The Master Plan

The School Facilities Master Plan is a comprehensive plan for the Orleans Parish public schools. The plan will serve as a blueprint to guide future school renovations and new construction. It is a joint project of the Recovery School District (RSD) and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB).

The Master Plan is a significant undertaking for our community and will require the participation of many people, including parents, students, experts, educators and other residents. The plan is scheduled to be completed in May 2008.

The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish will result in construction projects designed to renovate or build new public school buildings. Difficult decisions must be made about:

  • how many schools are needed and where
  • which buildings should be repaired
  • which ones should be torn down and rebuilt new.

In order to make wise decisions, many factors need to be considered, and an important one of these factors will be the physical condition of the buildings. A study called a Facility Condition Assessment is underway at all public school sites that will measure the amount of repair work required to bring each building back to like-new condition. Teams of architects and engineers are studying every part of every school, from the roofs down to the foundations, and are documenting everything that is broken with an estimate of repair cost. They are not only looking at hurricane and flood damage, but also things that are simply worn out and need to be replaced.

Once all of the data is gathered and the repair costs are added up for each building, the total repair cost is compared to the money it would take to construct a new building. Some school buildings have so much damage and deferred maintenance work required, that it is too costly to repair them and it makes the most sense to replace them with brand new buildings. At others it will be smarter to keep the buildings and reopen them after performing renovations.

All schools are being studied, including both those reopened since Hurricane Katrina and those that are still vacant. The field teams are using the same survey methods at all schools, so that accurate, unbiased comparisons can be drawn, and decisions are made based on factual information equitably.