Lost amid the bluster of a debate over a new high school in Moon, one detail has been discussed little: What it would look like.

In a word, green.

Not that the two-story, 270,000-square-foot stone-and-brick building will employ a garish color scheme as some sort of homage to Kermit the Frog, but rather that it will employ green design principles, a practice becoming more standard in new construction.

Green buildings incorporate energy-saving features and often recycled and nontoxic materials. Thus, they are healthier for their inhabitants and the environment.

They also help preserve another type of green, money, as they're designed for maximum long-term flexibility in their use and reuse, thereby promoting a longer life for the building.

Zelienople-based Foreman Architects and Engineers, who specialize in school construction, have listed four pages worth of green design aspects in the project. Such elements range from using locally produced brick to recycled material for ceiling tile to using a gym floor supplier that employs replanting programs to replace the lumber stock it harvests.

"We went after as many green principles as possible, but we didn't go after some of the more exotic ones," said architect Paul Fackler, of Foreman. "We focused quite a bit on ventilation and indoor air quality and energy savings."

For example, Fackler said, each room will have a sensor that will turn out the lights automatically if no one is inside. Another sensor in each room will turn off the outside air flow to unoccupied rooms, cutting back on heating and cooling costs.

Carbon dioxide monitoring will be used to determine and maintain air ventilation rates in the building. More windows and skylights offer daylight, reducing the level of energy needed for lighting, increasing occupant productivity and reducing absenteeism.

Moon's decision to use green is part of a national trend with local roots. Southwestern Pennsylvania is in the forefront of the green building movement. Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics has, since 1997, been training students to measure the impact of innovative technologies on the physical, environmental and social settings of office buildings.

Pittsburgh is also home to one of the country's first and most effective local advocacy groups, the Green Building Alliance, begun in 1993.

Two years ago, the United States Green Building Council's second annual conference attracted 5,000 people from around the world to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, itself the largest green convention center in the world. Nearby, in Coraopolis, the Felician Sisters convent building is a certified green building.

The new high school will not be a certified green building however. For a building to be "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" certified as green, extensive records must be kept regarding building performance. LEED certification is more common among private or corporate building owners who stand to reap government incentives for going green.

At the last regular school board meeting, board Vice President Peggy Bell said certification wasn't critical and would be an added expense, but that the building and the district would still reap the practical rewards of the green design.

Technology is also an important component of the 37-classroom building, which will have a built-in video projection unit and the latest in high-speed Internet connections and networking capabilities. The building will feature 12 science labs, three science classrooms and seven computer labs.

"We worked diligently with the staff to accommodate their educational program needs," Fackler said.

Fine arts and athletics also will be given prominence. Three art rooms and three music rooms, a television studio and an 850-seat auditorium are part of the current plan. A large gym and a smaller auxiliary gym, a fitness center which probably will be used for team conditioning, a multipurpose wellness center to be used for dance, wrestling and aerobics, and an eight-lane swimming pool will foster Moon athletics.

Increased security features, including limited access, closed-circuit monitoring devices, and a computer system that can instantly lock the school down also are proposed.

It is unlikely that every bell and whistle in the design will be incorporated into a finished product. The lowest-bidding general contractor withdrew from the project, thereby increasing costs. To offset that, the district is going through the process of "value engineering," essentially paring costs by eliminating superfluous design elements.

From the outset, opponents of the project have derided it as too costly during a time of economic uncertainty with the ever-tenuous situation with local employer US Airways and the possible closing of the 911^th Military Airlift Wing and realignment of the 99^th Regional Readiness Command. Opponents also contend that new buildings do not create good students, but rather effective teachers and active parents do.