News-Record.com

The district's facilities department plans to hire a consulting firm to help develop a set of educational specifications for new construction, in anticipation of a proposed bond referendum. GCS consultant Joe Hill told members of a construction advisory commitee on Tuesday that he hopes to start the process in November and seek approval of the guidelines from the Board of Education in April. (A story about this ran today on B3, but was not posted online).

The specifications would define standards for class sizes, athletic facilities, technology and other areas. The district also intends to update its 7-year-old design guidelines, which focus on the infrastructure of a school, including heating and cooling systems, plumbing and roofs. The overall goal of these guidelines is to cut construction costs, officials said.

This is a big deal as most projects, even though they may employ a prototype design, are planned individually and are vulnerable to lobbying by those building the schools and those moving in. The ed specs would standardize how most schools are built and the design guidelines would cut out on some of the "frills."

Educators and members of the community would participate in this process, attending workshops to give input from January through March. Hill said he expects the firm's services (one of which is to lead the process without bias) to cost less than $150,000 (an amount more than that requires school board approval).