While students at Washington Elementary play soccer, beneath their feet underground pipes are heating their school. A new geothermal heating and air conditioning system paired with energy efficient windows and lighting has been in use for a month now and Natalie Seper, a fifth grade teacher says it works much better than the old one.

"Well in the past we used to close the windows and just kind of deal with the stuffiness as opposed to the noise that's outside and now we don't have to deal with that. Now we can just keep the sound outside and now it's nice and quiet in here and they're better able to focus on what's going on." says Seper.

Grass is growing again over the eighty wells drilled on the school's playground. 400 feet below ground, pipes pick up water at a constant temperature of 55 degrees and bring it up to the school where it is either heated or cooled.

Superintendent Michael Houselog says this geothermal system will likely be the last one the school ever needs.

"We were able to pay off this project in savings in about six and a half years so when you start to look at geothermal versus conventional heating and cooling it just made a lot of sense." says Houselog.

The students won't have to wait as long. They should get their entire playground back by this spring.

The geothermal project cost about $600,000 while the entire project including the energy efficient windows and lighting came to $3.6 million. The school district received a $90,000 grant from the state for using green technology. They are in the process of applying for more grants.