global Green partnership may lead."

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For a press release about the ribbon cutting event held October 17 2008, please click here.