Planning Process
The Master Planning process was a collaborative effort where the team rigorously examined each school site against the standards and goals of the District. The process brought together and gave a voice to critical members of the PAUSD community. The efforts by staff and community were tremendous and invaluable in developing a district Master Plan.
In April of 2017, the Board of Education authorized work to begin on an update of the 2007 twenty year Facilities Master Plan, with an intent to reflect on the work completed, revisit the long-term plans, develop an updated list of projects, develop updated educational specifications and perform facility assessments for each district property.
Architecture firms HED and Gelfand Partners, along with the Program Management firm fs3Hodges were engaged to develop an updated project list and budget to be part of the updated plan. Their role was to advise and assist district administration and the Facilities staff in the process of updating the Facilities Master Plan. The Master Plan process involved two parallel activities:
1. Educational Specifications
The development of an Education Specification to identify the program spaces and to define the specific elements central to making that space successful in supporting its function. Advisory groups were assembled consisting of Elementary and Secondary school administrators to review these spaces and advise HED and Gelfand Partners on the development of these specifications. The Educational Specifications were the baseline used during the Site Planning activities to help identify deficiencies at each site. Meetings included:
- Elementary Advisory Group meetings
- Secondary Advisory Group meetings
- District Level Meetings
2. Educational Specifications
The team then met with Advisory groups for each school site to review the needs for each site in relation to the vision outlined in the Educational Specifications. HED and Gelfand Partners let the groups toward creation of a campus site plan that identified the proposed configuration and the vision of the campus. The site plans included in the Master Plan identifies where the new buildings are proposed, which buildings are in need of modernization, site improvements and which buildings will be removed.