TOP K-12FACILITY MANAGEMENT TRENDSAccording to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 132,853 K-12 schools in the U.S. as of the 2015-16 school year. In the Fall of 2019, those schools had 56.6 million students in attendance.

Student’s needs are changing, and education trends continue to evolve at a rapid pace. It is now more important than ever to be aware of these changing trends and benchmark where your District is today and where it needs to be tomorrow. Performing an evaluation of your school’s design, layout, and technology capabilities will allow you to gain a better understanding of the possibilities available as you plan for the future needs of your District.
Below are the top facility management trends that support the comfort, safety, and efficiency of a K-12 School.
BY SITELOGIQSAFETY & SECURITY1. Add Security Vestibules
Schools have begun to include a security vestibule posi-tioned outside the school building’s front door. The vestibule and other entrances to the school are locked as the school day begins. A school staff member stays inside the central vestibule, controlling who gains entry to the school through-out the day.

2. Enhance Outdoor Design
The facility design of play areas, as well as walkways, ramps, parking lots, and carpool zones is essential to stu-dent and staff safety and accessibility. School parking lots are packed with traffic, particularly during the drop off and pick up hours. These high-volume areas can result in unsafe conditions, leading to potential injuries or property damage. Transportation or traffic plans for your facilities can help to reduce congestion and create a much safer environment. Are-as to address include parking lot design and traffic flow; bus-sing zones, signage and pavement markings, parent drop-off and pick-up locations.
3. Increase Sight Lines
Opening the design of a school building allows teachers and staff to monitor and supervise the students more easily because fewer corridors and corners are blocking their sight-lines. Students are less likely to bully or commit a crime if they are in sight. Open designs are achieved by developing an overall creative and simple building layout incorporating wider corridors and staircases, reducing the number of en-trances, and increasing the amount of light to inside areas of the building.

CLASSROOM SETTING2. Enhance Outdoor Design
Schools should have a student-centered design that can accommodate the way they learn best. Designs can support critical thinking skills, problem-solving, and active learning through things like outdoor classrooms and flexible learning spaces. One study found that 73 percent of all student pro-gress could be traced back to a classroom design that was linked to flexibility and student ownership. Flexible learning
spaces should include things like varied seating options for students, movable partitions, and various learning areas such as:

• Learning Studios — specifically for lectures or group instruction and look like a classroom but with more flexible furniture options
• Learning Hubs — areas near the studios that have inter-active learning stations used for team teaching

• Group Rooms — semi-private areas for small groups or team activities

• One-to-One Rooms — small, private rooms used for private instruction, testing or very small group activities K-12 facility designs should also offer a variety of environments for the students; for example, a small nook where they can go to relax in a quiet area or a big project lab where they can work with other students. Creating connections—both physical and visual—between spaces can encourage a crea-tive, collaborative environment where students can work to-ward their goals.

2. Provide Digital Environments for Lessons
Technology allows students to move outside of their traditional, formal learning areas into different, more laid-back environments throughout the building. This shift could include adaptable furniture or incorporating more smart technology into the classroom.

Blended learning or “tradigital” learning encompasses a mix of both traditional classroom elements and the new dig-ital learning environment. Instead of remaining in one place for the majority of the day, “tradigital” learning encourages teachers to incorporate stations that students can rotate around in the classroom.

Options may include two to five or more main learning stations, focused on areas such as communication, working in-dependently, technology, collaboration, and creativity.

The stations lead to a more personalized learning environment because teachers can focus on specific needs in small groups.

3. Use Technology to Interact with Other Classrooms
Technology can also make it easier for students and teachers to interact with others. Using video conferencing technologies, students and teachers can connect with other classes within a school, across the country, and even across the planet for shared learning opportunities or to enhance curriculum and development.

For some schools with classroom monitors and iPads, students may connect their iPads to monitors to collaborate with other classes or even host guest instructors and communicate with them. An increasing number of teachers are also taking to social media to work with other teachers and share
ideas on how to keep things new and exciting in their class-room. As technology continues to accelerate, new methods of communication across different classes, and even schools will emerge to make classroom learning an even more interactive experience for students and teachers alike.

