SMART GROWTH SCHOOLS

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SMARTGROWTHSCHOOLS
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SMART GROWTH SCHOOLS

• What is a Smart Growth School?
• 1. Definition 2. Benefits 3. Examples 4.
  Barriers

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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

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Smart Growth SchoolEncourages broad community
involvement
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Smart Growth SchoolEncourages broad community
involvement
Sidney Pratt School and Community Education
Center- B. Graff
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Smart Growth SchoolAllows students to walk or
bike to school
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Smart Growth SchoolAllows students to walk or
bike to school
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Smart Growth SchoolActs as a neighborhood
anchor, supports community use of school
facilities
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Smart Growth SchoolActs as a neighborhood
anchor, supports community use of school
facilities
Sidney Pratt School and Community Education
Center- B. Graff
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Smart Growth School Fits in well with the
surrounding neighborhood
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Smart Growth School Fits in well with the
surrounding neighborhood
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Smart Growth School Makes good use of existing
resources, such as historic school buildings
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Smart Growth School Makes good use of existing
resources, such as historic school buildings
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Smart Growth School Small in size
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Smart Growth School Small in size
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What are the benefits of Smart Growth Schools?

• Improve Educational Outcomes
• Save Money
• Promote Greater Community Involvement
• Improve Student Health

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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

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Benefits Improve Educational Outcomes

• Lewis and Clark
• High School
• 1 average SAT scores
• in Spokane, Washington

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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.

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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
• 1996-97 784 million
• 2000-01 1.04 billion

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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

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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.

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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

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Benefits Greater Community Involvement
Adams Elementary School-Sam Fentress
Adams Elementary School Gym-Alise OBrien

• Adams Elementary School
• Adams Park Community Center

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Benefits Improve Student Health

• 80 of children dont
• walk to school. The most
• commonly mentioned
• barrier to walking is
• distance.
• C.D.C. Morbidity and Mortality Report August 16,
  2002

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

• Well-planned school sites
• Reduce driving
• Reduce air pollution
• Reduce need for school parking lots, reducing
  polluted runoff

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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

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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.

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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

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Thompson Middle School Newport, RI

• Renovate an Existing School
• Located just off Newports Main Street downtown,
  the historic Thompson School serves as a
  community center as well a school. Newports
  Mayor Sardella says the renovated school helped
  to revitalize Newports downtown.

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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.

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Thompson Middle School Newport, RI
Thompson Middle School-Wayne Soverns, Jr.

• Residents attend civic meetings in the
• schools cafetorium.

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Jefferson Elementary SchoolManitowoc, 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.

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Jefferson Elementary SchoolManitowoc, WI

• The new school uses classical architecture and
• incorporates murals saved from the old school
• while providing state-of-the-art facilities.

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The Village at Indian Hill Pueblo School Complex
Pomona, CA

• Retrofit a Non-Educational Facility for use as a
  School Building
• In the mid-90s 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.

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

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Woodland Elementary SchoolFairview, 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.

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Woodland Elementary SchoolFairview, OR
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Woodland Elementary SchoolFairview, 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.

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What are the barriers to Smart Growth Schools?

• 2/3, 60 Rule, Financial Biases Against
  Renovation
• Site Standards
• Inadequate Feasibility Studies

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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
Carolina2003 State of the State Address
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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.

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Barriers and Solutions

• Pennsylvania has eliminated its
• 60 rule.
• Marylands Public School Construction
• Program favors renovating versus
• constructing new schools.

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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

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Barriers and Solutions

• The State of Maine published a
• brochure, The ABCs of School Site
• Selection. It promotes smart growth concepts
  in school facility planning.
• Avoid sprawl!
• Be site savvy!
• Consult the community!

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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.

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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.

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SMART GROWTH SCHOOLSTHE END
Thompson Middle School-Wayne Soverns, Jr.
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For more information..

• www.nthp.org
• www.smartgrowthamerica.org