The Delicate Balance of Facilities Planning: Part I

By Jim Schiele

Facility operation can absorb more than 10 percent of a district’s budget, with costs climbing as facilities age and construction becomes more expensive and complex due to changing building codes. The Department of Energy places the average age of a school building in the U.S. at 49 years old. Long-range planning is essential to manage and plan for these ongoing costs.

It is important to acknowledge that there is no single “right” way to plan facilities. The best facility plan depends on the district’s demographics and your community’s priorities. Every district is unique—so the right approach must reflect local priorities and long-term goals.

Facility Planning Stakeholders

Effective long-range facilities planning is an ongoing process that cannot be done in isolation—which is why districts need broad, thoughtful involvement from multiple groups to navigate the planning process.

Administrative Involvement

District leadership is essential in guiding conversations about facility planning. The most successful programs start with an active leadership team who can make the initial recommendation to the school board. This same leadership group is responsible throughout the process to ensure the plan is effectively carried out.

Staff Involvement

Structure your leadership team to include diverse perspectives. This may be a formal structure to convey staff input to the leadership team and school board or informal sessions where staff members are allowed to share their perspectives in a group setting.

Staff members can offer valuable feedback, and they often have strong ties to community stakeholders. For example, instructional staff can speak to academic and student needs, operational staff understand how buildings function, financial staff help ensure the plan is financially feasible.

School Board Involvement

The school board approves the planning direction and all major investments or drawdowns. They are accountable to their constituents, so early involvement can ensure facilities planning and policy are aligned.

Involving the board in this process, along with community members, staff, and students also allows them to evaluate the plan.

Community Involvement

The community ultimately funds school facilities and experiences their impact firsthand. Their participation is vital in the process of facilities planning.

• Community and advisory committees should be established to listen to the current facility usage, trends, and options
• Your district should seek out ways to collaborate with cities, counties, utilities, and other agencies. Beyond sharing demographic and trend data, there may be opportunities to partner with our fellow governments to fully utilize facilities.

Define Local Goals and Vision

Before you start building new schools or consolidating operations, you need a clear goal for your district. There are four cornerstones of long-term facility planning that can guide your district if facilities need to be added or closed.

1. School Grade Configurations

Grade configurations, or which school buildings house which grade levels, influence instructional approach, leadership opportunities, resource allocation, school culture, and student experience.

Questions to Consider:

• How many transitions do you want students to experience?

Fewer transitions generally help student stability, with some studies suggesting K-8 models can improve academic performance compared to separate elementary and middle schools, due to fewer facility changes.

• How do administrators and staff feel about grade level populations expanding or contracting within schools as students go through their K-12 experience?

Classroom sizes can be affected by expanding grade level populations, and staff may need to shift grade levels to accommodate larger or smaller student populations.

2. School Size

Schools come in varied sizes for a reason. Smaller schools may be easier to align with instructional values or community traditions. Given their location, these facilities may foster more neighborhood support and integration. However, these schools are more expensive to operate and can divert assets from other programs. Larger campuses may provide efficiencies and program opportunities, but their attendance zones are greater in area and typically cross neighborhood lines. School size should match demographic projections and long-term enrollment patterns.

3. Feeder Patterns and Transportation

Feeder patterns, or the path students take between schools, impact students throughout their K-12 experience, including the stability of their cohort, friendships, and even the larger community identity. Pure feeder patterns offer continuity but may be harder to maintain during enrollment changes. As boundaries change, attendance zones can divide neighborhoods and communities. Look to minimize feeder splits when possible.

Transportation of students is another consideration. The district’s geographical size and road system can impact the ease and cost of transporting students to their assigned school facility. Waterways, terrain changes, and commute times should be considered.

4. Use of Athletic, Fine Arts, and Career and Technical Education (CTE) Facilities

Some districts share facilities among schools, while others place resources on every campus. This decision often aligns with the district’s feeder system and long-term instructional model. Centralized, large facilities can bring down the overall cost for district programs. Sharing facilities may create scheduling challenges, but many districts, including large districts, have been able to manage centralized facilities to reduce both initial and ongoing facility investment.

Facilities placed at each campus can support community cohesiveness. In districts with pure feeder systems, high school facilities can be shared with middle schools, increasing utilization, and eliminating the need for competitive venues at every level.

Either model is workable. This is where community alignment on both priorities and costs becomes imperative. Long-range facility planning is not easy, and many districts delay these decisions until they have to be made. With an early start, strong data, community engagement, and a clear vision, districts can navigate both growth and decline successfully.

Next Month

In April, we will tackle how to approach building new schools for growing districts, and how districts may approach closing schools, if needed. These actions can engage or enrage the community, so careful planning is essential.

If I can be of assistance, please let me know.

Jim Schiele is Linebarger’s School Financial Consultant. He offers free assistance to Linebarger school district clients as they navigate budgets and meet financial deadlines. He can be reached at jim.schiele@lgbs.com.

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