In 1989, Historic Seattle published an extensive report detailing the history of Seattle's public schools written by local historian Patricia Erigero. Since then, the Seattle School District Board and staff have made attempts to work with the community in preserving some of the most beloved school buildings and allowing others to be adapted for new uses. In July, 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation shared a breakthrough that will help ensure a brighter future for historic neighborhood schools across the nation.

The National Trust placed Historic Neighborhood Schools on the list of the nation's 11 Most Endangered Places in 2000. In their publications "A Community Guide to Saving Older Schools," and "Why Johnny Can't Walk to School: Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl," the Trust addressed the myths about renovation of existing schools and that America's older and historic schools are being abandoned due to policies that encourage consolidation and new construction over renovation and continued use.

The Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), which published the now-outdated guidelines that often served as the basis for these problematic policies, has released four new publications which specifically support the maintenance and rehabilitation of our older schools:

1. A Primer for the Rehabilitation/Restoration of Older and Historic Schools;
2. Schools for Successful Communities: an Element of Smart Growth;
3. An Appraisal Guide for Older and Historic School Facilities; and
4. Creating Connections: the Council of Educational Facility Planners Guide to Educational Facility Planning.

CEFPI's updated guidelines incorporate many community-friendly changes advocated by the National Trust and others, including significant changes to acreage standards and siting recommendations.

In the spring of 2005, the National Trust partnered with CEFPI, the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, and the US Environmental Protection Agency to promote the new guidelines to governors, state departments of education, state historic preservation officers, and statewide and local historic preservation organizations. CEFPI's web site (http://www.cefpi.org) describes the new materials, which will help local citizens, elected officials, school boards, and land-use planners make informed decisions about school renovation and construction.

The National Trust encourages you to use and disseminate this news throughout your communities, and urge you to browse the National Trust's resources on schools at http://www.nationaltrust.org/issues/schools/index.html, where you'll find a new report on school facility policy by the BEST ("Building Educational Success Together") collaborative, as well as Advocacy Tips for promoting CEFPI's revised guidelines. With these new tools, we can help preserve these crucial community anchors and our quality of life for future generations.

Advocacy Tips for School Policies

In recent years, preservationists have advocated for older schools both on a case-by-case basis in specific neighborhoods and in state legislatures for better policies. Now new resources are available to make the case even stronger for preserving older, neighborhood schools.

Because schools are controlled at the state and local level, your continued advocacy in this area is vital. Here are a few tips that you can use to expand your advocacy efforts.

Create a Statewide Task Force

If you haven’t done so already, consider forming a statewide taskforce made up of the State Historic Preservation Office, smart growth, state and local preservation, and Main Street organizations and other affiliated groups such as state chapters of the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, and Council for Educational Facility Planners, International. Such a taskforce could analyze current state and local policies in three critical areas (school site size standards, funding preferences (new vs. existing facilities), and maintenance requirements). If current policies impact older schools negatively, the taskforce could then develop and carry through a comprehensive advocacy campaign.

Advocacy Suggestions

• Contact Governor Christine Gregoire and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson with a letter or phone call urging a re-analysis of state school policies with this new thinking.
• Create a similar mailing to the education committee of the state legislature and include copies of the new publications (follow-up with a letter or phone call).
• Highlight the new resources at an upcoming preservation organization meeting.
• Encourage the Seattle School Districts building program officials to become familiar with the new publications.
• Send copies of the new resources to the Seattle School Districts Board members and key staff.
• Write an op-ed decrying loss of older schools, cite new publications, and call for fresh approach.
• Write an article for Historic Seattle's website about the need for reform in this area.
• Identify lost schools and describe the resulting loss in benefits to the community.
• Join forces with local and state chapters of organizations such as the American Planning Association, the American Institute of Architects and the Council of Educational Facility Planners, International.
• Contact the Washington State School Boards Association and ask them to feature these new resources in their newsletter or websites.
• Consider presenting joint awards, hosting joint educational forums on this topic, and presenting or exhibiting at other organization’s workshops or conferences.

For background material in your advocacy effort, please consult our website at www.nationaltrust.org for reports and links to other organizations including CEFPI:

• Public School Facilities Policy Report (2005)
• Historic Schools: A Roadmap for Saving Your School (2003)
• State Policies and School Facilities: How States Can Support or Undermine Neighborhood Schools and Community Preservation (2003)
• Why Johnny Can’t Walk to School (updated 2002)

School Facility Policies

BEST (Building Educational Success Together)

National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2005

Some states are not providing appropriate leadership to assure that children attend safe, high-performing school facilities. In every area, from planning and finance to management and community engagement, school facility policy falls short. This report identifies the key areas that need attention and supplies the policy guidance that will assure that states provide school facilities that meet the needs of teachers, children and parents.

For many years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has worked actively on efforts to save old and historic schools in urban and rural areas. Early experience and research in this area resulted in the ground-breaking report “Why Johnny Can’t Walk to School.” (National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2000) Building on the interest and knowledge that resulted from this publication, the Trust further pursued research on state-level school facility policies. In February 2005, the National Trust, Department of Public Policy, will conclude a two-year research and analysis project on policies that result in high-performing school facilities. These recommendations will be contained in a report entitled “School Facility Policies, A Policy Framework for High-Performing Schools.”

In 2001, led by the 21st Century School Fund (21CSF), and supported by the Ford Foundation, a group of very experienced school facility and community-based groups came together in a collaboration called BEST (Building Educational Success Together) The partners are: 21CSF; the Education Law Center (Newark, NJ); Neighborhood Capital Budget Group (Chicago, IL); the Knowledgeworks Foundation (Cincinnati, OH); The National Trust for Historic Preservation (Washington, DC); the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (Washington, DC) and Mark Schneider (State University of New York at Stony Brook.)

The BEST partners developed a four-part policy agenda: 1) Increase public participation in facilities planning, 2) create and support schools as centers of community that offer school-based supports to children to eliminate barriers to success and serve the broader community, 3) improve facilities management, including maintenance and capital improvement programs and 4) secure adequate and equitable funding for school facilities. Research on these four policy areas is the foundation for the recommendations made in this report.

The report is available on line at www.21csf.org.

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