NOLA - SCHOOL FACILITIES MASTER PLAN FOR ORLEANS PARISH

There are six major components that will impact the recommendations regarding the renovations and replacements of school facilities. These are projected enrollments, building conditions, educational framework, costs, community input, and sources of revenue.

To determine best long-term direction, a decision process is being developed which includes extensive use of hard data and community input. The process includes a visioning conference which examines future trends that are impacting education, community meetings to help establish guiding principles and site considerations, and the development of standards and guidelines for the development of 21st Century schools.

Scenarios will be developed for each school site which are based on the condition of the buildings, current and projected enrollments, historic considerations, schools that are occupied and unoccupied, availability of sites, building capacities, community redevelopment efforts, the guiding principles and various other sets of data. For each area of the city, the scenarios being developed include potential school renovations and new schools. This information will be presented to the community for review through a series of community meetings in early 2008. The community will be asked to help evaluate the scenarios.

The master plan is likely to be divided into phases of implementation based on redevelopment efforts in the city and availability of funding. Resources for the implementation of the plan will likely need to come from a wide variety of resources: FEMA, private contributions, foundations and federal, state and local tax dollars.

The SFMPOP should be a road map for school improvement projects. The goal is to address building conditions and create a new generation of schools in New Orleans.