How can school districts save money through business partnerships?
       School districts can save money by sharing resources.  The cost of the Henry Ford Academy is about one third of what it would cost to build a more traditional school because the land and building are already there.  Plus, there are a million artifacts, including cars, airplanes, trains, sewing machines, computers, and just about every other invention known to man that is being incorporated into the curriculum.  Here students are not only learning the “what” of math, science, language arts and social studies, but also the “why”.  The Henry Ford Museum donated the site and Ford Motor Company put up the money for renovations and curriculum development.  There were no capital costs for the Wayne County educational system.
       Other examples include savings in the costs of land and facilities.  At the Lincoln Unified School district in Stockton, California, a private fitness center operator is negotiating to build a facility on a new school site. The district will put up the land and the fitness center will build the building.  Fitness center clients will use the building in the mornings and afternoons and students will use it during the day.  Everybody wins.
       Other examples include the partial use of off-site facilities for extended learning environments.  In Hurricane West Virginia, the new Museum in the Community, a private not for profit institution, is implementing the school district’s gifted arts program at its new museum facility, resulting in a decrease in capital costs for the district and an enhanced art-centered learning environment for teachers and students.

How much does school district size affect your planning approach?
       The planning approach is determined not by school district size, but by the number of constituent groups.  A stakeholder group can vary from 50 to 150 people depending on the size and characteristics of the community.  In most places, one group of stakeholders can carry the process. However, in larger urban environments, like Los Angeles for example, we are more inclined to carry out the planning process on a neighborhood level.

You’ve been a big proponent of reusing existing buildings such as abandoned strip malls and incorporating schools into facilities like the Henry Ford Museum. What other types of facilities do you see as potential schools?
       There is no limit about what kinds of buildings would make a good school.  There are even some interesting learning environments being developed that rely mainly on the natural environment.  But creating an innovative learning environment is a collaborative undertaking.  The heart and soul of any teaching or learning enterprise is in the hands of administrators and teachers.  The skills that educators need to create and manage thematic learning centers are increasing exponentially.  Creative ideas are popping up all over the place, and as more integrated curricula is developed through a variety of disciplines and themes, I think you will see more and more school boards, administrators and educators who are willing to explore and innovate.  The result will be a better use of all of the community’s existing resources, saving and sharing of costs among a wide variety of agencies and institutions, and a wider choice of teaching and learning opportunities for everyone.

You make a compelling argument about whole systems thinking, referring to physicist and ecologist Fritjof Capra’s work, the analogy of the hermit crab, and the economy of occupying underutilized buildings for learning. Your approach is so large, is there a tension involving loss of focus on the small, here-and-now?
       Systems thinking works the same at every scale.  We just finished designing and building a 9,000 square foot museum in West Virginia.  The building serves as a venue for the whole community to learn about art.  Next week there will be an outdoor concert there with 3000 people.  The whole project was linked ideas currently being explored by a 100-person steering committee currently engaged in developing a community-based master plan.   At the other end of the spectrum, the facility also accommodates the school system’s gifted arts program, where five or six students meet at a time.  The details of the building were designed to exhibit the elements of art like line, color, texture and form and text is included on the building to indicate where examples of these concepts occur.  One light switch is equipped with a voltmeter and an ammeter.  Multiplying the two readings will give you the watts being consumed.  Gauges attached to the sink indicate the temperature and pressure of the water coming out of the faucet.  Art meets living science.
       At the Henry Ford Academy in Dearborne, Michigan, every part of every building and every object in the museum’s collection is a place to learn about math, science, language arts and social studies.  Added together, there are over 80 acres of buildings and objects with relevant learning content.  And yet the Henry Ford Museum is a microcosm of the total environment.  In the end, the whole community and the whole city are the real learning environment.  There is no stopping or starting place.

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