San Diego's Capital Planning Process

Capital planning for schools should include both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. And whilebuilding condition remains an important and necessary factor in short- and long-range facility planning,by itself it is not sufficient to reveal the full range of building performance issues or to guide decisionmaking and strategies for prudent capital investments.Functionality – sometimes referred to as “serviceability” or “fitness of purpose” – has to do with howschool buildings and sites support users’ activities. Its reference points are the owner’s operatingrequirements that represent the purposes and objectives for which the facility was originally designedand built, plus the many new functional requirements that have inevitably arisen over time (driven bysuch factors as enrolment growth or decline, grade reconfiguration, trends in curriculum, technologyor educational philosophy, and community uses). In terms of functionality, a school can have positiveattributes – it can be safe and secure, healthy and comfortable, cost-effective and environmentallysustainable, even uplifting and inspirational – or negative ones – it can be overcrowded or underutilised,dilapidated or obsolete, inefficient and expensive, or even dangerous. There is a welcome and growing body of literature on links between the functional quality of educationalbuildings and the academic performance of the students who occupy them. This research is alsoconsistent with new attention to the environmental aspects of schools, which are significant in termsof embodied pedagogy, the health and comfort of educators and learners, and, indeed, the long-termprospects for life on the planet.