Strategic long-range planning plays a vital role in making proactive and impactful changes over an extended period of time. With community support, school districts can achieve their long-term facility goals through a well-developed long-range plan, which can provide smaller and more achievable steps to reach their ultimate objectives. Plans can range from a few years to a few decades into the future and help guide decision-making, budget planning and short-term projects along the way.
When involved early in the process, the Wold education team can provide guidance and engage stakeholders and building users to ensure all voices are heard. Additionally, Wold’s in-house engineering team allows for comprehensive feedback on all current facilities upgrades being considered. We ensure that all educational spaces, no matter how old or outdated, are reimagined and retrofitted as part of a holistic, strategic long-range plan that can accommodate districts’ innovative visions and new methods of teaching for decades to come.
Continuing our long-range planning series across all of our offices, our Illinois team sat down with partners and educational leaders Dr. Terri Bresnahan, superintendent at Community Consolidated School District 59 (D59) and former superintendent at Berkeley School District 87 (D87), and Dr. Laurie Heinz, superintendent at Community Consolidated School District 15 (D15), to reflect on the long-range planning process, the best methods to gain community consensus and each district’s experience working with Wold.
Read below for their insights.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: Our district serves approximately 5,600 students across four diverse communities. What sets us apart is our rich diversity; 46% of our students are English Learners, representing over 40 different languages. Additionally, we benefit from a stable tax base supported by the largest technology park in North America, along with significant commercial and industrial growth in the area.
Dr. Laurie Heinz from D15: District 15 is the second largest elementary district in Illinois, proudly serving nearly 12,000 diverse students from pre-K through eighth grade. Our boundaries span a 35-mile radius, encompassing all or part of seven municipalities, including Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Inverness and portions of South Barrington, Arlington Heights and Schaumburg. We view our diversity as a strength that makes our district unique and special.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: Although we experienced some attrition in the student population post-COVID, we are now seeing an influx of newcomer students in certain areas of our communities. Unfortunately, our facilities were not originally designed to support our current educational delivery methods, leading to issues such as insufficient small-group instructional spaces and gyms that cannot accommodate daily physical education. While options like redistricting and program placements have been challenging to implement, they may become necessary in helping to address our schools' space issues.
Dr. Laurie Heinz from D15: Managing 20 schools and three ancillary sites across 1.7 million square feet, District 15 had fallen into a pattern of deferred maintenance, resulting in over $100 million worth of facility work needed when I arrived in 2019. To address this, we launched a dynamic and comprehensive referendum campaign entitled Moving 15 Forward, which included the creation of our first Comprehensive Master Facility Plan (CMFP) with the assistance of our partners at Wold. The CMFP serves as our roadmap for all facility improvements, linking them back to our budget to ensure that we allocate the necessary funds for updates while also planning for future innovations.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: Our educational alignment study with Wold has been a collaborative and thorough process. Building leaders and teachers have appreciated the time Wold spent in each school, making our teams feel heard and valued. The study provided a detailed analysis that allowed for an "apples-to-apples" comparison of our schools while also considering the unique differences and needs of each building, which was incredibly valuable.
Having worked with Wold in two different districts, I can attest to the strength of their partnership throughout this journey. They approach their work as educational thought partners, applying their expertise in building design. At every step, they take the time to listen, understand and ask clarifying questions, fostering a shared understanding of how facilities and education are interconnected.
Dr. Laurie Heinz from D15: District 15 has established a viable Master Facility Plan (MFP) for the first time in its history, covering a ten-year period and serving as a roadmap for budgeting and facility improvements. The process involved our partners at Wold, who played a crucial role in reviewing our 2014 Decennial Report and conducting a multi-year facility assessment. The data collected from this assessment informed the development of our 5-Year MFP. Additionally, Wold helped us ensure balanced enrollment across all 20 of our schools, providing adequate classroom space for general education, special education, and English Learner programs.
Throughout our Moving 15 Forward journey, Wold has been responsive and collaborative. They have worked with us to forecast school capacities amid constantly changing factors since the referendum passed in November 2022. Wold is also the architect for seven of the twelve construction projects scheduled for completion in Fall 2024.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: I have three key takeaways: First, the process offers a new perspective on our spaces, helping us envision what could be achieved with improvements. As educators, we often make do with what we have, but this study reveals that schools can physically change to better support teaching and learning. Second, it's important to understand that equality and equity are not the same, and Wold emphasizes a strong equity focus in their work. Recognizing the unique needs of each school has been a valuable aspect of their approach. Lastly, physical spaces significantly impact student learning, often more than we realize. By freeing ourselves from the limitations of our current environments, we can adapt and grow in ways that better meet the needs of our students.
Dr. Laurie Heinz from D15: The largest takeaway I have is that anything is possible with the right team and a well-thought-out plan. Additionally, maintaining an up-to-date facility plan is essential; we continuously revise the plan as we identify more urgent projects and use it to inform the board of education about anticipated financial commitments.
Dr. Laurie Heinz from D15: After 34 years of the community rejecting requests from District 15, we successfully secured funding through a referendum in November 2022, which served as a major catalyst for innovative facility updates, including interior renovations, additions, updated library spaces, LED lighting and repairs to asphalt, concrete, playgrounds, HVAC systems and roofs. The successful referendum authorized $93 million in new bond issues, and we also sold $40 million in alternate revenue bonds.
Additionally, we have some Debt Service Extension Base (DSEB) bonds rolling off over the next five years. We committed to the District 15 community that the $93 million would also include $25 million funded internally by the district, equating to $5 million from the Operations and Maintenance Fund each year for the next five years. This internal funding includes the $40 million from the alternate revenue bonds, along with the issuance of $36 million in debt certificates.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: In Berkeley 87, this issue was significant. Wold collaborated with us to conduct a cost analysis comparing replacement and renovation options. They provided long-range cost impacts for both scenarios, which ultimately gave residents and our board the evidence needed to support the replacement of two of our schools.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: Firstly, our financial reliance on the tax base necessitates that we act as responsible stewards of our resources. Short-term solutions often lead to higher costs in the future and do not align with our long-term educational goals. Progress in education typically moves slowly, so these temporary fixes can accumulate and create more significant, costly problems down the line. Additionally, they often result in work needing to be redone, which incurs further expenses.
Dr. Laurie Heinz from D15: Districts should prioritize a combination of both short-term and long-term facility planning to effectively manage preventative maintenance, allocate budget dollars for key projects and avoid falling into a pattern of deferred maintenance. When I joined District 15 in 2019, we faced a significant amount of catch-up work due to many years without a successful referendum, the absence of a master facility plan and insufficient funding from the Operations and Maintenance budget for facility maintenance and updates. Understanding both short-term and long-term facility needs is crucial for effective budgeting and ensuring that we address all necessary improvements.
Dr. Terri Bresnahan from D59: We have received positive feedback from all stakeholders involved in the long-range planning process, including students, parents, staff, the school board and community members. Participants expressed that they felt valued and heard, appreciating the opportunity to have their voices represented. Ultimately, the schools belong to the community. Including parents, community members and the school board is a vital part of a long-range plan as they are best positioned to prioritize work based on their shared values and expressed needs. The benefits of the studies provide us with a roadmap to develop better plans and prioritize our needs versus wants within our financial constraints.
