Compliance audit of New Orlean's Recovery School District’s (RSD) Capital Construction Program to analyze planning, design, construction, and project management and to determine adherence to contractual obligations of all contracted parties during its execution. For the period August 1, 2011, through January 31, 2012, construction projects were analyzed with obligated funds totaling $210,168,688. The audit recommends that RSD should tighten controls over contract changes that drive up costs at some school construction sites, and policies for testing of construction materials also needed improvement. 19p

Summary report outlines the results of energy assessments of 20 green schools and associated analysis. Data presented includes the following: utility use and cost totals for each school; utility use indices and benchmarks; efficiency opportunities identified, including savings projections and estimated capital costs; and total quantifiable savings identified through this project. Cumulatively the assessment team identified 1,755,900 kWh of electric savings per year and 1,441 Mcf of gas savings per year. Total annual estimated savings were $147,600 per year, and with a total estimated capital cost of $1,073,400 and $90,620 in estimated utility incentives, a combined simple payback of 7 years. There is a summary of additional opportunities schools can consider to further enhance their overall energy efficiency. This report concludes with a discussion of next steps for the schools and the Oklahoma Green Schools Program as a whole.

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's second version of a free software tool that helps school districts evaluate and manage their school facilities for key environmental, safety, and health issues. HealthySEAT is designed to be customized and used by district-level staff to conduct voluntary self-assessments of their school facilities and to track and manage information on environmental conditions school by school. EPA has also included critical elements of all of its regulatory and voluntary programs for schools, as well as web links to more detailed information. Enhancements for Version 2 include user-defined custom checklists, custom notification letters, additional and updated reports and forms, new navigation improvements, e-mail functionality, changes in terminology, and additional documentation.

According to this report, some 500 state schools need moderate to major repairs. And while $3.7 billion is needed to fix them, money is limited. This project was undertaken as mandated by 2010's Senate Bill 132 to assess the physical condition, educational suitability, and technology readiness of the schools relative to Kentucky's regulations and standards. Independent, onsite evaluations were performed in 146 districts for 485 instructional programs housed in 477 school buildings across the state. The schools evaluated had a previous designation as a Category 3 or Category 4 building as of September 2010. The reports show the list of schools with Kentucky School Scores and the individual School Reports with details of the assessment, such as general school information, deficiencies identified, educational suitability and technology readiness criteria evaluated.

Provides a listing of every school facility owned by the local Maryland Board of Education. A user is able to search for facilities by county name or by school name. If a user is unsure of the actual name of a facility, the user can enter the part of the name that he/she is sure of and a listing of all facilities with the partial information will be displayed. The data for a specific facility is divided into six tabs. The tabs are: 1. Site Information, Grade Levels, Adjacent Schools, Square Foot History, Enrollment, and Remarks.

Summarizes an analysis of space utilization of Brooklyn's PS-15 elementary school, a facility that houses a traditional and a charter school, as well as community services. The report reveals that the traditional classrooms are typically undersized and crowded, while the charter school classrooms are somewhat better. The report also addresses space for special education, impending issues for shared spaces (cafeteria, gymn, auditorium), and the inadequacy of the school library. 6p.

As a result of the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) Act, the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board (CCAB) conducted a Financial Assistance Priority Assessment of public school facilities in Colorado for the period FY2009–2010 to address the considerations set forth in section 22-43.7-107 C.R.S1. The Assessment of approximately 8,419 facilities in 178 School Districts included main buildings, leased buildings, temporary classroom facilities, mini-buildings, school sites, athletic fields, athletic facilities, and other support buildings. Assessment findings are based on the Public School Facility Construction Guidelines as established in 22-43.7-107 C.R.S. that address health and safety issues, education technology requirements, site requirements, energy performance requirements, functionality or suitability issues, capacity requirements, accessibility issues, and historic significance considerations. The Assessment addresses needs for two time periods, the Current Period and the Forecast Period. The Current Period is the present year plus three forward years—in this report 2010–2013. The Forecast Period includes the five years following, 2014–2018. [Authors' abstract] 143p.

Provides a 31-item checklist for fire safety in schools, in accordance with New Jersey regulations. The checklist covers access, storage, fire supression systems, decorations, and facility condition. 5p.

