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Tag: School Construction

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U. S. Green Building Council, Hennick

Virginia Beach City Public Schools goes to the head of the class, integrating sustainability into their buildings as well as classroom teachings.

Last January, at a wooded site 10 miles from the ocean, the Virginia Beach City Public Schools unveiled their latest high-tech teaching tool. Officials hope that it will promote collaborative and interactive learning, particularly around sustainability issues, and they’ve invested considerable resources in the device. It took two years to assemble, takes up more space than an aircraft carrier, and came with a price tag of $102 million.

It’s called a school building.

Floyd E. Kellam High School is the district’s eighth Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building, with a ninth under construction. The buildings are a mix of basic LEED certification, Silver, Gold, and Platinum (Kellam is still being certified, and is likely to come in at either Silver or Gold), but school officials are focused on more than just getting plaques that they can hang at the buildings’ entrances. They want to infuse the district’s teaching and learning with lessons about sustainability—and that means using the buildings themselves to educate students and community members about the impact of the built environment.

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American School and University, Cook, 2015

Schools and universities across the nation are experiencing an acute need for renovation and alteration to their facilities and grounds. Five trends are affecting education institutions’ construction calendars:

  • Increasing enrollment
  • Aging facilities
  • Modernization
  • Security upgrades
  • Sustainability efforts

These five trends are the critical causes behind most planned school and university renovations today. One component that each of these trends has in common is the need to plan, procure and complete the project quickly and within the school’s scheduling needs. The Job Order Contracting (JOC) construction procurement method allows schools and universities of all sizes to purchase and expedite their repair, renovation and alteration projects, so more work can be accomplished in a timeframe that does not disrupt students or staff.

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Lumpkin, Goodwin, Hope, & Lutfi, 2014

Much of the focus in the literature in raising student achievement has included parental involvement, principal leadership, quality of instruction, students’ socioeconomic status, curriculum, and use of technology. Limited empirical research relates the condition of the school building as a variable that affects student achievement. Furthermore, there is no research that has examined the impact of building codes on achievement outcomes in the state of Florida. This research determined whether academic achievement of 4th-, 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-grade students as measured by the mathematics and reading subtests of the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) increased in new school buildings compliant to the 2000 Florida State Requirements for Educational Facilities. A causal-comparative design determined whether the independent variables, old and new school building influenced student achievement as measured by students’ FCAT mathematics and reading subtest scores. The control group was two cohorts of 4th-, 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-grade students who attended school in old buildings. The experimental group was two cohorts of 4th-, 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-grade students who attended school in new buildings. Transition from an old school into a new school was the treatment. Two hypotheses were formulated for testing and the research question for the inquiry was whether the percentage of students passing the FCAT mathematics and reading subtests increases after transitioning from an old school building into a new 2000 UBC (Uniform Building Code) compliant facility.

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Gallo & Romano, 2015

The paper aims to investigate the emergency of estate management the scholastic buildings. It examines the economic and legal resources problems, necessary to start an effective redevelopment of the public school buildings in Italy. In detail, the paper analyse the European researches field, which funded renovation and the new construction actions of energy efficient school buildings, and presents same results of research Teenergy School. The Teenergy research, has involved the University of Florence and a Tuscany Public Administration in a benchmarking activities and in a pilot projects development. The paper aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of instruments and financial resources in promoting technological innovation, in this specific construction industry, as a vehicle to transform obsolete schools buildings in Nzeb, as indicated from the latest European legislation on energy performance of the buildings.

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School Design and Planning Laboratory, Department of Workforce Education, Leadership, and Social Foundations, University of Georgia, 2008.

The purpose of this study is to compare student achievement with three school design classifications: movement and circulation, day lighting, and views. From a sample of 71 schools, measures of these three school designs, taken with a ten-point Likert scale, are compared to students’ outcomes defined by six parts of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS): Reading comprehension, Reading vocabulary, Language arts, Mathematics, Social studies, and Science. Data are tested through reduced regression analysis, where the difference between R 2 of the reduced regression is compared to the R 2 of the full regression. This result, in each case, is defined as the effect of the school’s physical environment on students’ outcomes represented by achievement scores on the ITBS. Significant effects are found for Reading vocabulary, Reading comprehension, Language arts, Mathematics, and Science. The study’s findings regarding movement and circulation patterns, natural light, and classrooms with views have implications for designing new schools or modifying existing structures. They are especially important to school leaders, educational planners, and architects who engage in programming for educational facilities.

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Daniel, 2013. This dissertation captures the 10-year contemporary history of implementing the facilities element of New Jersey’s historic Abbott V decision. New Jersey’s Legislature and Governor took this Supreme Court decision and created legislation responding to multiple constituencies and lobbyists while shaping a school construction program to be deposited within a government agency for implementation. While not the largest in nominal dollar value, New Jersey’s program was possibly the widest in geographic scope and most detailed in ambition in the United States. Aspects of program implementation are described and linked to their sources in the political sphere and their implications for the school facilities.

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21st Century Schools, 2011. Proper planning of school facilities is critical for all school districts no matter how large or small, whether major construction is in the works or the district is managing enrollment declines. When school districts properly plan for their school facilities they have better schools, more public use and higher value for public spending. This evaluation guide was designed for superintendents and school boards that are called on to develop or sign off on plans, but who generally may not have extensive experience with educational facility planning. It can also be used to help community members participate in high quality educational facility planning.

An Educational Facilities Master Plan is a written document that describes the school district’s real estate and capital improvement requirements and its strategy and school specific plans for meeting these requirements over a 6-10 year period. On the real estate side, educational facility master plan elements will address the space needs for schools, administration and logistics, including proposed site selection, school closings and consolidations, attendance boundary changes, leasing, joint use and co-locations. On the capital improvement side, educational facility master plan elements will include: the justification, scope, schedule and estimated cost for major repairs, modernization and new construction.

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21st Century Schools Fund, 2013. The School Facilities Cost Calculator is pre-loaded with rich data from 15,000 school districts and provides step-by-step guidance in crafting an effective, transparent joint-use policy. This easy-to-use, adaptable calculator helps school system leaders:

  • Identify all facility-related expediters in their district
  • Calculate the full cost of ownership on a per square foot and per hour basis
  • Formulate a multi-tiered fee structure for different types of community users

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21st Century School Fund, 2011. There is no national database of information on public school facilities. Some states collect information and some do not. The 21st Century School Fund and its Building Educational Success Together (BEST) partners have worked to understand the scope, scale and condition of public school facilities. This is important to building our nation’s public will and our government’s capacity to provide high quality public school buildings and grounds for all children in all communities.

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