MANKATO — Passersby may hardly notice the long black mound of dirt running along the east side of Rosa Parks Elementary.

Nor are they likely to notice that below that mound of dirt are several pipes measuring nearly 250 feet in length plunging straight toward the middle of the earth.

Carrying a fluid akin to antifreeze, those pipes will be used to heat and cool the Mankato Area School District’s yet-to-be-finished $21 million elementary near the Minnesota State University campus.

The process is called geothermal heating and it employs a so-called “closed-loop” system to turn natural underground heat into usable energy inside the building.

The process is incredibly efficient and is one of several such green-wise architectural considerations at the new elementary school.

“What we wanted is a building that’s energy efficient, environmentally friendly and good for kids,” said Rick Lund, who will be principal of the school when it opens to students for the 2010-11 school year.

“I think we’ve got it.”

Before breaking ground for the school in April, several staff groups met with architects for more than a year to design the school.

Among their many recommendations was to construct the school to earn LEED certification. It’s a designation offered by the U.S. Green Building Council and awarded to structures that meet sustainability and efficiency criteria in areas such as water use, construction materials and indoor air quality.

The school was built with south-facing windows in all classrooms because research shows those rooms will retain heat better. A rain garden on the south side of the school will decrease runoff and increased ventilation within the school will improve air quality.

But teachers also wanted classroom support space for students to conduct small-group or independent work outside the classroom.

Administrators wanted a secure entrance to the building so that all visitors would have to pass through the office before entering the school.

Parents wanted a pickup and drop-off site separate from the bus area.

And architects accommodated them all.

“They met with everybody to see what their needs were,” said Lund of the new-school design team that included Paulsen Architects and Wold Architects and Engineers.

“They’ve got a good plan.”

Rosa Parks, which is the first school in the state to be named after the famed civil rights activist, will hold four sections of each grade level (K-6). It will also house classrooms for early childhood programs as well as separate classroom space for special education and English-language learning students.

The school also will feature a community-use wing, which will be open to the public after school hours and include access to the gymnasium, changing rooms, storage areas and kitchen space. Just a few yards away, and also on the school’s 40-acre property, the city of Mankato already has begun the development of a $1.35 million youth baseball complex.

Rosa Parks, which was funded by taxpayers through a referendum in April 2008, is slated for completion next summer. Within the next eight weeks, crews hope to install windows and enclose the structure so that work may continue inside throughout the winter months.

JoAnne May, director of human resources for Mankato schools, said staffing for Rosa Parks will likely begin sometime in January. She said the district will probably start with a custodial director because that person will require extra training for the school’s water and geothermal systems.