projecting enrollment in the next 10 to 15 years and testing any third party demographic projections through informed analysis of local housing, employment and economic changes;

defining all the basic educational and support spaces to be included — classrooms, specialized teaching areas such as labs, music rooms, auditoriums, gymnasiums/fitness centers, cafeterias, computer labs, libraries and offices, as well as teacher planning and support spaces; and

forecasting future needs due to emerging trends — distance learning, community use of school facilities, technology demands — estimate the corresponding impact of these trends on the number, size and sophistication of the spaces.

In a plan completed by the Town of Marblehead, Mass., the school superintendent reviewed enrollment projections compiled by a third party. As part of the master plan for a new high school, the superintendent documented his belief that school enrollment would be significantly higher than the outside projections.

Much of his rational was based on need to provide facilities for all students living in the town, not just those currently attending public schools. They, in fact, found that once new facilities were completed, many students returned to the public school system from private schools.

Investigate and Assess Physical Conditions of All Existing Facilities Before any decisions can be made, a thorough and accurate assessment of all existing school buildings must be made. Assessment is too often done on a “fly-by” basis, without probing into the details of existing mechanical, structural, electrical and life-safety systems. Insist on a complete “due diligence” phase, including an engineering analysis on the cost of refurbishing or replacing obsolete systems.

With ever-rising utility costs, the expense of gas, electricity and water use has become a major budget problem in many school systems. Handicap access to most of today’s existing schools is difficult. A long list of issues related to maintaining older school facilities, even in meeting basic building, energy and safety codes, comes into play in these evaluations. The most efficient way to cope with these sometimes intimidating issues is to take a system-wide approach and to set priorities for improvement based on the overall goals, objectives and needs.

Older schools are often inefficient in building size, having a higher gross area to net educational area than new construction (additions or buildings). It is not unusual to realize renovating a larger (inefficient) area is nearly as expensive as the alternative new construction.

Based on the opportunities and constraints discovered through the due diligence and its preceding data development, the study team can begin the crucial development of alternatives. Typically, options presented at this point include all feasible alternatives including renovation, new construction, consolidation, redistricting, alternate grade structures and/or appropriate combinations of these actions, presented by school and by site.

It is essential that each option be accompanied by all known cost, schedule and phasing considerations, described as thoroughly as possible. The pros and cons of each option should be presented and compared against the goals of the project. The study consultants should facilitate a point-by-point discussion of alternatives, and any lingering questions should be investigated before narrowing down the options.

An honest evaluation of existing school sites for building additions as well as potential sites for new schools is critical. Whether for new construction or renovation, ruling in or out any suggested option must revolve around a factual evaluation of dozens of key considerations.

For example, in the regional Massachusetts school district of Concord – Carlisle, options included renovating the high school and building an addition at the current site or building a new facility on the same site. Ultimately, new construction was selected because the constraints of the site and building were considerable. In addition to the appeal of a state-of-the-art high school facility, the solution overcame difficult site circulation issues and reduced disruption because of a shorter construction period.

By far the most important element of any system-wide master plan is the recommended action: the preferred option as it is often called.

The rationale for recommending an option (or a combination of available options) needs to be concretely tied to the community education goals and philosophy documented in the initial step. Also, the preferred option must be grounded in the reality of the fiscal and physical site limitations identified in the study.

The discussion among the stakeholders of the study revolves around three key questions: