Purpose: As many of the next generation leaders are currently on college campuses, endorsing green buildings can foster environmental stewardship among the student body. However, marshalling in the social sphere of sustainability is also critical to cultivate more supportive and inclusive communities. With this in mind, a chief component of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the environmental education curriculum which has been utilized within Green Schools. The study defined Green Schools as educational facilities with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification or United States Education Department (USED) Green Ribbon recognition. Currently, there is no…

The University of Mary Washington (UMW) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was founded in 1908. This article describes the process that led to the UMW preservation plan. Unlike most preservation plans, the UMW plan was developed in-house with limited funds. Furthermore, the catalyst for the plan was a grassroots effort on the part of students and alumni…

The deterioration of public school buildings is more prevalent in large cities that, because of funding shortfalls, have deferred maintenance and require huge sums to bring their buildings up to acceptable standards. Cities such as New York will require approximately $680 million to address the problem of deferred maintenance for needed painting,…

The nation's major city public school districts have substantial construction, renovation, modernization, and deferred maintenance needs because of the age and size of their school buildings, shifting populations, and the need to devote substantial resources to instructional personnel to meet their core academic mission. For instance, the average…

Like most school districts across the country, the Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) leaves a large environmental footprint in the community. That's why about eight years ago, the VBCPS began to look at how the district could transition toward a more sustainable model. The objective was simple: Be part of the solution, not part of the…

Purpose: A growing body of research connecting the quality of school facilities to student performance accompanies recent efforts to improve the state of the educational infrastructure in the USA. Less is known about the mechanisms of these relationships. This paper seeks to examine the proposition that part of the explanation may be the mediating…

The 1997 Virginia General Assembly passed legislation directing school boards to require all schools to conduct safety audits. This audit is designed to assess the safety conditions in each public school to: (1) identify and, if necessary, develop solutions for physical safety concerns, including building security issues; and (2) identify and…

Various names, such as teacher's home, manse, teacherage, attic apartment, "Lean-to" and dominage are applied to the district--owned buildings or to rooms in the schoolhouse that provide living quarters for teachers. There various titles convey no differences in meaning. All serve the same general purpose, to describe a comfortable…

Describes efforts to enlist community support for a bond referendum to build two new elementary schools in Lunenburg County, Virginia. Recommends (1) establishing a grassroots organization; (2) emphasizing moral issues; (3) stressing needs of the school system; (4) orienting the campaign toward the future; (5) starting the campaign early; and (6)…

Summarizes a study exploring the extent to which five Virginia school systems took advantage of building a new secondary school to address the need for fundamental educational change. Franklin County took greatest advantage of new construction, designing a technology and career-exploration center. Manassas Park designed a fairly innovative…

Virginia Senate Joint Resolution No. 400 requested the Department of Education (DOE) to study the feasibility of the commonwealth providing model school design plans for elementary, middle, and high schools. The resolution further requested input from school divisions and other interested persons. As a result of this request, a sample of school…

This paper examines the significance of facilities preservation for educational facilities planning and identifies various forms of facilities preservation applicable to educational facilities. It analyzes why educational facilities planners need to be aware of preservation considerations, reviews the relevant literature for preservation…

For this study, a survey instrument was developed to obtain data on several phases of school facilities in Virginia. The instrument contained 26 separate items to which local school personnel were asked to respond. Survey items were grouped around three main parts of the study: capital improvement projects, maintenance projects, and inventory…

In the early 1920s, the small Appalachian community of Damascus, Virginia, used private subscriptions and volunteer labor to build a 15-classroom school made of rocks from a nearby river and chestnut wood from nearby forests. The school building's history, uses for various community activities, and current condition are described. (SV)