Offers three survey instruments to assess the extent and adequacy of classroom technology. The survey instruments are for students, faculty, and IT staff. Implementation and reporting advice are included. 29p.

Provides a tool to benchmark the current performance of existing schools, provide a report card of results and make suggestions for improvement. Assessments take place in five categories: energy efficiency, thermal comfort, visual comfort, indoor air quality, and acoustics. The ORC is an interactive online tool. While designed for district-wide deployment over multiple school sites, it is also usable by single public schools, charter schools, and private schools.

Provide Hawaii's forms and standards for school inspection, covering ground, exteriors, interiors, and sanitation. A form for an action plan is also included.

These building assessments explain the relative building conditions for each Kentucky educational facility using the following descriptors: Excellent (new, generally less than 10 years; Better (generally 10-20 years old; Good/Average (20-30 years old); Fair/Poor (30-40 years old, needs renovation); and Poor (older than 40 years old). The accompanying "District Assessment Map" explains the relative district assessment for each district by using the following descriptors: Green-Districts with limited facility needs, Yellow-Districts with moderate facility needs, and Red-Districts with significant facilty needs.

Provides a checklist to help create a complete and fair feasibility study when deciding whether to restore or replace an older school. Selecting the proper consultant, proper accounting, building codes, public participation, cultural and historic significance, site plan, scheduling, and educational programming, components of the study, and steps in executing the study are addressed. 7p.

Research was conducted to provide a perspective on the potential building needs of Pennsylvania school districts over the next 10 years. The researcher developed an inventory of school buildings in rural Pennsylvania through a survey of rural school districts, analyzed enrollment trends for rural school districts over the next 10 years, developed a statistical model to examine future building needs, and determined whether school districts will be at risk of under- or over-capacity. The findings provide a complex portrait of Pennsylvania’s current rural school building conditions and projections of building use over the next 10 years. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends the following policy considerations: 1)The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and school districts should consider establishing a reporting system to effectively monitor school building conditions; 2) School districts should consider ways to use under-used school buildings and maximize public use of school facilities; and 3) PDE and school districts should consider the changing face of student learning environments to accurately assess building capacity needs. 16p.

Provides a guide for those involved in the International Pilot Study on the Evaluation of Quality in Educational Spaces (EQES): national coordinators and research teams, teaching staff, students, school principals, and others. The purpose of this pilot project is to assist education authorities, schools and others to maximize the use of and investment in educational spaces. The manual describes four research tools: 1) priority-rating exercise for quality performance objectives, 2) educational facility analysis. 3) student and teaching staff questionnaires, and 4) focus groups. For each tool, this manual presents the tool's objectives, research questions, expected response time, step-by-step instructions on how to implement the tool, and presentation of results in the final report. 71p.

Summarizes the steps taken by an architectural firm to assess the twelve high schools of the Howard County (Maryland) public school system. The assessment was divided into two components: a program assessment to identify how well each building is supporting the delivery of the educational program to the students; and a facilities condition assessment to identify the condition of the physical plant and systems in the buildings and an estimate of the deferred maintenance costs for each building. 4p.

Focuses on facilities and technology aspects of where Ohio stands in providing higher education services. Five questions form the core of report. These are: 1) Are Ohio's higher education facilities adequate to address the needs of and attract students for the 21st century? 2) What is the condition of facilities, and are adequate investments being made to protect the state's assets and benefit students? 3) Can recent trends in funding higher education capital projects, including institutional debt, continue? 4) Do current rules, regulations and practices inhibit the cost effectiveness of facilities construction? and 5) How is technology being used to serve current and prospective students? The report concludes that Ohio's substantial facility and technological assets must be utilized to a greater extent and in different ways than in the past. Trustee stewardship of facility assets are applauded, but larger investments are needed to address deferred maintenance, technology upgrades, building retrofits, and new facilities needed to accommodate program expansions for science, technology, engineering, math and health professions. State regulations, particularly in construction, can be modified in ways that result in high quality facilities at a lower cost. 32p.

