Section Three
F a c i l i t y
Livingston Union School District | Facilities Master Plan
A s s e s s m e n t s
Master Planning Priorities and Goals
What was the Process?
Board of Trustees Priorities
Preparing for the Facility Assessments
Goals and priorities and important for any planning project. They allow one to
assess what is important for themselves and the team, and provide a target for
fulfilling future aspirations.
Listed in alphabetical order are the priorities of the Governing Board of Trustees.
Each of these priorities were discussed and considered at each of the school
sites:
Before the school sites and building conditions were assessed, several meetings
occurred between the District Office staff, the Steering Sub-Committee,
California Department of Education (CDE) and the Architect. These meeting
focused on the existing facility Standards that had been established by the
District. These areas focused on three main areas,
1. Building Materials
2. Technology Infrastructure and Systems
3. Educational Suitability
For this LUSD Facilities Master Plan (FMP), the Board of Trustees established their
initial priorities for the process and a vision statement that supported these
priorities:
“The Livingston Union School District will have well maintained, safe, and
modernized facilities with current technology and learning environment that
supports the educational needs of the children of our great community”.
Meanwhile Superintendent Andres Zamora established some of his own specific
Goals for each school site. The Superintendent’s goals focused on specific areas
where equity among the schools should be met.
A common area of concentration of both the Board of Trustees and
Superintendent was providing of “safe and secure schools”.
It was later determined in the community and staff input meetings that “safety
and security” was among their top issues as well. At the input meetings this
“safety and security” issue was broken down into two components:
The first being the desire for a safe and secure place to drop-off and pick-up the
students, where safe walking paths are defined, bus loading zones seperated,
and ample areas for vehicle drop-off and pick-up provided.
The second was the desire for a secure school during the school hours, where
any visitor entering the campus would be observable and required to enter
through the Administration Offices.
This example illustrates how important it is to define the priorities and goals,
and when possible, confirm that they are echoed by the community and staff.
It can also be said that while priorities and goals are important to have and
understand, their value can be felt strongest by building consensus among all
involved. This Facilities Master Plan process allowed full and equal input among
all participants. This foundation allows the Board of Trustees to have confidence
in setting and implementing the initial round of projects.
• CONFIGURATION OF SPACES: Define the desired configuration of the
various supporting spaces, including small group/seminar rooms, storage
rooms, multipurpose rooms for performances and assemblies, and
special purpose classrooms to best support anticipated of a coherent and
comprehensive educational program.
• FUNDING: Determine the most appropriate funding sources for
implementing improvement described in the Facilities Master Plan
• IMPROVEMENTS: Identify improvements at each site to better support
current and future educational programs.
• INTEGRATION: Facilitate the integration improvement efforts, such as
educational technology, arts, physical education, and school safety.
• PRIORITIES: Establish priorities amongst the various facility
improvements called for in the Facilities Master Plan
• PUBLIC DISCUSSION: Provide a public forum for presentation and
discussion of the particular needs of school site representative groups
inclusive of parents who have an interest in school facilities in the District.
Superintendent’s Goals
Listed in hierarchical order, are the goals of Superintendent Andres Zamora.
Each of these goals were looked at and evaluated at each of the school sites.
• SAFETY: School site safety during school hours, with controlled access
onto the site
• PICK-UP / DROP-OFF: Improved (safer) pick-up/drop-off zones for vehicles
and buses
• LIBRARIES: Spacious and well lit, with areas for reading, study, small
group collaboration, and technology
• PORTABLES: Significantly reduce or completely replace portable
classrooms with quality modular building (or other).
• MPR: Multipurpose Room Facility with stage and/or outside
amphitheater (Campus Park)
• ATHLETICS: Athletic field track (with center field)
• AFTER-HOURS LEARNING: Adequate spaces and amenities for students to
gather and study.
These discussions about Standards allowed the team members to better
understand a baseline that the existing school sites should be compared to.
Parking lots and bus drop-off issues would also be considered. Mr. John Gordon
with the CDE reviewed various exhibits on suitable and non-suitable parking lot
and bus drop-off configurations.
Before walking each school site the School Principal was asked to develop a list
of what was important for their specific school. It should be stated that each
Principal defined their own list without knowing the Board Priorities or the
Superintendent’s Goals.
Before the school sites were assessed, the team members walking the sites
reviewed the following criteria for assessment:
4. The Board of Trustees Priorities
5. The Superintendent’s Goals
6. The School Principals Priorities
7. The Standards that were defined
8. CDE Guides for Parking lot layouts
Equipped with the above information, the site and exterior of each building was
assessed, and interior of each room type reviewed. On separate site visits the
Architect and the Facility Director reviewed the roof tops and HVAC equipment
conditions.
After each of the Facility Assessments, the team members gathered to discuss
findings, and determine some of the main points that should be addressed in
each category. These findings were used as the basis for developing the “Vision
Plans” for each school.
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