Orange County NC Website
• analyze school sites for their proximity to village centers and established <br />neighborhoods; and <br />• select sites served by adequate roads, utilities, and other essential services. <br />The brochure gives real-life examples of schools that have followed these <br />principles. Kittery, for example, is cited for using local funds to rehabilitate the historic <br />Frisbee School. The school now meets current life-safety and ADA standards. <br />Vermont Vermont has explicitly recognized the importance of older schools to <br />town.centers.. Consider this policy, adopted in August 1997 by the Vermont Education <br />Department: <br />"It is... in the public interest to protect Vermont's historic schools for future <br />generations and it shall be the policy of the Vermont State Board of Education that: <br />School districts be encouraged to use the existing infrastructure to meet the needy of <br />Vermont's students and therefore funding far renovations, including major repairs, and <br />additions to existing school buildings shall be given preference over new school <br />develapment, taking into consideration the educational needs of students and that the <br />costs of rehabilitation do not unreasonably exceed the costs of such new development. <br />1. YVith specific respect to historic school buildings listed on or eligible for the State. <br />or National Register of Historic Places, school districts shall make all reasonable efforts <br />to preserve and protect such buildings and wherever possible, rehabilitate or add to such <br />buildings to permit continued use as a school building. " <br />State funding <br />Maryland. Maryland also leads the way in the elimination of handing formulas <br />that discriminate against older schools and favor new ones. In fact, Maryland's formula <br />actually favors the renovation of existing schools over the construction of new ones. <br />Whereas the majority of the state's funds for capital projects formerly went into new <br />school construction, today, 84% goes to existing schools."~ ~ Maryland's Smart Growth <br />43 <br />