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As the lead planning firm, or in cooperation with an architectural firm, KBD Planning Group, Inc. provides the following services:
Pre-architectural Planning Workshops Too many school buildings are designed and built bearing little relevance and at times totaling failing to respond to the needs of the community that is investing precious resources for the project. Before you hire an architect, KBD Planning Group will help you identify and analyze the unique characteristics of your existing facilities, demographics and develop a 'road-map' to help you assess your true needs. Preparation of a sound road map is the most fundamental service we offer and is a prerequisite for any effective building project. No matter how simple or technically difficult a capital improvement project may be the pre-planning process is critical to the project’s success. Preplanning is necessary to establish and reinforce user objectives and to confirm the practicality of the proposed project. Exceptional planning comes from innovatively achieving the needs of the client within the constraints of the project. KBD Planning Group can help you with this important step.
Educational Facility Assessment: Educational facility assessment should be conducted by educators because non-educators may well miss some of the important issues regarding the environment for learning, teaching and learning styles. Educational assessment evaluates how well the facility is equipped to support the curriculum. Determining educational adequacy is important when trying to determine whether the facility can, or should be renovated or replaced to meet current and future needs.
Long Range Master Planning Effective long-range planning requires a clear understanding of the past and present as well as a clear vision of the future. A long-range facility plan will provide the school board with a solid basis for establishing priorities among building projects.
How does a school board set priorities among competing needs? How do you decide which building(s) to improve, expand or rebuild? To make sound decisions, the school board and administration need sound information, regarding educational adequacy, capacity, utilization, current and future program requirements, technology adequacy and demographic analysis. As former educators, we can assist educational leaders in meeting their requirements of providing facility equity for all students.
Educational Programming KBD Planning Group is a recognized national leader in successfully directing a participatory planning process, which results in planning tomorrow’s school’s, today.
Educational specifications are a collection of objectives relating to the needs of the community, education, policies and statements on primary and support programs. They are an outline of what educators want to achieve regarding people, activities and relationships.
A detailed description of design features, written clearly and concisely, is necessary in order for the resulting architectural design to support the unique functions of the school. With these detailed descriptions the architect may work to determine the size, shape, and organizational requirements for each facility. By providing the architect with a well-defined educational program he/she can design an excellent facility tailored for a specific learning community.
Bond Referendum The key to a successful bond issue is a well-designed and comprehensive strategic planning framework that includes all stakeholders. By keeping the entire facility planning process focused on students and learning, you can win, as taxpayers will support children and their learning needs. Remember, an election lasts only one day. On that day the appeal has to be brighter---bigger---and better than any other time during the campaign.
Demographics Anyone can predict the future. The really difficult thing, however, is to make a prediction which bears some semblance to what actually will occur. There are numerous individual characteristics that are unique to each school district. Therefore, there is no practical "one size fits all" formula or methodology for forecasting which can be effectively imposed on any given district at any given time. There are many factors and characteristics that may be unique locally, which will affect a forecast
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