Students are getting an earful of thundering jackhammers at Napa New Technology High School, wherean $11 million renovation and expansion project is under way.

Still in its demolition phase, by next fall the project will add 11,500 square feet of classroom and office space to the campus’ current tally of 29,000, according to Don Evans, Napa Valley Unified School District’s director of school planning and construction. The work kicked off in early October and is expected to wrap up in August of 2010, when the campus’ 400 or so students will return from summer vacation.

One top undertaking is expanding New Tech’s main campus building, netting students four new classrooms. The rooms, designed to accommodate computer and other equipment under the SC21 program, are twice the size of traditional classrooms. Because New Tech’s teaching model requires students to work in small groups and move around regularly, desks and chairs will sit on wheels.  

The school’s technological capacity will be upgraded, with a new cyber cafe slated to connect to a shared art and drama classroom, Evans said.

Plans also include transforming the current administration area into a staff workroom and moving administration into a new wing, according to Evans.

Students will gain an outdoor courtyard area with enough seating for the entire student body — a first for the campus. Finally, the expansion will also mean re-designating rooms for a digital media lab and other teaching areas. The school’s current “cafegymatorium” — so named because it’s used for several purposes — will become a fitness center featuring a full-size basketball court and other amenities.

Evans said because many of the new features will be environmentally friendly, district officials intend to secure LEED certification for New Tech. Certification through LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an increasingly common stamp of energy-efficient approval for building projects.

Evans said the campus’ new heating, cooling and lighting systems will be among the school’s greenest features. But the district is also using green materials on the building side, including skylights and windows intended to bring in more natural light, reducing the need for electrical heating and lighting. With the help of a motion-sensor system, heating and cooling systems will shut off automatically and be controlled by a computer system, he said.

The district is also putting technology to use when it comes to water use. Evans said new low-flow faucets, drinking fountains and more efficient restroom fixtures will help New Tech use about 45 percent less water once construction is complete.

Although he said it’s hard to predict how much the school district could save annually thanks to these efficiencies, Derek Labrecque — a project manager of Auburn’s NTD Architecture, the company contracting with the school district on the project — said the system will perform at least 15 percent better than required by the state.  

Even the scrap from demolition will be recycled, Evans said, adding that the campus’ future could eventually include a photovoltaic system. For now, however, the district is unable to secure grant money to pay for a solar project.

“We’re waiting for funding and continuing to explore our possibilities,” Evans said.

The good news for the bottom line is that ongoing competition for jobs in the construction sector saved the school district about $3.3 million on the New Tech renovation project. Evans said although preliminary estimates for the construction were about $14.3 million, final construction and design costs will come to about $11 million.  

New Tech Principal Howard Mahoney said there is “a lot of enthusiasm” on campus about the work, including a coming video production lab. Students are also anxiously awaiting construction of the 400-seat cyber cafe, where they can check e-mail, delve into classwork or surf the Internet via a wireless network, he said.

Money for New Tech’s expansion came from Measure G, a $183 million bond approved by voters in 2006.