iep2 - Pondering Facility Planning

Getting bogged down by the jargon on 21 st century learning? You are not the only one.  One of my first tasks in starting a relationship with a District is discovering the District’s terminology for departments and special programs.  Special education is always an area where terms like Special Day Class can mean a whole host of different things and require different type of spaces.  Different approaches to learning and the world of technology have exploded the learning vocabulary to the point there needs to be a dictionary.   A Dictionary For 21st Century Teachers: Learning Models & Technology Creating common language is key to making any organization work.   One of the unsung heroes of a facilities master plan is the cross pollination of jargon, philosophy and purpose different departments have in an organization and how they affect the final environment.    Teachers will ask why they can’t paint their classroom a different color and the...

Let’s go!   We are towards the end of three master plans (Two K-12 Districts and one County) at the moment and I always find it interesting to see how the final decision process plays out.  For what feels like years to some stakeholders involved with the process, we have been collecting data from all sources and completing assessments, a demographic study and many discussions and meetings. Now  we are here *deep breath* at implementation and let's go!  But wait….. Sometimes the ones who are so anxious to get the ball rolling are also the ones who first put the brakes on.  Wait a minute; we don’t know our exact funding stream or timeline or….yikes! The panic ensues.  A master plan, when completed with transparency, involvement from all stakeholders and formed through interactive work sessions will challenge the status quo. As with all “future telling” activities, a master plan will pull on both ends of our logical thinking. On one hand, we are maki...

iep2 has been involved in many meetings where building or replacing administration spaces is on the table. This is when the controversy begins.  Many people are concerned, rightly so, about facility bond money going to “space for the student”, not non-student space, such as the administration office.  Don’t get us wrong we are all about improving student environments and understand that they are why we have schools in the first place, BUT just for a moment we ask you to consider something that often gets over looked. Typical high priority list items in school planning are: Safety Welcoming Environments (AKA don’t make it look like a prison) Community / Parent Involvement Collaboration Creating   a Campus Identity Now let’s consider what the offices designed at most 1940’s-1960’s schools have to deal with: No walk through access (which does not allow visitors to walk in one door pass through an office space and walk out inside the schools “...