1. SMART GROWTH SCHOOLS

2. SMART GROWTH SCHOOLS What is a Smart Growth School?
1. Definition 2. Benefits 3. Examples Barriers

3. What is a Smart Growth School?
encourages community involvement
allows students to walk or bike to school
acts as a neighborhood anchor, supports community use of school facilities
fits in well with neighborhood
makes good use of existing resources, such as historic school buildings
small in size

4. Smart Growth School Encourages broad community involvement

5. Smart Growth School Encourages broad community involvement
Sidney Pratt School and Community Education Center- B. Graff

6. Smart Growth School Allows students to walk or bike to school

7. Smart Growth School Allows students to walk or bike to school

8. Smart Growth School Acts as a neighborhood anchor, supports community use of school facilities

9. Smart Growth School Acts as a neighborhood anchor, supports community use of school facilities
Sidney Pratt School and Community Education Center- B. Graff

10. Smart Growth School Fits in well with the surrounding neighborhood

11. Smart Growth School Fits in well with the surrounding neighborhood

12. Smart Growth School Makes good use of existing resources, such as historic school buildings

13. Smart Growth School Makes good use of existing resources, such as historic school buildings

14. Smart Growth School Small in size

15. Smart Growth School Small in size

16. What are the benefits of Smart Growth Schools?
Improve Educational Outcomes
Save Money
Promote Greater Community Involvement
Improve Student Health
Added promote

17. Benefits Improve Educational Outcomes
students at small schools:
have higher grade point averages
participate in more extracurricular activities
attend more regularly
feel a sense of belonging
Karen Febey and Joe Nathan
Smaller, Safer, Saner, Successful Schools
Bulleted quote

18. Benefits Improve Educational Outcomes
Lewis and Clark
High School
#1 average SAT scores
in Spokane, Washington

19. Benefits Improve Educational Outcomes
The H.H. Battle Academy of Teaching and
Learning and the Tommye F. Brown Academy
of Classical Studies in Chattanooga, TN
The school district joined forces with University
of Tennessee, Chattanooga and local
philanthropic organizations to fund two
downtown magnet schools. Through this unique
partnership additional resources are available, such as improved educational instruction. The teachers receive special additional training through the University of Tennessee.

20. School Transportation Costs for California
Benefits Save Money
School transportation costs have doubled in the last 25 years.
As schools were built farther from the students they serve, the miles traveled by school buses increased 24% between 1986 and 1996.
(Strange, 2001, pg.4)
School Transportation Costs for California
: $784 million
: $1.04 billion

21. Benefits Save Money A study of school siting in Bend, Oregon
found that annual transportation costs at
neighborhood schools could be 32% lower
than at sites on the edge of the community.
Evans and Associates
Bend-LaPine School District Siting Study
August 1997

22. Benefits Save Money Parents worked out a public/private development
partnership to
independently fund
the modernization
of the Oyster Bilingual
Elementary School in
Washington, D.C.

23. Benefits Greater Community Involvement
In St. Louis,… the Washington University Medical
Center, the St. Louis Cardinals, and McCormack
Baron developers teamed up with the school board
and citizens to reclaim a vacant historic school and
revitalize a depressed neighborhood.
Adams Elementary School
Adams Park Community Center
St. Louis, Missouri

24. Benefits Greater Community Involvement
Adams Elementary School-Sam Fentress
Adams Elementary School Gym-Alise O’Brien
Adams Elementary School
Adams Park Community Center

25. Benefits Improve Student Health
80% of children don’t
walk to school. The most
commonly mentioned
barrier to walking is
distance.
C.D.C. Morbidity and Mortality Report August 16, 2002

26. Benefits Improve Student Health
Mean Streets 2000, STPP
Based on data from the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

27. Benefits Improve Environmental Quality
Well-planned school sites:
Reduce driving
Reduce air pollution
Reduce need for school parking lots, reducing polluted runoff

28. Benefits Improve Environmental Quality
Substantial research links ozone and particulate air pollution with worsened symptoms and increased hospitalization for asthma
A recent study for the first time documented children exercising in high ozone areas are at higher risk of becoming asthmatics

29. Benefits Improve Environmental Quality
Storm water runoff impairs drinking water treatment, making children up to two times more likely to get sick from gastrointestinal illnesses.

