Big bang for the buck: Clovis USD has passed five school bond measures since 1986, leading to school building experiences that have run the gamut, garnering both design awards and construction lawsuits. Here, they share some lessons

Leadership, May-June, 2004 by James Bushman, C. Testa Ken

Recession or not, in the education business, as long as there are students, there must be schools. In California, where student enrollment continues to grow, and with new state rules that make the passage of school bonds less prohibitive than they were only a few years ago, the building of new schools in some parts of the state continues unabated.

Experts say the process of building new schools is not much different from the process used to build a new house. A district must decide what it wants, have plans drawn up, permits acquired and a contractor hired. But while the process may be similar, the stakes are higher, and the prospects for failure greater.

Districts building schools have many constituencies to consider and regulations to follow while overseeing construction projects grand in scope. Fortunately, growing districts that have been building schools for years have many lessons to share for those less accustomed to the process.

One such district resides in California's central San Joaquin Valley. Since 1986, Clovis Unified School District has passed five school bond measures--more than any other district in California--totaling $454 million. This money, when leveraged with matching state funds and developer fees, has generated $850 million for construction of capital facilities, allowing the district to build two new high schools, two middle schools and 16 elementary schools so far. The district expects to build another high school, middle school and four to five elementary schools in the next five years.

Clovis Unified's school building experiences have run the gamut, garnering both designer awards and construction lawsuits, while utilizing multiple architects and construction firms.

CUSD Assistant Superintendent of Facility Services Roger Oraze, the district administrator who has overseen the entire CUSD building program since 1991, has an important role in building Clovis' schools: "My main role is to bring together the wants and wishes of the education team and communicate them to the architects, while the director of construction and engineering oversees construction [in order] to ensure that the builders build what the architects design."

Oraze operates according to two guiding principles when planning schools. "We have multiple programs and multiple facility needs." The resulting challenge is "to try to meet the needs of as many people as possible without creating any significant barriers for anyone." He adds, "At the same time, you need to think beyond the current fads because you want the schools you build to serve students for the long term and not become dated."

What school communities want in new schools

While creating the right learning environment so teachers can teach and students can learn is a high priority when constructing schools, there are many other constituents to consider. Over the years, Oraze has listened carefully to all of them and knows what they want from their neighborhood schools:

* Site administrators are more interested in safety issues. They want good lines of sight and security cameras on their campus.

* Classroom teachers are interested in gaining as much space as possible, giving them the flexibility to apply different learning strategies and have increased access to technology and the Internet. High school teachers are less interested in large department offices than large classrooms. Teachers also want more cabinets and data outlets in their classrooms.

* School nurses today do so much more than their predecessors. The services they provide make them more akin to a health clinic, so they need larger spaces as well as a private office, because they also provide one-on-one counseling.

* Special education is currently stressing mainstreaming, so they want classrooms that can meet the needs of students with more severe disabilities and offer access to all school facilities.

* Physical education teachers are fully implementing Title IX, which makes it necessary to have enough facilities to allow for a full range of athletic and physical education activities for males as well as females.

* Custodians are interested in the ease of cleaning a campus on a daily basis, so their focus is on materials such as floor coverings and surfaces. They are also concerned with issues like how a school deals with trash and how it can reduce waste. Budget cutbacks have resulted in less manpower, so custodians need to have systems and equipment that will allow them to be as efficient as possible and maintain the same level of cleanliness with fewer personnel. Custodians are also the supply distributors at a school site, so they have a need for more storage space.

* Community members want to use their schools as community centers when school is not in session, so a greater focus is needed on the development of gymnasiums, libraries, parking lots, multipurpose rooms and playgrounds. At the same time, districts will want to design schools for public access without exposing facilities to excessive wear and tear, vandalism and overuse.