Community Meetings on Facilities Master Plan

The district has posted meeting dates and times to explain the Facilities Master Plan 2020.

When:
January 14, 15 and 16
7 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Where:
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Greenwood Elementary - Library
144 NW 54th Street
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Meany Middle School - Room 46
301 21st Ave. E.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Mercer Middle School – Library
1600 S. Columbian Way
Contact:
Eleanor Trainor
(206) 252-0655

Seattle Public Schools will hold a series of community meetings on the update of their Facilities Master Plan (FMP).
The District is in the process of developing a comprehensive 2020 Facilities Master Plan. The planning process is an aggressive effort to outline a systematic schedule of improving Seattle Schools facilities. In addition, the FMP brings together major School District policies, studies, and documents into one plan that guides the future direction of District facilities use, re-use, and/or closure.
The primary focus of the FMP is to concentrate on major renovations, and building replacements while simultaneously addressing deferred maintenance projects in other school buildings.

I can say with some authority that this is not a plan but rather a collection of information. It has not changed substantially since the last one despite school closures. It could be a very important document but I think since it is produced because of state regulations rather than being a real working document that it's mostly for show.

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
The Facilities Master Plan is the largest of the really bad documents that the District produces. It is none of the things that it could be: not accurate, not meaningful, not useful. Not only does it fail to serve as a plan, it fails to serve as a planning tool. It even fails as an inventory.

There is no planning in the Facilities Master Plan. Look through it, and you will not find any planning within it.

It doesn't function well as a planning tool either, because it doesn't provide decision-makers with the information they need. It doesn't tell them the relative costs of making Building A ready to go versus totally renovating Building B.

It is mostly an inventory, a list of properties. But the Citizens Advisory Committee working on closures and consolidations couldn't use the FMP because the data in it was so horribly inaccuate.

The District keeps updating this document but they don't make it any better.
1/9/08, 11:57 PM
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