30. Examples of Smart Growth Schools
Renovate an Existing School
Build a Well-Designed New School in an Existing Community
Retrofit a Non-Educational Facility for use
as a School Building
Build a Well-Designed New School for a
Walkable New Neighborhood

31. Thompson Middle School Newport, RI
Renovate an Existing School
Located just off Newport’s Main Street downtown, the historic Thompson School serves as a community center as well a school. Newport’s Mayor Sardella says the renovated school helped to revitalize Newport’s downtown.

32. Thompson Middle School Newport, RI
Thompson Middle School-Wayne Soverns, Jr.
The school district renovated a 1897 school building and built two new wings on either side of it.

33. Thompson Middle School Newport, RI
Thompson Middle School-Wayne Soverns, Jr.
Residents attend civic meetings in the
school’s cafetorium.

34. Jefferson Elementary School Manitowoc, WI
Build a Well-Designed New School
in an Existing Community
The school board had land available on the edge of town, but followed community wishes to build a new school in town on the site of a much beloved but outdated elementary school.

35. Jefferson Elementary School Manitowoc, WI
The new school uses classical architecture and
incorporates murals saved from the old school
while providing state-of-the-art facilities.

36. The Village at Indian Hill Pueblo School Complex Pomona, CA
Retrofit a Non-Educational Facility for use as a School Building
In the mid-90’s 1/3 of students in the Pomona Unified school district were in temporary classrooms. The school district needed to build new schools, but was having trouble finding suitable sites. The district did find an aging 550,000 square foot shopping mall.

37. The Village at Indian Hill Pueblo School Complex Pomona, CA

38. The Village at Indian Hill Pueblo School Complex Pomona, CA
The Village how consists of 3 elementary
schools, 1 high school, staff training centers,
Head Start, a child care center and retail shops.

39. Woodland Elementary School Fairview, OR
New School for New Neighborhood
Outside of Portland, Oregon developers of a new smart-growth style development worked with businesses and the school district to bring a new elementary school to the town. They felt a school was essential to the success of their plan to build a complete ‘smart growth’ community.

40. Woodland Elementary School Fairview, OR

41. Woodland Elementary School Fairview, OR
The school is within a quarter mile of home in the Village, and federal transportation funds helped build a lighted walking trail from the Village to the school.

42. What are the barriers to Smart Growth Schools?
2/3, 60% Rule, Financial Biases Against Renovation
Site Standards
Inadequate Feasibility Studies

43. “Our current policies encourage the construction of massive, isolated schools that are inaccessible to the communities they serve. One of the keys to improving education is a sense of community where teacher, student and parent all feel a sense of ownership in their school.” Governor Mark Sanford, South Carolina 2003 State of the State Address

44. Barriers and Solutions
2/3 Rule
60% Rule
Many states recommend that new schools be built
whenever the costs of renovating existing schools
exceeds some arbitrary percentage of new
construction costs. This policy is adopted even when
renovation options could yield “like new” schools at a
significant savings to the public.

45. Barriers and Solutions
Pennsylvania has eliminated its
60% rule.
Maryland’s Public School Construction
Program favors renovating versus
constructing new schools.

46. Barriers and Solutions
Unreasonable Site Standards
1 acre for every 100 students
+ 10 acres for an elementary school
+20 acres for a middle school
+30 acres for a high school

47. Barriers and Solutions
The State of Maine published a
brochure, “The ABC’s of School Site
Selection.” It promotes smart growth concepts in school facility planning.
Avoid sprawl!
Be site savvy!
Consult the community!

48. Barriers and Solutions
Inadequate Feasibility Studies
Many people, including many school architects, are unfamiliar with renovation options and techniques. As a result the costs of renovation are often overestimated and renovation possibilities are overlooked.

49. Barriers and Solutions
The Columbus Landmarks Foundation conducted a study of selected historic schools in an effort to demonstrate renovation to state-of-the-art standards is less expensive than new construction.
THE RESULTS…..
4 schools examined demonstrated significant savings through renovation. The savings totaled $9 million.

50. SMART GROWTH SCHOOLS THE END
Thompson Middle School-Wayne Soverns, Jr.

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