Re: Schools and sprawl

[Jack Porter <jporter@moscow.com>]

Thank you, Ron, for this timely reference.  These issues need to be 
considered as the Moscow School District decides whether to move forward 
with its plan to close the downtown high school and ask voters to buy a big 
box out among the wheat fields.

One difference from many of the cases cited in the National Trust study is 
that (at least as I understand it) Idaho does not have minimum acreage 
requirements for school construction.  Since this state won't provide one 
penny for school construction, it has no leverage with which to impose 
acreage requirements.

Since financing is entirely up to the local community, we are free to make 
our own decision as to whether a small site in the center of town has more 
advantages than a large site outside of town.

Jack Porter

At 10:01 AM 9/2/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>The Spokesman-Review carries a Washington Post column on how new school
>construction is adding to community sprawl:
>http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=090201&ID=s1017461&cat=section.commentary
>
>Huge, new schools add to sprawl Communities and children benefit when
>older buildings are refurbished, Neal Peirce says. Neal Peirce -
>Washington Post
>
>Some Quotes
>"The situation is familiar -- school boards opting for gigantic "sprawl
>schools" on remote sites to which few can bike or walk."
>
>Last fall the National Trust for Historic Preservation issued a clarion
>call for smarter school siting -- "Historic Neighborhood Schools in the
>Age of Sprawl -- Why Johnny Can't Walk to School," authored by Constance
>Beaumont.
>
>"The trend of building shopping-mall-sized schools outside town," said
>Richard Moe, president of the National Trust, "alienates students,
>encourages sprawl and impairs our sense of community."
>
>"Topping the trust's list of "public policy culprits" were the minimum
>acreage requirements for schools (50 acres for a 2,000-student high
>school, for example). Promulgated by the Arizona-based Council of
>Educational Facility Planners International, the acreage requirements
>are almost blindly adopted by many states.
>
>What such rules totally ignore, the trust argues, is that many
>communities want to keep schools close-in to support vibrant town
>centers and cohesive neighborhoods. "
>
>They mention the Boise High School renovation as an example of bucking
>the trend.
>--
>******************************************************************
>Ron Force    rforce@moscow.com
>Moscow, ID USA
>******************************************************************