Planning Educational Facilities

This book covers the entire planning process educators must employ to adequately administer the planning process for a new or renovated school building. The structure of the book is to follow a sequential planning process for a new school building or renovation project from the beginning of a need for a new school to the final evaluation of the planning product and planning process. In addition to complete chapters describing each planning process, there are auxiliary chapters devoted to topics important to the planning process such as Green Schools, Critical Issues, and Safe Buildings. A unique chapter is the last one dealing with Problem-Based Learning. In this chapter problems from actual experience in the field are presented to students for consideration and discussion.

Dr. Glen Earthman’s Planning Educational Facilities, an already excellent text, has just been made even or pertinent to the administrator, planner, architect, and school board member. Earthman is a world-renowned researcher and educator, who has knowledge, practical experience, and vision for essential information and practice for the places where students learn. This is a “must read” for anyone who is or plans to be working with school planning and facilities., Dr. Earthman’s book, Planning Educational Facilities, represents a classic example of excellence in school facility publications. With his distinguished scholarship and practical experience, Dr. Earthman leads readers in a step-by-step approach to educational facility planning. Dr. Earthman discusses educational facility issues based on the perspectives of school board members, school superintendents, school district and site administrators. Concerns of the designers, the contractors, and the occupants are also significantly addressed. This book particularly stresses the sustainability of school buildings and their life expectancy. School building maintenance, operation, and safety are the special concerns Earthman emphasizes in the planning process. Planning Educational Facilities is a book school administrators involved in facility planning must read.

Dr. Glen I, Earthman has over forty years’ experience in teaching school facility planning at Virginia Tech and in providing consultative work to local school systems. He has authored 6 books on school facility planning and has written extensively in the field. He was the first Director of the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.