Student Rides Bike to School in Mount Pleasant

Here's an editorial from the Post & Courier about one student's effort to bring attention to the personal transportation issues surrounding his school in Mount Pleasant.

Rex wants developers to partner with schools

Here is a recent article from the Greenville News focusing on Dr. Jim Rex's participation with the Summit held last week. They chose to talk mostly about efforts to connect new school projects with residential developments.

Dr. Rex Article

National Safe Routes to School Conference

Here is a link to the website for Two Steps Ahead: the National Safe Routes to School Conference that was recently held in Portland Oregon. You will find some great presentations that were part of the program as well as links to some great information.

Two Steps Ahead

"Choosing downtown public schools is a good thing"

I wanted to share this letter to the editor from today's Post & Courier written by a parent. She touches on working to change the stigma of urban public schools and talks about the value of teaching children in schools with a diverse population.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/aug/26/choosing-downtown-public-schools-is-a-good-thing/

Our students deserve better

The current AIA SC newsletter has a reprint of an interesting point/ counterpoint between Don Bowen (R-Anderson) and current AIA SC president Steve Coe (AIA, LEED AP) concerning the use of "stock plans" for schools statewide. This is certainly not a new debate for South Carolina, or any other state, but the current economic situation seems to have allowed this issue to creep back in the news. My membership in the AIA and job at an architectural firm that designs schools obviously biases me a little, but I think that the initial letter from Representative Bowen has some pretty scary notions for everyone. His letter hits the usual "we could save money" highlights without really offering any compelling new thoughts; stating that (3) school pans for each school level across the state would suffice, we could save large sums of money, etc. Mr. Coe's response addresses all of these issues and offers additional items for consideration that clearly illustrate why a majority of States have opted not to use or have abandoned stock plans.

One very alarming idea in Bowen's letter is his idea to have a competition between students to design the stock school plans. As Mr. Coe says, "Do we really want unlicensed designers, who have limited knowledge of building and life-safety codes, designing facilities for our children to spend most of their time in?" I find the concept of casually exploiting "free" student labor to be most unsettling. Statements such as these illustrate the knowledge gap between those actually involved in the design and construction of schools and those looking in from the outside.

I also find the obvious disregard for local school districts to be a scary concept. While Bowen maintains that districts would "have input," he feels that mandating plans for every district "...would save millions of dollars statewide and not compromise the integrity of the local districts." Rep. Bowen does cleverly word the funding/ budget cuts he's proposing with phrases like, " [redirecting] this revenue stream toward economic development and business growth within our state." But, that redirection would come from cutting budgets for design fees and eliminating positions at school districts involved in facility planning and procurement. One major complaint I've heard by community members (and volunteers on this project) is that school districts often make decisions autonomously, without consulting the schools or communities they are going to affect. Rep. Bowen is suggesting we should move the decision making process even further away from those affected. Why don't we invest resources in designing appropriate schools for each community? If districts would work with local community groups and implement shared use facilities the costs of construction could be offset. Local businesses, such as a coffee shop or book store, could potentially benefit from being located near a school. Some entrpreneurs might even see a market and develop a new business to serve the school and community. Buildings are very complex and costs can never truly be represented by a ledger on a spreadsheet, especially school buildings. Designing a school that is appropraite for each community makes more financial sense than wasting money on pouring slabs and running utilities for additions to schools that may never be needed.

Hopefully the Summit at the AIA SARC will offer an opportunity for a broader discussion on these and other topics.

Bowen's letter is here: http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/aug/02/guest-columnist-new-plan-how-we-build-schools/

Coe's response is here: http://aiasc.affiniscape.com/associations/7611/files/Students%20Deserve%20Better.pdf

any other thoughts?

SC School Facilities Planning Guide

Following up on the previous post and preparing us all for discussions at the Summit, I thought that it would be helpful for everyone to take a look at the current School Facilities Planning and Construction Guide for South Carolina. This version is available at the SC Dept. of Education website and includes edits that were made effective in March of this year.

http://ed.sc.gov/agency/Innovation-and-Support/Facilities/documents/2009Guidebook.pdf

Office of School Facilities, South Carolina Department of Education

I wanted to be sure that you all had a look at some of the presentations that the Office of School Facilites has made over the past four years. Alex James has been presenting the advantages of creating community-centered schools for quite some time and has assisted with the planning for our upcoming Summit.

Office of School Facilities Presentations

Community Centered Design Session at SARC

For those who haven't had a chance to review the SARC conference agenda, on Friday morning Bryan Bell from Design Corps will be moderating a panel on socially engaged design. I think a major component of "sustainable" design is engaging the community served at a broader level. One of the things I have enjoyed about this project is the diversity of the group involved and the viewpoints expressed. In a project that is promoting building community centered schools, I think this session will have a lot to offer in terms of how to actually engage the community in a meaningful and productive way.

