FY 2021 Educational Facilities Master Plan

Facility Inventory Analysis

Age also poses one of the greatest challenges in a facility’s ability to adapt to changing instructional needs. Each year WCPS schools grow older and at the same time there are increased demands placed on them by new instructional methodologies. PI allows us to see how well each school is able to provide adequate space to meet this demand and thus educate our students. This not only includes classrooms, but also focuses on ancillary spaces such as art rooms, gyms, pull-out instructional space, etc. In many cases, the older schools simply do not have the capacity to withstand these new demands. Figure 2 (on a subsequent page) illustrates some of these demands, as well as how spaces in general have increased in size over the years. The utilization category allows us to quickly pinpoint schools that are operating over capacity. While utilization is a key indicator, the data can be a bit deceiving. Meaning a school can be over capacity by 20% but have less space issues than a school that is over capacity by 10%. This holds true due to the fact that all of the facilities do not have the same total capacity. The following is an example to illustrate this point (numbers are for example purposes only and do not reflect current FTE or Capacities): Fruitland Intermediate 462/378 = 122% or 84 students over capacity Prince Street 723/616 = 117% or 107 students over capacity This example helps us understand that more students will be affected by utilization if the FTE and SRC are both higher and not necessarily if the U% is just higher. To compensate, FTE was added to the weighted chart in order to make sure that the schools with a higher number of students affected by overcrowding are weighted higher (worse). The FTE category also helps identify the largest enrollments within the worst condition facilities. In the end, the goal of the weighted score spreadsheet is to find schools where we can positively impact the largest number of students while at the same time addressing the most pressing facility needs. The top ranked projects (highest scores) will be analyzed further in the Facilities Need section of the EFMP. The Facilities Need Index (Systemic) is comprised of two weighted categories: FCI and Utilization. FCI is weighted the highest, as it measures the key systemic components of each school. As with the other Index, utilization is used as a means to make sure projects are directed towards schools where the highest number of students can be impacted.

Wicomico County Public Schools Educational Facilities Master Plan FY 2021

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