Best Practices Models

Colorado Lacking in Public Process for Public School Facilities Decisions

The Colorado Legislature took a look at Public School Facilities Policy in 2005, and legislative staff came up with an extensive report, finding the lack of a public process in Colorado as a serious issue which needs to be addressed legislatively.

The public process excerpt from the 2005 legislative report on School Finance Act, Regulation of School Facilities, appears below, click here for full document.

Analysis of Best Practices

Since 2001, the 21st Century School Fund and the Ford Foundation have supported a collaborative effort called Building Educational Success Together (BEST), bringing together a coalition of school facility and community-based groups. The BEST collaboration has established an agenda calling for:

• increased public participation in facilities planning;
• creation and support of schools as centers of community;
• improvement of facilities management; and
• adequate and equitable facilities funding

In May 2005 the BEST collaboration issued four papers of recommended policies and best practices for achieving its four-part agenda. These papers encourage assessment of state and local policies and provide policymakers with tools for discussing school facilities issues and recommendations. This memorandum reviews the BEST collaboration’s recommendations and best practices in two areas — facilities planning and facility management policies.

Facilities planning policies. The BEST collaboration describes its policy intent for education facilities planning as ensuring that this planning becomes a regular component of planning activities at all levels of government state, local, and school district. It encourages both broad participation and a process that is “coordinated and reciprocal” between entities, Seven broad state policy recommendations form the basis for the BEST collaboration’s paper on facilities planning, as indicated below.¹ These recommendations encourage state departments of education to:

• require all school districts to prepare and submit for review a long-range education facilities master plan that is updated annually;
• require school districts to promote coordinated facilities planning with local governments and any related comprehensive community planning efforts;
• require that school districts develop a comprehensive maintenance plan, updated annually, with state verification that the plan is being implemented;
• require school districts to prepare “an educationally, socially, arid fiscally responsible” capital improvement plan and accompanying budget that aligns with its long-range master plan and comprehensive maintenance plan, as well as with any comprehensive municipal plans;
• require that school districts evaluate opportunities for co-location and other types of cooperative arrangements for sharing public school facilities with other public entities, such as libraries, parks, and health centers;
• require that school districts establish an open, public process for facilities planning; and
•provide technical assistance to school districts in developing plans and developing procedures for implementation, so that school districts are able to plan, construct, and maintain their school facilities effectively and efficiently.

¹“Public School FaciIities Planning Policies” Recommended Policies for Public School Facilities. BEST collaborative. May 2005.

Capital Oversight Committees For Public School Construction Programs Found Lacking

The 21st Century School Fund, www.21csf.org, while focused primarily on urban and specifically DC schools, has studied and published a number of reports on public school construction policies and practices.

The inadequacies of many Capital Oversight Committees (including Jeffco's, one of the districts in the survey) as the primary public accountability component are discussed in the report, available for download here.

Pennsylvania's Taj Mahal Act

Act 34 of 1973, commonly known as the “Taj Mahal Act,” requires public hearings on any major construction plans – new buildings or significant renovations. The issues to be addressed are set by regulation:

an explanation of why the project is needed (e.g., to reduce crowding, to improve safety),

a list of alternative approaches considered,

project description, expected maximum cost, financing plans, and tax impacts.

Transparency requirements

Act 34 transparency requirements apply to real property purchases, new school construction and major additions to existing buildings (defined as additions that increase floor space by 20% or more). School districts must advertise the hearings and allow at least 30 days for public inspection of relevant documents, like floor plans.

The Act requires a second Act 34 hearing if bid costs exceed by eight percent or more the estimated costs presented at the first hearing. The Act further requires a referendum if certain costs for a new building or substantial addition exceed the calculated referendum limit for that project. The requirements of Act 34 apply whether or not a project receives school construction funding from the Commonwealth.

School Transparency Checklist

(suggested by the SunshineReview.org)

An ideal school transparency checklist would meet at least two criteria: inclusion of relevant information,and

interpretation of data whose meaning or importance is not self-evident.

Bonus points might be awarded for trend data (e.g., on tax increases in recent years) or benchmarks and cross-district patterns (e.g., tax and salary data for nearby districts or test scores from districts with similar demographics.

Financial transparency

Are the following documents available online and readable with widely available software?

Financial documents

    * Annual budget
    * Check registers
    * Property tax rates (millage)
    * Income or other tax rates

Process-related materials

    * Scheduled board meetings (including committees)
    * Board meeting agendas (including committees)
    * Minutes of meetings
    * Board policies
    * Board contact data
    * Administration contact data

Key budget components

    * Superintendent salary
    * Salary schedule, teachers
    * Union contract(s)
    * Formal board and union proposals in current negotiations

Academic performance documents

    * District "Report Card"
    * Test scores
    * Dropout/graduation rates

TRANSPARENCY IN EDUCATION