" Technology allows students
to move outside of their traditional, formal learning areas into different, more laid-back environments throughout
the building. "4. Reduce Class Sizes
Moving away from the traditional classroom of 20-some students makes for a more intimate learning experience for students while reducing the challenges of managing large class sizes. Having smaller classes allows teachers to give students a more personalized learning experience, likely improving their academic achievement. The Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) study, one of the most influential studies on this topic, makes an excellent case for class size reduction.

The STAR study included 79 elementary schools and as-signed students to kindergarten classes at random. Some were in classes of 22-26 students, while others were in smaller classes of 13-17 students. These kids stayed in the same size classes through third grade and were tested in reading and mathematics. Students in the smaller classes had higher test scores compared to students in the larger classes, especially for low-income and minority students. The benefits of small class sizes were reported to extend into the upper elementa-ry grades, and students in small classes were even found to exhibit better behavior in the classroom. Follow-up studies years later found that the students in small classes had better academic and personal outcomes for the rest of their school-ing and beyond.

Schools have recognized the benefit of class reduction, and, today, 25 states have class size restrictions for at least some grades. Seven other states have established class size goals or incentives. Additionally, 77 percent of Americans report they would rather spend education money on reducing class sizes than paying teachers more.
FACILITY ENVIRONMENT & VIABILITY1. Install LED Lights
Switching to LED lights at your K-12 school is now very cost-effective and has many benefits, such as improved energy efficiency, flexibility and durability, and overall better light quality. Schools often see improvements in academic perfor-mance after upgrading to LED lights because they can imitate natural light, which has been shown to enhance alertness, mood, energy, and performance. In addition to an improved student learning environment, you can save significant energy and op-erational costs switching to LED lights. Compared to incandescent lighting, LEDs last 25 times longer and saves at least 75 percent of your lighting energy. Plus, LED light bulbs are more environmentally-friendly than other types of bulbs, as they are mercury-free and completely recyclable.
" Upgrading your systems
can provide multiple benefits for
you and your students..."2. Upgrade or Replace HVAC/Temperature Controls
tricts spend more on energy due to aging infrastructure than is spent on textbooks and computers combined. The average school building is over 45 years of age, ac-cording to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That is well past their calculated useful life, even when renovations are included.

As school budgets are challenged and costs continue to rise, fewer resources are available for energy, operations and maintenance. The failing HVAC/Control systems then have a negative impact on the student learning environment.

Upgrading your systems can provide multiple benefits for you and your students, including not just economic, but improved temperature control, better indoor air quality and even sound attenuation. These improvements have shown to reduce absenteeism, increase student concentration and productivity, and positively impact student test scores.

3. Improve Sound & Air Quality
Classroom environments must support clear communication. With up to 60% of daily classroom activities involving speech between teachers and students, or be-tween peers, extreme or inappropriate levels of background noise can pose issues for reading and spelling ability, behavior, concentration, attention and overall academic performance. ANSIASA (Acoustical Society of America) design standards call for background noise levels to be below 35 dB(A).

4. Become LEED Certified
To take your school’s sustainability to the next level, LEED certification could be a consideration for your facility. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), was formed to enhance buildings’ overall energy efficiency and environmental performance. To become LEED-certified, you must meet a series of prerequisites and then earn points to get to different levels of certification.
If you want to work toward more sustainable facility management but need some guidance, look into performance contracting for K-12 schools. With more than 700 team members, including professional engineers, project managers, certified energy professionals, architects, and building automation experts to support your project, SitelogIQ partners with public and private schools throughout
the U.S. to bring comfort, performance, and efficiency
to the classroom through customized school construction and modernization. SitelogIQ can provide knowledgeable master facility planning and contracting and financing options for your District based on the laws and regulations
of your state to help you find the best ways to make energy-efficient improvements to your facilities to meet 21st-century educational goals.
To learn more contact:
Mike Taylor
VP Sales & Marketing
Mike.taylor@sitelogiq.com
(888) 819-0041METRO NASHVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
IMPLEMENTS PLAN TO 
REDUCE ENERGY USE & SAVE MILLIONSMetro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is a school district that serves the city of Nashville, Tennes-see and Davidson County and has a staff of nearly 5,800. Additionally, more than 86,000 students are currently enrolled in the District, comprised of 73 elementary schools, 33 middle schools, 25 high schools, 18 charter schools, and eight specialty schools. The District is also supported by service facilities, including a Central Office, Print Shop, Transportation Building, Supply Center, and a Professional Development Center.
BACKGROUND
SitelogIQ has been working with MNPS for over five years on various energy efficiency measures such as smart LED lighting and various networked controls. Though these various projects, MNPS has seen firsthand energy savings from these projects in the range of 40-60% on average. In addition to energy savings, these projects have been focused on maximizing student and employee comfort and safety.

