What Do You Think?
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How States Can Support or Undermine Neighborhood Schools and Community Preservation
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Our schools are part of neighborhoods, and the buildings should reflect the values that the community has for education and the future.
This report reaffirms the contribution made by historic neighborhood schools to their communities. It offers guidance to officials and local preservationists for creating state policies that help preserve and maintain historic community schools, and for building new schools that serve as community centers. The report describes state requirements for community involvement in school planning, the overly generous site standards that contradict the creation of community schools and preservation, and funding mechanisms that help preserve historic schools. Information for the report was gathered from telephone interviews, correspondence with state school facility officials,and online reviews of printed school facility standards. Includes 13 references. Citizen Oversight of Public School Construction Programs: In Search of Promising Practices. (21st Century School Fund, Washington, DC , Feb 12, 2003) This paper asserts that one part of a comprehensive control system for school construction projects is a citizen oversight committee. It suggests that citizen oversight committees are a cost-effective and politically important method for supplementing a school board in its monitoring and oversight functions. In addition, the committee acts as a means of engaging the public to increase accountability, meeting the public's desire to ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively, efficiently, and equitably. The paper provides information on the advantages associated with having a citizen oversight committee as well as lessons and promising practices on how to develop and implement a committee. Ten districts with citizen oversight committees in place were interviewed to determine promising practices that are most effective in fulfilling the responsibilities and achieving the advantages of an oversight committee. 20p. ERIC NO: ED476046 Related document: Schools as Centers of Community |