Feng Shui Report Recommendations

The Wake County Public School System is already pursuing six of the seven recommendations included in an Oct. 24 report on the upcoming building program.

• Our renovations do address health and safety issues and add classroom seats at the same time. While the main purpose of the renovation projects is to correct critical heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system deficiencies in the schools and to ensure that they are safe, healthy, quality places for students to learn, the projects will also result in a gain of almost 2,100 classroom seats.

• WCPSS is already pursuing nine of the 10 recommended school construction alternatives.

• Creating a pay-as-you-go fund to decrease the interest paid on debt is out of the school system's purview. WCPSS doesn't finance school construction, Wake County government does.

• WCPSS does re-use efficient school designs -- all 11 of the new schools in the current building program, PLAN 2004, are prototype designs. School efficiency comparisons in the report, however, are misleading since different groups count non-assignable spaces differently. WCPSS and the Department of Public Instruction, for example, classify toilets and custodial areas as non-assignable spaces, while the American Institute of Architects (AIA) considers them assignable.

• WCPSS has already integrated wireless technology into the upcoming building program's design specifications. New schools are wired for wireless technology. Although wireless technology is becoming more affordable, laptops still cost approximately one-third more than desktop computers do.

• The Board of Education already decided in March/April 2006 to build larger schools to serve more students at a lower cost per student while maintaining current acreage standards. By opening on the year-round schedule and increasing the number of classrooms, new elementary school capacity will increase from 655 to 1,124, larger middle schools on the year-round calendar will increase from 981 to 1,623, and traditional high school capacity will increase from 1,663 to 2,223 students.

WCPSS does build multi-story schools, and has recently declared two pieces of unusable land surplus and ready to sell (a total of 7.5 acres).

• WCPSS has been trying for years to seek standardized rules and requirements for permitting, inspections, etc. The school district would welcome a broad-based effort to adjust them for schools.

For a more detailed response, please visit the Blueprint for Excellence 2006 resource center .

Posted by Kristin Flenniken at 06:11 PM on October 27, 2006 | Leave Feedback

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