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
Facility Assessment Criteria
Adherence to Standards & Accessibility
Safe and Secure Sites
TECHNOLOGY AND EDUC ATIONAL SUITABILIT Y
Safe and secure sites were determining to be the top issue or among the top
issues at each of the sites. “Safety” was addressed in two ways:
1. Exterior safety; safe parking lots, drop-off zones and walking paths
2. Interior safety; safe school sites when schools are in session.
It was determined that the Technology Assessment would be conducted by
the District Staff as with the Education Suitability Assessment. Tiffany Pickle,
Director of Instructional Technology conducted the Technology Infrastructure
and Systems related assessments, while Kuljinder Sekhon, Director of Education
Services conducted the Educational Suitability related assessments.
BUILDING STANDARDS AND BUILDING CONDITIONS
In order to prepare for the site walks and site evaluations, the current building
standards was discussed with Nick Jones the Director of MOT. This equipped
the Architect to identify various building components that were not up to
the current Building Material Standards. The Architect provided the District
with a set of building material standards in draft form, and specific edits were
made as information was learned. These draft standards should be used as
future decisions are made, and the standard should be updated to reflect any
modifications and decisions.
ACCESSIBILIT Y REVIEW
A comprehensive accessibility assessment was not included into the scope of
the work, but licensed Architect Mike Fennacy with Darden Architects, made an
effort to identify obvious accessibility issues that would be need to be included
in the scope of a Site or Building project.
Suggested Projects
The Board of Trustees will prioritize the projects after this FMP document is
published. However, some of following facility projects could be considered
Priority 1 projects, since they reflect the consensus based input from the various
stakeholders. Altogether, stakeholder input and information came from the
Board of Trustees, the Superintendent, District Staff, School Site Principal, School
Staff, the Community, consultants Emergency Preparedness Group and Darden
Architects.
Issues relating to the exterior and interior safety of the school sites was assessed
with the help of John Ortega and John Diaz with the company Emergency
Preparedness Group, Inc (EPG).
EX TERIOR SAFET Y:
EPG looked at and assessed external threats and/or hazards. These issues
focused on the perceptions of the school site and how attractive they could be
to an intruder. Some recommendations offered by EPG include the following.
• Separate parking for staff and visitors with a motorized gate from the
employee parking area, and a key-less access control for employees.
• Provide vehicle identification tags for all employees. Ensure that the tags
are dated, color coded, unique to the school, and would be difficult to
recreate at home.
• Periodically patrol the parking areas for unauthorized vehicles. If possible,
clearly identify parking spaces for visitors and monitor the vehicles
parked in these spaces.
• Install perimeter fencing with gates that are locked throughout the
school day.
• All exterior gates and doors should be closed and locked when
unsupervised.
• Encourage staff members to make periodic patrols of the school grounds.
Instruct that any unsafe conditions or behavior should be reported to the
Principal or office staff immediately.
• Ensure all potential areas which afford concealment to predators are
locked and neutralized.
INTERIOR SAFET Y:
EPG also looked at the campus interiors and offered some of the following
suggestions.
• Remind staff to lock all classrooms and offices – even if it is for a short
period.
• Ensure all storage, maintenance, and janitorial closets are locked always.
These areas contain many hazards including dangerous tools, chemicals,
and other items.
• Lock or secure gated areas on property during school hours.
• Strictly follow the policy of requiring written permission before a student
can leave campus without a parent or guardian.
• Create a safety procedure for employees to follow when the parents
or guardians are not available to pick-up the students and have not
provided written permission for them to leave campus.
• Create safety procedures for employees who use the school after it is
closed. Include a sign-out sheet.
In response to the above, many of the Vision Projects include improvements
to the parking lots, and drop-off zones. Fencing and gates are being added
throughout all the elementary school sites so that the perimeter of the school
sites can be secured, and require any visitor to pass by and through the
Administration office. At Selma Herndon and Campus Park a reconfiguration
of the Administration spaces could improve the viewing of the campus core
and the front visitor parking lot. Refer to the Vision Plans for the possible reconfiguration of the school site.
Based on the survey scores from the Staff and Community meetings, the top
4 areas of deficiency at each school are also listed. The Staff and Community
Scores indicate a range from a low end of one for Poor conditions to the top
end score of five for Excellent conditions. More information about the Staff and
Community meetings can be found in Section 4
Some of the project descriptions are also included. These call-out projects are
reflected in the Vision Planning documents.
21