Publications
Fall 2001 Newsletter
Creative School Design & Finance -- What If? New Jersey
Office Of Planning Offers A New Model
Organizations around the nation have decried the current
school design and construction paradigm arguing that drab stucco
boxes which take decades to build simply aren't conducive to learning,
let alone community engagement or neighborhood revitalization.
However, because of a recent legal victory in New Jersey, we may
be seeing the beginning of a large-scale model that cities around
the nation can follow not merely to implement new design guidelines
for schools, but truly incentivize school districts to think creatively.
NSBN is pleased to offer this excerpt from a paper written by
Ellen Shoshkes, Senior Planner with the New Jersey Office of State
Planning which details the state's new facility mandate.
By: Ellen Shoshkes, Ph.D., Senior Urban Designer, New
Jersey Office of State Planning
School Construction & Finance In New Jersey
New Jersey's school construction program has its origins in the
State Supreme Court's rulings in the landmark Abbott vs. Burke
case. The Court directed the State to provide facilities for public
school children in the 30 Abbott/special needs districts (the
poorest in the state and primarily urban) "that will be sufficient
to enable these students to achieve the substantive standards
that now define a thorough and efficient education and the quality
of the facilities cannot depend on the district's willingness
or ability to raise taxes or to incur debt." After nearly
two years of debate, the Legislature enacted a bill that provides
for an expanded schools construction program including aid--at
least 40-percent of eligible costs--for all 618 districts in the
state. The State will pay for this $12 billion effort by raising
$8.6 billion through the issuance of bonds, with the rest financed
by local districts, and other annual appropriations of the State
legislature. This bill fundamentally restructures the way in which
public school facilities projects are planned, managed, and financed
in New Jersey.
New Jersey's approach to provide equal educational opportunities
for all children also goes well beyond court ordered measures
to end disparities in school financing among rich and poor towns
in Vermont and New York. In addition to the construction program,
the New Jersey Supreme Court mandate ordered the implementation
of "whole school reform" in all elementary schools in
the Abbott districts. Whole school reform involves a systematic
restructuring of an entire school engaging the participation of
the schools faculty, administration, students, parents and other
community stakeholders--which "must be implemented as interrelated
parts of a comprehensive program." The wide consensus about
the effectiveness of whole school reform is closely aligned with
the consensus forming around the concept of community-based schools.
There are two ways a school can serve as a center of community:
"either by serving a more integral role within the context
of the whole community, or by extending the learning environment
to take advantage of the full range of the community's resources.
Indeed, the most successful schools of the future will be integrated
learning communities, which accommodate the needs of all of the
community's stakeholders." Either way, the concept of schools
that serve as centers of communities represents a key strategy
for achieving the goals of the SDRP, essentially: to support the
revitalization of existing cities and towns; and to encourage
new suburban growth, where necessary, in compact patterns, in
order to curb sprawl and conserve scarce open space.
The Goals of the New Jersey's State Development and Redevelopment
Plan provide a context for policy initiatives in a broad array
of substantive areas, including Infrastructure Investments, which
encourage municipalities to: "Make the most effective use
of existing school facilities; plan and construct new facilities
to serve as community centers; and locate new school facilities
to serve as focal points for existing and new development. Integrate
school facilities planning with neighborhood and community wide
planning and development."
As well as to: "Use the capacity of school facilities, roads,
transit, parks and other necessary infrastructure in ways that
permit maximum use of non-automotive transport, chaining of shopping
and other trips with school trips, and sharing of parking, recreational
and other public facilities."
Thus, while the court ordered remedy addresses the urgent need
for an overhaul of the outmoded and decrepit school buildings
in the 30 Abbott districts, the need for expediency in completing
top priority repairs to address critical health and safety issues
does not preclude the need for planning the more comprehensive
school reform and improvement projects proposed as part of the
Long-Range Facilities Plan, which each district was required to
submit to the Commissioner of Education in Dec. 2000.
Urban Schools & Community Development
Many cities and older suburban towns in New Jersey have been
enjoying a renaissance, thanks largely to the sustained growth
of the national economy, if not the SDRP. It has not been so easy,
however, to reverse the fortunes of the impoverished Abbott districts.
Yet timing is everything. The coincidence of the state funded
retooling of public education with the urban renaissance offers
a truly unique window of opportunity to capitalize on the inherent
strength of cities and towns as a resource to improve the effectiveness
of urban schools. With proper planning, the state's investment
in new and improved Abbott schools can serve as serve as a catalyst
for the revitalization of these neighborhoods that have been left
behind by boom times. Thus while the Abbott legislation will benefit
all of the school districts in the state, both rich and poor,
it is crucial for the conversation about how to leverage the state's
investment in schools to focus on the impoverished districts,
which are primarily, but not exclusively, urban.
Fortunately, there is sufficient time to think broadly about
the next generation of New Jersey's urban schools as well as capture
the opportunity for a new approach to school building, represented
by the role of the Economic Development Authority (EDA) in the
implementation of the school construction program. EDA is responsible
for construction and financing all projects in Abbott districts
and those non-Abbott districts eligible for 55-percent or more
state aid. All other districts have the option of using the authority's
services. Construction will not get underway until Spring 2001Š
It will then take up to 10 years to complete the entire scope
of work. The EDA has already made clear its support for any school
district in New Jersey that desires to pursue a broader vision
for its facilities.
In taking this step it is important to be both visionary and
pragmatic. The Dept. of Education has set "facilities efficiency
standards" to determine the extent to which a district's
construction project qualifies for state aid. These are not construction
design standards, but rather "represent the instructional
and administrative spaces that are educationally adequate to support
the achievement of the State's Core Curriculum Content Standards"--which
the Supreme Court accepted "as the definition of what students
need to learn as the result of the Œthorough and efficient
education' thatŠ [NJ's] State Constitution promises them."
A district may design other spaces to be included in project and
the EDA will assist in the search for funding necessary to cover
the cost of these design elements. To contribute to school reform
and community revitalization, however, bricks and mortar projects
must embody a vision for change cultivated through community partnerships,
and form part of an integrated solution to local environmental,
social and economic concerns.
OSP Communities Of Learners Campaign
Significantly, the biggest obstacle to building urban schools
that can serve as a catalyst for community revitalization may
not be the obvious targets, such as red tape or lack of money,
but rather, the complexity of mobilizing the resources--social,
cultural, economic and political--required for comprehensive improvement
projects, in which schools collaborate with their communities
and beyond. It may be necessary to build the capacity of school
districts to carry out the kind of strategic planning and visioning
activities to design a community collaboration and to develop
and strengthen partnerships with colleges, parents, businesses
and other schools. The challenge of building local capacity is
compounded by the difficulty of implementing innovative strategies
and visionary ideas in the framework of inherently conservative
bureaucratic systems--schools, state and local agencies--which
may have to learn new, more flexible and cooperative ways of working
together...
Conclusion
There is much to learn from the efforts to plan and design the
new social and physical forms needed to support communities of
learning already underway in many places throughout New Jersey
and the nation. Most important, perhaps, is the lesson that these
efforts are not focused on how to build a better or more cost
effective school building, but on how to build a better, more
livable community. There is a limited window of opportunity to
come up with a vision for new schools that serve as centers for
New Jersey communities. In a few years it will be too late to
leverage the investment in schools through smarter, more efficient
integrated resource development. The need for investment and for
innovative planning and design is greatest in New Jersey's urban
communities. But the pay-off of such an investment is too great
to ignore--nothing less than community renewal centered on neighborhood
schools.
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