K12 Schools Must Fill Need For Digital Media Skills
There is a new urgency to teach digital media literacy as a study finds students are taking online information for granted
In urban, suburban and rural districts alike, leaders inevitably come up against some formidable challenges when seeking and acquiring a new school site.
In the city, the problem most often is the lack of available land. Even locating an open site for a small campus of several acres is no easy feat. The alternative is having to create a site by buying up properties in the neighborhood.
In suburbia, land availability problems are also at play. But instead of negotiating for homes and properties, administrators may find themselves knocking on the doors of home developers who have already acquired any open land.
Even if a school site is
inexpensive, it may not be
a bargain.
In rural areas, negotiations for land involve familiar people, but the infrastructure needed for the new school--sewer, water, utilities, roads, to name the basics--will probably not be in place.
Adding to the pressure: Choosing to place a school in a particular spot changes that neighborhood forever. Kelvin Lee, superintendent of Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District in Roseville, Calif., says the ripple effect on the community can go two ways, either inducing development or growth around the school or shifting the focus of a particular school program. "By investing in a school site, the district is actually making a powerful statement about its expectations for community," Lee says.
Here's how experts in site planning suggest handling the process:
Site Search
First off, know state acreage specifications. It will save time and provide a guide in the search for school sites. Most states have their own acreage specifications for school facilities. The Council of Educational Facility Planners International has more general recommendations: Elementary schools should have 10 acres, plus an additional acre for every 100 students; middle/junior high schools need 20 acres, plus one acre for every 100 students; and high schools require 30 acres plus one acre for every 100 students.
Some states accept alternatives and waivers to the published requirements, guidelines or standards, which often differentiate between existing schools and new schools. When contemplating a new school site, the State Department of Education can provide specifics on school site size requirements, guidelines or standards. www.cefpi.org/pdf/state_guidelines.pdf
Consider unusual sites and unlikely locations. They work particularly well for schools with unique programs. Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle School, for example, sits in a once-blighted area of Raleigh. The three-story school has a four-acre site close to several different museums--a location crucial to its instructional program, which offers opportunities to learn through interactions with exhibits and performances.
"Parents know that they have a choice in coming to this school. It doesn't have a track or football field--but it does have a full-size gym and an auditorium area, although not large," says Mike Burriss, assistant superintendent for facilities.
Completed four years ago, the facility has had a major positive impact on its neighborhood. Burriss explains that it "gave the community kind of a focal point and showed that people were willing to invest in the city of Raleigh. ... Since the school's been built, from that area of the site eastward, we've been the catalyst for the transition of three blocks of housing into new town homes and newly renovated spaces. This has really been an impetus for business on the east side of Raleigh," Burriss points out.
Get to know developers. Ideally, the district should make contact with home developers as soon as they begin to acquire property. Often, developers must throw in a school site as part of their development plan. Although contributing land for a school takes away from the number of plots on which the developer can build homes, developers recognize that a good school in a good location will attract buyers to the development and help them sell homes. Make sure the site doesn't need soil remediation, have a bad, non-central location, or have a configuration that would be impossible for school construction.
