The Power of Sustainability

The Power of Sustainability
Transform Your District

By Keri VanSant, AIA, WELL AP
Project Manager, Senior Associate
DLR Group

For many districts, educational long-range facility planning used to be focused on just that—facilities and how they are maintained and kept operational. Often, these plans were developed in response to capital improvement needs and enrollment trends. While these two components are still foundational elements in planning today, the perspective captured in modern planning has broadened. Over time, the methodology for planning has changed to include a more comprehensive approach that helps school districts see how an integrated design process enables and supports elevated teaching and learning experiences for all. This process allows districts to meet the needs of their students, educators, staff and community. It also gives them the tools and resources to meet future demands, sometimes not knowing what those may be. It is important that the process brings the district and its stakeholders along, painting a complete picture of the current landscape of each district and community, providing tailored solutions through long-range planning and architectural solutions.  

No two school districts are the same. As you will read in this article, Barrington School District 220 and Rockford Public Schools District 205 looked to experienced architectural design and planning firms to lead their educational long-range facility planning process for their communities.

Barrington School District 220
Barrington School District 220 supports a high-achieving community from its proud academic tradition, competitive athletics program and comprehensive extracurricular programs. District leaders knew they needed to address its aging facilities by elevating its learning environments and prioritizing student and teacher safety and well-being. After selecting a firm, an integrated design team was consulted to guide them in the planning process. Barrington School District 220 solidified the vision for its future and its aspirational facility projects.

These significant bond-supported projects, totaling $147 million, reflect a visionary commitment to enhance the educational experience for all students. This extensive educational facilities plan encompassed all 12 schools, including one high school, two middle schools, eight elementary schools and one early education center. The projects were strategically phased and completed over a four-year span to avoid the disruption of learning during the construction process.

Rockford Public Schools District 205
In 2023, Rockford Public Schools District 205 needed a planning partner to work with their leadership team to establish priorities for a five-year facility plan. The district engaged an architectural and engineering firm to review previous facility condition assessments, conduct educational suitability assessments, establish student support programming standards and facilitate a community input process. The parties worked together to establish a steering committee that developed guiding principles for the plan. These principles informed plan priorities and strategies that drove the recommendations. The steering committee also helped prioritize the projects that were funded in the $180 million five-year plan.

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT
Long-range planning aligns facility needs with a district’s long-term goals and teaching and learning strategies. By planning ahead, a district can ensure its facilities will support future growth and changing needs. A key planning component for a district is to include facility alignment and improvements within its strategic plan so that a comprehensive district vision can be realized.

BARRINGTON The goal of the Barrington “Blueprint 220” core team was to determine how the District could continue preparing students to be successful after they graduate and move on. Together, they targeted the following four priority areas and considered how changing the design of Barrington School District 220 schools could improve teaching and learning in each area, while also putting learning on display:
    •    Future-Ready Learning 
    •    Fine, Visual & Performing Arts
    •    Physical Health & Wellness
    •    STEM & Career Pathways 

ROCKFORD Rockford Public Schools District 205’s equity vision is to, “Create learning environments that work for all students and interrupt the predictability of student outcomes based on zip code. ”Its plan outlined impactful investment decisions and strategies that will create more equitable learning environments. The steering committee aligned the outcomes of its five-year plan with the following guiding principles. These were used to evaluate scenarios and provide a recommendation that would have the greatest impact on students:
    •    Welcoming, Inspiring and Flexible: Rockford Public Schools District 205 will promote inquiry and innovation to support each unique learners’ experience in facilities.
    •    Community and Belonging: Rockford Public Schools District 205 will reflect the community to promote a sense of belonging.
    •    Creative Collaboration: Rockford Public Schools District 205 will create an environment where students and staff can express themselves freely, collaborate and communicate creatively.
    •    Buildings Support Teaching and Learning: Rockford Public Schools District 205 will balance the needs of all our students, staff and programs and how various learning models can work with existing school facilities.

COST EFFICEIENCY
Long-range planning allows for better budgeting and financial planning by anticipating future needs and avoiding costly last-minute fixes or emergency expenditures. Planning can also help in managing maintenance and operational costs more effectively.

BARRINGTON Through developing its 20-year plan, Barrington School District 220 highlighted nearly $600 million worth of needs to align buildings and sites to meet teaching and learning priorities and update infrastructure. The District took a deeper dive and sought to phase projects of highest need. With its previous bond debt being paid off, and no major building projects for nearly 20 years, the District had a unique opportunity to fund these initial investments while lowering property taxes through a community supported referendum. The District emphasized the importance of investing in school improvements or risk doing less with the same amount of funding due to escalating costs. 

ROCKFORD Rockford Public Schools District 205 had recently completed projects from its prior 10-year facility improvement plan and sought to develop a plan for the next five years. Leaders realized careful planning allowed them to focus on district priorities more effectively. Rockford Public Schools District 205 undertook efforts to conduct thorough facility condition assessments that were woven into the scenarios developed. The District understood that it could not complete all the needs identified within the first five years and established a plan to address maintenance improvements extending beyond the plan, this time within the next ten years.

A long-range facility plan is about being proactive rather than reactive, helping your school district to thrive by anticipating and preparing for future needs. It is important that school districts take a holistic approach by defining guiding principles during planning and carefully evaluating priorities through multiple lenses. Learn how this approach delivered successful long-range educational facility plans for both Barrington School District 220 and Rockford Public Schools District 205.

RESOURCE ALLOCATION
A comprehensive plan helps in prioritizing investments and efficiently allocating resources, ensuring that funds are used where they are most beneficial and most necessary.

BARRINGTON The planning and construction team guided Barrington School District 220 to define and refine “levels” for each district facility. In these levels, the four areas of the Blueprint 220 Teaching and Learning Priorities were addressed. Level one consisted of repairing and maintaining the existing schools. Level two addressed security and furniture upgrades. Levels three and beyond transformed the schools through additions and major renovations that would support modern educational models. Not only was the District able to modernize student learning environments and create new program spaces, but it was also able to protect the community’s investment by repairing and renovating its aging building conditions at all schools, including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofs and windows.

ROCKFORD The Rockford Public Schools District 205 steering committee was dedicated to understanding all the data that was gathered for consideration, as well as being open to hear the qualitative feedback from community members, teachers, staff and students through workshops and surveys. They worked together to make some difficult decisions to prioritize projects that would have the biggest impact on all students of the District within the $180 million budget provided. They allocated nearly one-third of the budget to key projects and the remainder to general functional building improvements and overdue maintenance needs.

RISK MANAGEMENT
Identifying potential issues and planning for them in advance reduces risks associated with facility management, such as unexpected breakdowns, compliance issues and occupant safety.

BARRINGTON Level two of Barrington School District 220’s plan focused on improving safety and security. This included eliminating mobile classrooms, compartmentalizing buildings, new entrance vestibules, enhancing exterior building security and improving traffic flow.

ROCKFORD Rockford Public Schools District 205 understood that to provide equity and parity across schools, it needed to focus on improving basic facility needs, safety and security. There was also a desire to address educational spaces that are not inclusive to those with disabilities. This included plans for removal of mobile classrooms, partitioning off open classrooms, replacing door hardware and addressing ADA compliance issues with restrooms and auditoriums.

CAPACITY & SPACE UTILIZATION
Long-range planning aids in addressing capacity issues related to growth and decline. Optimizing the use of space is crucial for both efficiency and productivity. Planning ahead ensures that educational spaces are designed and used effectively to meet a district’s needs today yet flexible for changes that may be needed in the future.

BARRINGTON As part of understanding future enrollment trends in the District, Barrington School District 220 commissioned a demographer. District 220 had grown significantly, leading to the construction of portable classrooms at each middle school and multiple additions to its high school. Planning also included calculating and comparing the current capacity of each school to regional and nationwide standards. Dialogues with teachers, administrators and shadowing students helped the team learn more about how educational spaces are used and in what modalities students learn throughout the day.

ROCKFORD Similarly, Rockford Public Schools District 205 consulted with a partner to identify enrollment trends, and the planning team used student coding and geo-mapping to understand where students live with respect to their offered school programs. This process helped guide decisions for key projects focused around moving and/or expanding special programs, developing spaces for college and career education, as well as providing spaces for student support services district wide.

SUSTAINABILITY & WELLNESS
Through long-term planning, sustainable practices and technologies can be introduced to reduce operational costs and environmental impact. Facility planning plays a significant role in enhancing occupant wellness through various strategies and design considerations. By incorporating such strategies into facility planning, school districts can create environments that not only support the physical health of students, staff and teachers, but also enhance their mental and emotional well-being.

BARRINGTON During the first few months of planning with Barrington School District 220, the design team provided data to inform the District on how buildings were performing through utility use analysis, as well as indoor environmental quality monitoring. This data guided planning decisions and helped prioritize maintenance upgrades to improve operational costs as well as the quality of the learning environments for the District’s students, teachers and staff.

ROCKFORD The planning team worked with the District to conduct a visioning session to establish sustainability and wellness goals, while also taking into consideration planning and project-specific challenges and resources. This approach focused on how sustainable design solutions impact the way users interact with and experience their surroundings. Participants went through a series of sustainability-related themes and design directions to identify top goals for the project and identified key performance indicators to measure success in implementing the goals.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Planning helps manage changes and transitions, whether they involve renovations, expansions or relocations. A long-term plan becomes a roadmap for managing changes within a district with minimal disruption to students and staff regardless of a change in a district’s leadership team. A plan should be dynamic and reviewed often to understand how changes in curriculum, funding, enrollment and community development may impact decisions that have been made.

It can be daunting for a district and its community to begin looking towards the future. Having the foresight of what educational challenges your district and community may face in the future, whether it is aging facilities or curriculum-driven, is important in the planning process. By taking a holistic approach, supported by quantitative and qualitative data, districts can prioritize key projects and initiatives to strategically set themselves up for success now and into the future.

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