Planning For Success

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Planning For Success

• Facilities Planning Study
• September/October 2009

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• Presentation Objective
• Share recommendations from Facilities Planning
  for Success Committee, including
• Turf Field Project
• Special Education Space Needs
• Community Services Space Needs
• Elementary Facilities
• Secondary Facilities

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• Facilities Planning for Success Goal
• Update BPS Facilities Master Plan
• Committee Charge
• Plan must
• Address educational facility plans for 5 years
• Include timeline of major benchmark dates
• Include a cost and financial budget
• Address Special Education space needs for current
  and future programs provided by District 287

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• Facilities Planning Team
• 33 members comprised of
• Staff (teachers, administrators)
• Parents
• Community Residents
• 4 Subcommittees
• Community Services/Special Education
• Athletic Fields
• Elementary School Issues
• Secondary School Issues

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• Values
• Seek to serve diverse population of students
• Ensure fiscal responsibility
• Align facilities plan with Strategic Plan
• Forward thinking in regard to how decisions
  affect the entire community
• Allow for creativity that will enable educational
  programs to look different
• Maximize learning opportunities for students

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• Enrollment

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Movement Patterns

• Active movement patterns exist between schools at
  all levels (K-12)
• Movement affects enrollment consistency from one
  year to the next, which in turn affects staffing
• Movement contributes to the racial isolation of
  some schools

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• Impact of Concentrated Poverty
• A students poverty level has an effect on
  academic achievement
• As socio-economic status decreases, so do test
  scores and other student performance indicators
• Level of poverty school-wide affects individual
  student achievement, whether or not that student
  is in poverty
• Test scores of ALL students, both poor and
  non-poor, decline as schools concentrated
  poverty increases

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• Poverty Levels
• Valley View Elementary 76
• Oak Grove Elementary 53
• Indian Mounds 52
• Washburn 52
• Valley View Middle 51
• Kennedy 42
• Westwood 31
• Olson Elementary 28
• Oak Grove Middle 27
• Poplar Bridge 18
• Olson Middle 18
• Normandale Hills 18
• Ridgeview 18
• Hillcrest 17
• Jefferson 16

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• Racial Isolation
• Defined as a school with 20 more students of
  color than a like school within same district
• Valley View Elementary and Middle schools are
  identified as racially isolated by MDE
• Kennedy High School will soon be a racially
  isolated school based on increased ethnic
  membership

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• Special Education
• Intermediate District 287 A consortium of
  districts, including BPS, currently provides
  low-incidence special education services
• In past 10 years, BPS has increased its capacity
  to provide these same services to its resident
  special education students
• Space is desired to enable BPS to serve students
  in their home district
• A net financial gain can also be achieved

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• Community Services
• Currently leases space in former Lincoln High
  School for offices, SHAPE and adult basic
  education
• Lease expires December 2011
• Space is also needed for adult enrichment classes
  during day
• Space requirements include 19 classrooms,
  computer lab, offices, testing rooms totaling
  24,600 square feet
• 3 other districts pay proportional lease,
  operational costs because of shared services

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• Community Services

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• Athletic Fields/Lincoln Stadium
• Stadium field is overused with three high school
  sports (Fall football, soccer Spring lacrosse)
• Fields grass surface cannot recover, resulting
  in potential for greater athlete injury
• District owns stadium, but not parking lot. An
  easement for the parking lot expires 2011
• District and City fields are fully utilized and
  near capacity use by school, city recreation
  programs, and outside athletic groups

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• Playgrounds
• BPS partners with City to replace school
  playgrounds.
• Overall playground cost 90,000-100,000
• City pays 50 Health Safety covers 10 of
  project cost for soft ground cover.
• PTSAs raised remaining funds typically around
  40,000/project
• Amount has become burdensome for PTSAs

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• School Capacity (square foot/student)
• District exceeds state guidelines metro average
  in sf/student
• Activity Centers auditoriums inflate the
  square footage maintained
• Excess sf capacity at all levels is not enough to
  take building offline without significant
  renovation and additions to remaining site
• Middle schools least efficient sites on a sf
  basis (due to large hallways, mechanical areas,
  etc.)

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• Available Acreage
• 9 of 12 K-12 sites are below MDE guidelines for
  acreage
• Deductions for usable acres is considered by MDE
  and reduces total acreage area
• If sharing of adjacent City owned lands removed,
  1 site would meet minimum guideline
• No sites exceed the upper limit of the guidelines

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• Committee Priorities
• Identify space to return special education
  students currently served by District 287
• Locate space for Community Services
• Address safety issues, parking at current stadium
• Balance building enrollments
• Alleviate the concentration of poverty in
  high-poverty schools
• Address racial isolation in schools

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• Preliminary Recommendations

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Elementary Facilities

• Explore boundary adjustments to
• Balance enrollments to current or revised
  building capacities
• Eliminate racially isolated schools
• Lower poverty percent per building to below 50
• All schools should be considered for possible
  adjustments

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Elementary Facilities (continued)

• Explore a magnet or theme-based option school to
  allow for academic choice district-wide.
• Explore the placement of a curriculum-based early
  childhood program in each elementary school.
• Support the expansion of Dimensions Academy.

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Secondary Facilities

• Ensure space is available for innovative
  programs, such as magnet schools.
• Support the expansion of Dimensions Academy at
  the middle school level.
• Continue with two high schools.
• Engage in further study to assess the impact
  adjusting boundaries might have to address racial
  isolation and level out building enrollments.

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Special Education

• Relocate transition programs from Pond and OGM to
  OLM to co-locate with BOTE (Bloomington
  Occupational Training and Evaluation) program.
• May require re-organization of programming at
  OLM, construction costs to adapt the space.
• Requires moving Volunteer Connections offices to
  Southwood at minimal costs.
• Continue to reclaim programs for BPS students
  provided by District 287.

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Community Services

• Relocate administrative offices to space vacated
  by Pond Centers Transitions program.
• Options for new space for Adult Basic Education
  classrooms and administration
• Constructing new space on Valley View site.
• Lease existing or new space.
• By moving programs to Southwood and
  administrative offices to Pond, two Early
  Childhood Centers are needed.

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Fields and Stadium

• Initiate the field project currently on hold to
  install artificial turf on one field each at
  Kennedy, Jefferson.
• Varsity soccer, football to remain at Bloomington
  Stadium
• Varsity lacrosse to move to the high schools
  sites
• Future Develop turf fields into small
  school-site stadiums.

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Acreage

• District owned property and fields are fully
  utilized.
• Recommendation is to NOT sell any of this land.
• Sell the existing stadium site.

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Playgrounds

• PTSA fund raising target 5,000
• City of Bloomington pays 50 of project cost
• Facility Services and Health and Safety provide
  remainder of project costs
• School leadership, PTSA, Physical Education,
  Student Services, and Facility Services work with
  the City of Bloomington to design the playground
  project.

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Community Information Meetings

• September 29
• Valley View Middle School Auditorium, 630
• October 1
• Olson Middle School Auditorium, 630
• October 6
• Oak Grove Middle School Auditorium, 630

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Next Steps

• Recommendations are preliminary and may be
  adjusted per staff, community, or school board
  feedback.
• Board action on recommendations November 2009
• For more detailed information, go to
• www.bloomingtonschools.info