As far as construction levels, hasn’t the demographic shift moved from elementary schools to high schools in the ‘90s with the Baby Boom echo?

Yes, there’s no question, the emphasis now is on high schools. But the fact of the matter is, there’s such an emphasis on all three levels. At the elementary level, you have a bunch of buildings that were built in the ‘50s and only built for thirty or forty years, and now we’re in the ‘90s.

So even though you may not have the same kind of overall growth at the elementary level that we were having ten years ago, we’re still having a major emphasis on elementary in either major renovation or replacement.

Then you have the demographic issue. There’s been a twenty percent decline in birth rate in this county since 1991. And that’s going to have an impact on our elementary schools starting now. You’re going to really see it heavily in the next five years or so.

You really have to look at all these demographics locally. You can get into things like [a fully developed city] and it probably will get hit with another round of decline while the outlying areas being built are going through rapid growth. In the next ten years in K-12 education where we’ll be simultaneously managing growth, managing decline and managing a status quo. And I think it’s going to cause tremendous confusion with the public.

“The number one problem I see in working with communities is helping them to create a vision on what they want their schools to become. Once they have that kind of shared vision, they’re willing to support it.”

Are there any economic trends you think will impact school building?

For the first time, we’re really getting into major discussion about the urban school issue. The dollar tags are unbelievable. We have a team up in Detroit right now. They have a $1.5 billion bond issue that they’re trying to roll out. Those types of numbers are astronomical.

But I think we’re going to see more changes in the delivery system as far as lease/purchase arrangements and private holding companies. We’re seeing more in the urban areas as far as charter schools, and I think the real question in the urban areas is going to be who is going to run the school system in the future. I don’t personally think money is a problem. The issue in a lot of local communities is a lack of vision. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that there is a lot of discrepancies from one district to another district all through America as far as what kind of resources are available.

The number one problem I see in working with communities is helping them to create a vision on what they want their schools to become. Once they have that kind of shared vision, they’re willing to support it.

“I really believe that 80 percent of the security issues in schools can be handled by design.”

What kind of design elements are you using to enhance the safety of schools?

First of all, there’s a real fallacy about the security issues and problems in schools. It’s a media hype. When I’m working in the inner cities and ask the kids, “What’s the safest place in your community?” You know what they’re going to tell you? The school. The problem often is going to and from school-it’s in the neighborhood.

I really believe that 80 percent of the security issues in schools can be handled by design. The number one problem with a lot of schools being built or under design is that they’re not laid out right-there are a lot of nooks and crannies; it’s not easy to supervise the building; there’s not a general sense of where kids belong. Just the basic layout of the building would solve a major portion of the security problems that we’ve encountered.

The second thing is a lot of use of interior glass. Just by putting in some glass, you can observe from one area into another. For instance, glassing in reception areas and administrative areas-immediately you can supervise the hallways, the front entryway, etc. We’re seeing a much more limited budget all the time, so we’re not going to get a bunch more staff.

Once all that’s done, now you can look at the active elements like security cameras and stuff like that. If you attack the technology needs of a building from an educational basis, you’re probably going to put in data ports, video monitors and phone systems all over the building. Once you have that in, think about how those can also be used for security purposes.

It takes almost no effort to jump off that system and put motion detectors in classrooms that not only control intrusion issues but can also control lights, heating, etc. What I’m seeing is a massive effort to put technology in for security, and security really ought to be the secondary emphasis, not the primary emphasis. I see all this technology going in to support a security system, and then I see a parallel technology system going in to support the instructional system. What a waste that those two systems can’t be integrated-you get a much bigger bang for the buck.

Contact William DeJong:
DeJong & Associates, Inc
5186 Blazer Parkway, Dublin, OH 43017
(614) 798-8828 wdejong@djainc.com

About the Author:
Eric Butterfield is editor of School Construction News, a bi-monthly news magazine covering the design and construction of K-12 and higher education facilities. News coverage includes upcoming and passed referendums, planning, RFPs, architect and construction bids, and contract awards. He can be reached at (415) 460-6185; fax, (415) 460-6288. eric@emlenpub.com

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