The Examiner U-46 News Feed

District U-46 to develop facility master plan

By Seth Hancock
  School District U-46 will be undergoing a facility review to create an Educational Facility Master Plan (EFMP).
  The Board of Education unanimously approved, via a 7-0 vote, a $1.9 million expenditure, from the operations and maintenance fund, with the DLR Group to help create the EFMP.
  The proposal stated that its been more than 15 years since the district has updated it facility plan, and “significant changes have occurred to our organization since the last study.”
  The work will begin in the next few months according to the proposal and it is estimated to take 18 months to complete.
  A letter from Dennis Bane, with the DLR Group, outlined the process.
  The work is expected to include nine phases: deeper understanding, discovering and exploring, programming, conceptualizing, game planning, adoption and implementation, plan longevity and scheduling, assumptions and exclusion.
  Bane wrote that historically EFMP’s address enrollment trends and capital improvement needs while there are also broader focus areas.
  “U-46’s vision, pedagogy, student experience, facilities educational readiness and environmental goals will also be integral to this Educational Facility Master Plan,” Bane wrote. “In short, the relative ability of your learning environments to support the evolution of teaching and learning already ongoing within the District must, in our opinion, be considered for an optimal plan to be developed.”
  The basis of the plan will focus on two parameters, “must have” and “cannot do,” according to Bane.
  Bane wrote: “These parameters will help define what a successful plan must address. You may say that ‘the final EFMP cannot redraw District boundaries’ or that ‘we must have a solution that supports staggered start times’ or ‘affords us energy reductions of 50 {percent} in ten years.’ While very important to define, the parameters can also be too onerous and restrict options for innovation. We will work together to ensure the right quantity and quality are itemized at the outset.”
  The hope is to have a collaborative effort with all stakeholders, Bane stated.
  There are four levels of leadership outlined in the letter including a steering committee likely to include members of the CEO’s cabinet, union representatives and community members from various advisory councils. The facilities and operations level include plant operations staff, the primary users level includes students and administrators as well as students and the school community members level include parents as well as business, civic and other community members.

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