Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2007

Janet. M. Stutz, principal at Bednarcik Junior High School in Oswego CUSD 308, has done extensive research in the area of facilities and is an instructor at Aurora University in the doctoral program for administration of educational facilities.

School boards and administrators are faced with many challenges planning for new schools that will foster 21st century learning. What steps must boards and administrators take in order to demonstrate they are prepared to cultivate learning in new facilities designed to meet the needs of our students for the future? Where do they begin to plan? Is your district prepared?

Certainly many questions need to be answered, and the reality is no magical blueprint exists to follow. According to Jeffrey Lackney, expert in the field of educational planning, facility design and management, every district is different. School boards and administrators get no cookie cutter model to follow. However, they can learn from research and what other districts have done to plan for the future.

Initial planning is the toughest challenge. Here's a way to think through that initial planning to help design new facilities for the 21st century.

What comes first: the facility design proposed by a district architect or creation of learning environments in which curriculum will be delivered? The answer is neither.

Each district needs to plan and predict future learning as a team of architects, teachers, maintenance managers, administrators, school board members, parents, students and community partners. The facilities designed for the future will need to accommodate more than classroom learning.

Investments in facilities should provide spaces that are accessible to members of the community, students and business partners. The school doors will no longer be seen as entry for student use only. If communities are to pass building bond referendums, then they need to see proposed learning environments that will be accessible to all community members.

As districts begin to examine the need for a new facility, I would recommend they first investigate what is in it for the community. Once this research is done, then the district can pull together a team of representatives, which should include community partners, to begin planning for a new school.

Rapid-growing districts will find this difficult as the need to plan for future facilities is already at the blueprint stage. However, districts need to continue to think forward with every building that is designed. Districts can no longer afford to build facilities that do not support future learning models.

The team planning a new school should be chosen carefully. It is important for them to be innovative, collective groups who know the mission and vision of the district.

Designing schools for the 21st century is not easy. A facility's life cycle may be up to 60 years, making it hard to imagine what teaching and learning will look like that far in the future. Technological progress is difficult to maintain for many districts. Many articles envision future "classrooms" as we know them to be non-existent.

In the past 10 years, technology has changed delivery of instruction in many ways. Imagine what will occur during the next 60 years? Facilities currently being built may be obsolete by 2055, according to an article in the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.

Planning teams will need to envision flexible learning spaces to accommodate students within the financial resources the district can afford. Partnering with a park district, local library or business might assist in creating new learning spaces that will have purposes beyond the typical classroom use.

Technological advances will require planning teams to find ways to get the hardware into the hands of our students. The Internet opened doors to enable our students to have information at their finger tips. One or two computers in the classroom, or going to the tech lab will become a practice of the past.

Teachers will continue to be pressured by time constraints to get their students access to a computer lab. Districts will need to find a way to bring the Web to the students through engaged learning activities that enable them to evaluate information from the "information highway."

The focus will be to teach children to think and evaluate resources that they come across in their research or studies. Students need to learn that not everything that they read on the Web is true.

Imagine how our curriculum may change. Learning standards will continue to be addressed, but teachers will need to foster independent, yet curious, thinkers.

Will textbooks become an item of the past? Is there a vision that every student will carry a small computer from which they will access current textbook information? Textbook companies are already preparing texts available in this format. Facilities of the future must be designed to accommodate teaching and learning needs of the future.

The future classroom will need to foster and gain learner attention, according to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) Web site (www.ncrel.org). NCREL presents many indicators for planning and designs for teaching and learning.

According to an article on planning and design retrieved in November 2006, technology will shape the way teachers deliver instruction. Teachers will have to use technology to engage learner productivity, link learners to information resources, track learner progress, provide instruction that will enable our students to work together cooperatively and create shared intelligence opportunities.

Imagine how teachers will have to become experts in the manner of facilitating learning. The NCREL Web site is an excellent resource, especially "enGauge 21st Century Skills: Literacy in the Digital Age." Students will need to become "inventive thinkers" as they have the opportunity to articulate with cultures at a global level. Lecture will become a habit of the past.

It is imperative that, as school districts begin to plan new facilities, teaching and learning models of the future must be at the forefront of their design.

Imagine schools that foster student inquiry to save energy of the future, sites that are environmentally responsive and resources available for students that engage them to become creative thinkers and to problem solve global issues. Sites can be designed to create on site-learning.

Currently some schools have zoos, libraries and environmental laboratories that can foster student inquiry. Imagine the active learning that might occur with these innovations in teaching and learning.

Good facility planning and creating dual-purpose school environments should pave the way to solve global and environmental issues of the future.

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