Bryan Bell has often challenged architects to work with/ for the "other 98%" to help define and communicate the value of architecture. I'm excited about the session, as I really enjoyed his presentation at the previous Community Design Summit in 2007 at Clemson.

a few interesting web links

I thought I'd share a few web sites that are good resources:

Schools of the 21st Century is Architectural Record's contribution. Since it's through McGraw-Hill, a lot of this is product profiles, similar to what is in the Sweets Catalog. The forums usually have some good discussions and interesting topics. The case studies are very wide ranging and offer some good ideas.

The USGBC's site Build Green Schools helps promote the new LEED certification track for Educational Buildings, but does contain a lot of resources targeted at specific groups. There are several PowerPoint presentations and PDF's available for free download.

Both of these sites are really focused on the building and being "green." As we've discussed previously, this is really only one of many components to being "sustainable." However, the LEED system does encourage things like alternative transportation and having a multi-use facility. So, I think it is a step in the right direction.

Smart Growth Schools Report Card

Here is a great tool for school districts, local planners, and community groups. The Smart Growth Schools website has been created to help communities assess whether their school facility planning is sustainable and provides resources for improving their planning processes. The site also has a listserv to connect communities facing similar issues.
http://www.smartgrowthschools.org

Take a look at their Report Card, which does a good job of presenting criteria for "grading" our ability to produce community schools.
It was put together to:
1. Save the community money.
2. Decrease the environmental impact of the schools on the community.
3. Improve the health of students.
4. Increase long-term support for the school system by those who do not have school-aged children.

Officials discuss how to rebuild old SC school

An article from The State newspaper discussing JV Martin Middle School, one of South Carolina's most prominent school facility debates.

http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/880277.html

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities

What an amazing list of resources here for many different issues. The have guidelines, advocacy articles, and case studies for you to look through AND they are nicely organized by subject matter.

http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/index.cfm

Riley Institute at Furman web resources

I have mentioned to many of you about the work conducted by one of our partners the Riley Institute's Center for Education and Policy Research. To visit results and a description of the Hewlett Project visit:

http://cepl.furman.edu/index.php?page=37

Links to Web Resources

Over the next few days I will be posting resources from some of our partners around South Carolina as well as a few web resources that we all should know about. If you have webpages that you think everyone should see, please post them directly or send them to me at rsidebottom@arts.sc.gov. Thanks!

Our first installment is a link to the US Environmental Protection Agency's Smart Growth and Schools webpage where you will find links to many great publications.

http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/schools.htm



One of their most helpful publications is:



"Schools for Successful Communities: An Element of Smart Growth" a joint publication by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Council of Educational Facility Planners International in 2004.
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/SmartGrowth_schools_Pub.pdf

South Carolina is even mentioned as a model for it's 2003 elimination of minimum acreage standards for schools.

Next Monthly Conference Call this Thursday July 23rd at 2pm

Our next monthly conference call will be this Thursday July 23rd at 2pm. We will discuss putting the finishing touches on case studies and a few other volunteer opportunities that have surfaced. Those of you in Columbia are welcome to join the conference call from the SC Arts Commission Building on Gervais Street. If you need instructions for dialing in please contact rsidebottom@sc.arts.gov.

US Secretary of Education Talks about Community Schools

A great link from Renee Kuhlman at the National Trust for Historic Preservation:


Thanks to American Architectural Foundation for featuring this clip on their website!

Recently, Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, was on the Charlie Rose Show promoting the administration's priorities for education and spoke at length about the concept of schools as centers of community. AAF's Great Schools by Design program has explored this topic for several years. AAF believes that for a school to serve as a resource for a community, it must be designed with that in mind. Whether a renovation or new construction, the design will reflect the unique opportunities and challenges faced by the community it serves.

http://www.archfoundation.org/aaf/aaf/Science-Education.htm#top

Stock School Plans Not Working in Wyoming

As a first post on the new blog I wanted to send this article along about one state that had adopted prototype or stock plans for their schools. Some have suggested that such a program would cut down on the cost of building school facilities. Here is one state that has adopted this approach and is now turning back.

http://www.trib.com/articles/2007/11/20/news/casper/21751240538de4ee87257398008175e8.txt

Richard

A New Look for the SC Sustainable Schools and Communities Summit!!!

Budget difficulties have required a reorganization of the entity responsible for planning the Summit. Unfortunately the SC Design Arts Partnership will cease to exist after June 30th. However, the SC Chapter of the Council of Education Facility Planners International (CEFPI), the American Institute of Architects-SC (AIA-SC), the SC Arts Commission, and the Riley Institute at Furman are committed to carrying on with the existing Summit plans.

Effective immediately, please use this blog for posting ideas, issues, articles, and other relavant material related to the SC Sustainable Schools and Communities Summit, September 29-October 1, 2009.

If you wish to have posting priviledges for this blog contact:

Richard Sidebottom
rsidebottom@arts.sc.gov