Educational Facility Master Planning: A Self-Guided Workshop Series

Every school district eventually faces hard questions about its buildings:

• Which schools need a new roof, and which need to be replaced? 
• Where are classrooms overcrowded, and where are half-empty buildings draining resources? 
• Should a district renovate an aging school or build a new school? 

Educational facilities master planning is how a district answers those questions in a coordinated way, rather than one emergency at a time. 

Educational Facility Master Planning: A Self-Guided Workshop Series is a new free guide from the National Center on School Infrastructure (NCSI) and the National Council on School Facilities (NCSF) that walks district teams through the planning process. It outlines a structured planning framework consisting of five meetings. Each meeting includes one required “core exercise” that produces a specific, decision-ready product, plus optional “explore further” material for districts with more time or more complex situations.

The guide was created to help district staff who are responsible for structuring and organizing the planning process, often without much help. It is especially useful for small and mid-sized districts with no dedicated facilities planning staff and/or no budget to hire an outside consultant to run the process. A superintendent, facilities/maintenance director, or planning lead can use the guide to run the process in-house. The guide can also be used as a “workbook” for an internal planning team or for a technical assistance provider guiding a district team.

The guide was adapted by Sturtz & Company, in partnership with Olsen Edvantage, from a longer workshop series they developed for local education agencies in select NCSI partner states.