Predesign Educational Planning for School Construction in Ohio (Paperback)

The Ohio school construction Rebuilding Program requires district officials to take necessary steps to ensure that facility projects are designed to Design Manual guidelines. Normative predesign educational planning is a process that integrates mission, vision, stakeholder expectations, and instructional objectives into performance specifications. This study focused on the extent to which normative predesign educational planning was applied in relation to construction projects approved between January 2000 and December 2004. Findings raise important questions about school facility planning in a state in which overall construction expenditures and state support for school construction have increased substantially since 1999. Specifically, marginal levels of predesign planning raise concerns about the extent to which new schools are actually being designed to accommodate current and future programming as framed by a district and school visions. Additional research is recommended to determine why specific predesign planning activities are not required and why superintendents opt not to apply these activities to a greater extent.