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Kenneth Phelps, 2013

Of all the influences on educational achievement—e.g., teacher qualifications and motivation, administrative support, and parental and community involvement—among the least recognized is the condition and appropriateness of the school capital facility. Since the state constitution mandates that all students have an equal opportunity to attain a relevant education, a lack—or inequality—of any of those influences would seem to demand rectification. In probing the perceptions of superintendents and finance officers in North Carolina school districts, this research determined that the administrators (1) recognize the importance of capital facilities to educational success, (2) identify capital facility needs within their own district, and (3) attribute those needs to shortcomings of finances. However, a consensus regarding the appropriate process for ensuring greater equity of facilities was not found. In general, there was the perception that funding distribution based on horizontal equity (“headcount”) was not appropriate in many cases, current practice notwithstanding, and such distribution should be to some extent needs-based. This study concludes with a recommendation for increased state involvement in the funding process, with allocations to be made among selected districts each year, and aimed to redress specific extreme deficiencies in capital facilities. Funding is proposed to be derived from an increase in the state sales tax, and allocated primarily according to need.

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Jeffrey Vincent and Liz Jain, 2015

Analysis of spending on K-12 public school facilities in California finds that, compared to industry standards, there is an ongoing, structural pattern of inadequate and inequitable spending in many school districts. This trend signals costly long-term consequences as accumulated facility needs risk becoming health and safety crises.

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School Planning and Management, 2015

Washington, D.C.  – School system leaders identified affordability as the primary obstacle for robust connectivity, according to CoSN’s (the Consortium for School Networking’s) 3rd Annual Infrastructure Survey released today.

Conducted in partnership with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and MDR, the report collected data from K-12 school leaders and technology directors nationwide.

In addition to affordability, the nationwide survey reveals that districts continue to face significant challenges with improving network speed and capacity and increasing competition for broadband services. The results also detail the impact of changes to the E-rate program, as well as the growing issue of digital equity for technology access outside of the classroom.

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School Planning and Management, 2015

Of the 16 states that have education tax credit programs, only five earn grades of A or B on the second edition of School Choice Today: Education Tax Credit Laws Across the States, Ranking and Scorecard 2015 released today by The Center for Education Reform (CER). A majority of the states earn C’s, while three earn D’s and one earns an F. The report provides analysis and state-by-state comparisons, ranking states not only based on the law itself, but real results of programs.

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School Planning and Management, 2015

What can schools with little or no money available do to improve their security and safety programs? In assembling “Twenty Simple Strategies to Safer and More Effective Schools” for the Maine Department of Education, Michael Dorn and his colleagues at the Macon, Ga.-based nonprofit Safe Havens International went a long way toward writing the book on the topic.

But in a recent interview with SP&M, he also stopped just short of recommending that, before doing anything, everyone involved take a deep, cleansing breath.

Reaction to active shooter events in the news has become “so emotional and so visceral,” says Dorn, “that I would say children are dying each year due to preventable injuries” because people are fixated on the shooter threat.

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School Planning and Management, 2015

An online description of the Washington County Public Schools (WCPS) Purchasing Department in Hagerstown, Md., says that the organization “strives to conduct every procurement with the highest level of diligence and professionalism in an effort to serve the community and to provide the students of Washington County with the resources necessary for a solid foundation on which to learn and grow.”

That well-stated description is probably true for most K-12 purchasing departments, whether rural or urban, small or large. Here’s a look at how some districts are fulfilling their duties in a responsible manner in an age of technology and tight budgets.

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School Planning and Management, 2016

Once the budget has been established for your school construction project, staying within it does not have to be a constant process of sacrifice and compromise. Clearly identifying and documenting the scope of work for each aspect of the project in the early stages is vital. This will have a significant impact on keeping your design and construction professionals on the trajectory of being on time and under budget. Follow these 10 steps throughout the project process to ensure that your project soars — but its costs don’t!

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School Planning and Management, 2014

When evaluating responses to bid requests, facility managers often select the lowest qualified bid. It makes perfect sense. Why would anyone pay more — in taxpayer dollars — than necessary?

In fact, some school facility managers are discovering the utterly anti-intuitive concept that paying more to build a school can reduce its overall total cost of ownership (TCO).

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School Planning and Management, 2015

There is no question that the construction industry is once again growing— In one year’s time – July 2014 to July 2015 — we saw a 12.7 percent increase in non-residential construction. The change in educational facility construction was not nearly as dramatic, but more money is definitely being spent. In the education segment, we saw a 3.6 percent increase in the value of total construction being put in place (a 7.6 percent increase in private construction and a 2.6 percent increase in public construction). The increase in construction activity is good news. The bad news is that now we are facing a shortage of skilled workers to do the job.

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School Planning and Management, 2015

School districts in the United States spent more than $14 billion ($14,123,865,000) on construction projects completed during the 2014 calendar year. Almost $7.8 billion of that was spent on new schools, accounting for 55 percent of the construction dollars.

The balance was split between additions to existing buildings (accounting for $3.2 billion) and the retrofitting and modernization of existing structures that accounted for $3.14 billion. The difference of spending for new buildings and existing ones was very close to the pattern of the previous year.

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