School Closure Processes

In many large, urban school districts excess building capacity sucks up valuable resources. Spiraling heating costs, maintenance costs, safety and security costs—they're all much more expensive when you're maintaining space you don't need. And some school districts have as much as 50 percent too much capacity. Yet, closing school buildings remains one of the most difficult, painful, and unpopular actions local officials can undertake.

More often than not, school district officials put off this painful process until emergencies occur, money runs out or some other critical event requires immediate (and sometimes poorly thought through) action. Public and political resistance to decisions made in this way often slow the process down, sometimes even resulting in districts having to reverse unpopular decisions.

UPD has a proven method to help school districts make the tough decisions around closing schools. Our process engages the general public and provides local officials with the community support they need to effectively reduce space and start saving millions of dollars in the process. Our process includes:

• An objective building rating system that estimates improvement costs so districts can compare "apples to apples."
• A demographic and academic program analysis that matches overall gross space needs with school type and size priorities of the district, neighborhood by neighborhood.
• A transparent, community-driven input process that facilities local buy-in to the recommendations that result from the process.

The end result is a comprehensive written report—reflecting local stakeholder recommendations—that details precisely which buildings are recommended for closure and why.