Armed with proof that the energy efficiency measures were yielding positive results for the District, the partnership grew in the fall of 2019 to include an energy conservation program through SitelogIQ’s EnergyIQ (EIQ) division, a team of ex-perts focused on bringing together data-driven technolo-gy and energy management intelligence to the forefront of facility optimization.
REDUCE ENERGY USE & SAVE MILLIONSMNPS partnered with SitelogIQ in month of April 2019 with the purpose of tracking and reducing energy and water consumption through behavioral and controls-related energy efficiency measures. SitelogIQ began by conducting an assessment of the District’s energy use and consumption behaviors. By studying these trends, the EIQ energy engineers identified opportunities for energy reduction. EIQ Energy Managers performed detailed site audits at 40 of the Districts’ 157 facilities. Based on these audits, key energy conservation measures were compiled, analyzed for potential, and presented to the District and its stakeholders to demonstrate the feasibility of the program.

Due to the positive results they’ve already yielded, MNPS has adopted an aggressive, energy-conscious mindset and made the success of the program its priority. To date, the SitelogIQ EIQ team has taken the following actions to spur along with the progression of the program:

• EIQ Data Team developed an interactive dashboard to track energy and cost savings progress throughout the process of the program.

• EIQ began supporting MNPS with the hiring of three full-time, onsite Energy Managers. These EIQ Energy Managers work directly with MNPS to aid in the energy management and data analytics services for all 157 facilities, including:

○ Ongoing staff training and Energy Lessons

○ Analysis of expected ROI and impact of implementing recom-mended measures

○ Strategic recommendations to continuing to build on the energy efficiency measures already implemented
• Forged strong relationships between the
SitelogIQ team and District personnel,
leading to the development of an in-
terdepartmental committee focused on
reducing energy consumption.

• Implemented upgrades to programming
to shorten HVAC schedules and limit set-points during periods where sites were not in use.

• Developed and executed a shutdown plan that involves all staff, minimizing energy usage during major school breaks: Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.

• Currently in coordination with several District Education Programs, including STEAM and Urban Green Lab to promote outreach of Energy Education.
PARTNERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
• Between April and December of 2019, energy use has been reduced by over 9.4 Million kWh, yielding utility cost savings of $695,095.

• Utility cost avoidance for a 5-year timeframe projected to be $10 Million.

• MNPS’s interactive dashboard is complete with multiple methods of comparing energy usage between sites, in-cluding the Energy Usage Intensity Map. This map shows differences in energy usage per square foot by differing sizes in bubbles representing each location (see Fig. 1).
Figure 1
GOING FORWARD• Complete audits on all sites within the District and develop an Energy Grading System tailored to furthering energy
conservation measures

• Lead programming efforts to update Building Automation Systems to run HVAC schedules across all capable
District sites more efficiently

• Develop online resources to further Energy Education outreach and inform the public on the progress of the program, further inspiring the City of Nashville to follow suit

• Implement recommended energy efficiency measures to permeate an energy-conscious culture in all directions
o Top-Down through the implementation of policies as rolled out through Senior Management and the Board.

o Bottom-Up through educational programs headed by student leadership.

o Middle-Out through a collaboration of staff training, incentive programs, and friendly competition between schools.
TESTIMONIAL FROM CASEY N. MEGOW
Metro Nashville Public Schools Assistant Director of Facility Planning and Construction
“SitelogIQ has been a true partner in creating our district’s conserve energy program. They have been open and honest about our options in building our program. They have offered expert advice and guidance while leading our efforts to implement our program. Working with the SitelogIQ team has been a great experience, and we are looking forward to continuing our work together and realizing continued cost avoidance from our energy conservation program.”