The 45-foot-tall, galvanized metal wind turbine towering over Hope Street Academy in southwest Topeka represents more than just green energy. It represents the grit and determination of the school’s intrepid students and teachers.

“We knew we had an uphill battle,” said Dale Noll, Hope Street’s principal. “But we said, ‘Let’s go for it.”‘

Hope Street’s journey to erect a wind turbine on the school’s grounds began in the fall of 2008 after a group of students and teachers attended the annual Kansas Farm Show at the Kansas Expocentre.

There they spoke with Bill Smalley, owner of Smalley Heating & Cooling of Topeka, who told them about the Wind for Schools program at Kansas State University. Smalley’s company specializes in renewable wind and solar energy. He would later provide the equipment and install the wind turbine on the south side of the Hope Street building.

Scott Schwarz, science teacher at Hope Street, said he knew when looking at the Wind for Schools grant application that the process would be rigorous. He also said he knew getting the grant was a long shot because the apparatus wouldn’t be placed in a rural setting, typical of many of the other schools that K-State had awarded the wind energy grants.

But Schwarz, along with Shely Shade, a Hope Street tech facilitator, and Thomas Fulbright, a social studies teacher, didn’t have any trouble getting students on board about the idea.

Once the grant was awarded to the school in May of last year, students began strategizing how they would garner community support for changing local zoning regulations to allow the wind turbine to be built on the school grounds.

Students began knocking on the doors of the houses in the school’s southwest Topeka neighborhood to tell residents of their plan to install the turbine on school grounds. Kayce Carson, 17, a senior, said some neighbors were initially hesitant to sign the students’ petitions. “It was hard at first, but it got a lot easier,” she said.

And apparently it got a lot more fun. Several groups of Hope Street students competed against one another to see who could collect the most names. In the end, 311 signatures were secured.

Once the students garnered the support of the neighborhood and several businesses, it was time to go to the city council and planning commission. Members of both bodies not only approved the necessary zoning changes, they praised the students’ presentations, saying they were some of the best they had ever heard.

Evanne Wheeler, 19, a senior, said getting the wind turbine gives Hope Street Academy a new identity.

“I would hear people say, ‘Oh, Hope Street. I thought that was a school for bad kids,”‘ she said. “Now you hear: ‘Wow, that school’s got a wind turbine. Those kids are doing great things out there.”‘