Provides an update to Massachusetts Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Criteria, a green building rating system designed specifically for Bay State schools. The update reflects a move by CHPS to provide a core of green building benchmarks to states known as the "CHPS National Core Criteria" that can then be adapted by states. The new Core Criteria focus on not just the design of the building, but also pre-design planning, and the occupancy of the school. It also includes benchmarks for the building's site selection, water efficiency, acoustics, daylight in classrooms and environmentally-friendly building materials. 206p.

This organization offers a "green" school certification process that starts with an assessment that credits all the environmental efforts made so far. The second phase is the gradual introduction of appropriate green practices that can be phased in over a period of one year.

Describes a solution that New Mexico has developed to overcome key challenges common to school programs across the country. The new NM-PSFA system identifies schools and projects ranked according to facilities condition, educational adequacy, and other priorities, and the corresponding need for funding.

Driven by professionally designed building system surveys, guided self-assessments deliver comprehensive facility condition information that includes remediation definition and estimated costs.

Discusses the survey tool Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), produced by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Examples of how STARS can be used to analyze resource usage in dining services, libraries, housing, and class scheduling are detailed.

Advises on preparing accurate building condition assessments in advance of building repairs, so that contractors can deliver accurate bids. Topics addressed include bid types, elimination of potential of variables, inclusion of limitations, timing, project uniqueness, and constraints that will affect access and timing of work.

Discusses comprehensive qualitative assessment of higher education facilities. The assessment process includes space capacity, facilities quality, special facilities, infrastructure and sustainability. Differing methodologies for qualitative assessment are detailed, with emphasis on the inclusion of pedagogues and others knowledgeable in space configurations and equipment, as well as implementation of the Facility Quality INdex (FCI).

Explains how the facilities condition index (FCI) is implemented in assessing facilities, supporting master planning, and long-term capital budgeting.

Advises on facility inspection steps from creating a list of equipment, to planning the route, walking the route, and compiling the data.

Advises on conducting a security assessment of an existing site, addressing the multiple components of facility security and the typical results that a site survey will produce.

Advises on maintaining a master plan for school facilities, accurate assessments of their condition, cost estimates for addressing deficiencies, and how to avoid the "build-neglect-build" cycle the often overwhelms school districts.

Discusses facilities master planning, citing the St. Paul Public Schools example of assessing all properties for physical condition and educational adequacy. Elements of an assessment are outlined, and the use of the outcome to prioritize projects is addressed.

Discusses use of infrared technology and visual inspection to identify air leaks, wet insulation, and thermal bridging, along with suggested elements of a maintenance checklist and current products to remedy unsatisfactory conditions.

Discusses elements of an energy audit and planning that can enhance sustainability. Equipment and systems improvements, inclusion of researchers in the assessment and upgrade process, and inclusion of all types of building professionals are addressed.

Presents the results of a study by the Flemish Agency for Infrastructure in Education (AGIOn) that evaluated the quality of school buildings in Flanders using a monitoring system based on international experience. The results showed that most school buildings satisfy the basic requirements of habitability and safety, but they often fall short when it comes to the new pedagogical and social challenges of the 21st century.

Argues that taking the educational purposes of schools into account is central to understanding the place and importance of facilities to learning outcomes. The paper begins by observing that the research literature connecting facility conditions to student outcomes is mixed. A closer examination of this literature suggests that when school facilities are measured from an engineering perspective, little connection to learning outcomes is evident. By contrast, when school facilities are rated in terms of educational functions, a connection to learning outcomes is apparent. Using the schools in a Canadian division, the condition of school facilities was measured in two ways, including both conventional, engineering tools and a survey capturing principals assessments. School facility ratings using these alternate measurement methods were correlated with schools' quality of teaching and learning environments (QTLE). Two central findings emerge. First, engineering assessments of facilities are unrelated to the QTLE in schools. Second, educators' assessments of school facilities are systematically related to the QTLE in schools.

Provides an update on CELE's International Pilot Project on Evaluating Quality in Educational Spaces, which aims to assist education authorities, schools and others to maximize the use of and investment in learning environments. The article explains the school selection and implementation process, which is currently being conducted in Mexico,New Zealand, Portugal and the United Kingdom.