News & Insights

Business officials and superintendents responsible for construction programs across their school districts are always thinking ahead about how to achieve a successful referendum or budget request.

Presenting support for such initiatives requires a big-picture vision along with many “tiny” details. Those details can be overlooked or lost in the whirlwind of the planning process. And that is a concern: If the district overlooks those details, the project promised to the voters and community might be unachievable. Degrading trust in a district’s ability to fulfill promises or to manage taxpayer money makes future referenda and budgets harder to pass.

Let’s look at how that can happen and then consider five “tiny” details that end up being especially important in developing master plans and capital budgets.

Failure to Notice

“Tiny” details are overlooked for three reasons: First, the day-to-day focus of business officers and superintendents is on overall district operations, which require professional skills that differ from those of architects and planners. Attempting to plan a program without professional expertise to inform the detail of a program can increase the chances of tiny details slipping through the cracks.

Second, the lack of transparent and regular engagement with all stakeholders during the planning process can derail a program. Always trust in the benefits of a healthy stakeholder engagement process.

Third, overlooking the opportunity to partner with other public agencies can result in duplication and waste of taxpayer funds. For instance, consider the benefits of a school and city sharing facilities. The efficiency of the overlapping constituency need may be modest, but the opportunity provides taxpayers with more bang for their buck—a win-win for all.

Five Tiny Details

1. Arguably, innumerable details must be considered when planning a construction program, but five have significant implications and effects—effects that often increase over time. Projecting for escalation. “Have you projected for escalation?” The response is usually yes, but quite often…

This is an excerpt from an article that appeared in School Business Affairs. To keep reading, click here.