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As the end of the calendar year (and the decade) draws near, the fall attendance numbers are in and many district leaders around the country are undertaking facilities and capacity reviews. These reviews often identify the need to build new schools, close older ones, or convert campuses for a different use. They also play a pivotal role in demonstrating a school or district’s eligibility for certain types of funding. 

It’s a lot to consider all at once. As someone who has worked in the school district planning world for more than three decades, I’d like to offer a few tips to make capacity reviews less daunting and more beneficial for schools and districts. Here are three best practices to embrace as you review your facilities and communicate your findings to your board and community.

1) Create a cross-functional data-collection team.

Facilities managers, building administrators and teachers, district planning and budget administrators, and community members all have access to different types of information that needs to be reviewed at the same time. A facilities review team with broad stakeholder representation can collect and analyze data from multiple sources to support the educational vision of the district.  

Once you’ve chosen the team to spearhead the review, they might get started by consulting a guide that the National Forum on Education Statistics has released that pinpoints what types of data leaders need to collect and monitor to get a clear view of their facilities' needs. When the system is in place, you’re ready to start gathering information.

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