Agenda - 03-28-2001-4 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~c~~~e~ ~"{G- MEMORANDUM TO: Rod 1/isser. FROM: Donna Dean DATE: March 21, 20Q1 W_.~ -RE: - - - ~ DPI Standards for School Sites - I spoke with representatives from the State Department of Instruction (DPI) today regarding the Commissioner questions you relayed to me about school siting and acreage. The original State standards were developed about 50 years ago -and DPI is seeing mare and more situations where school systems are either unable to find or unable to afford the "'suggested" amount of acreage far a new school. To that end, the State appears to be fairly flexible with regard to acreage standards. They indicated that many factors come into play when they review a proposed site -examples of these include (1) whether the school is one story or multi-level, (2) co-location of recreational or library facilities. that can be used by the students, or (3) consideration of "off-site" parking (for example, if a nearby church has a parking lot that can be used during the week by teachers and on the weekends by the congregation). While DPI did indicate that it is not likely that they would deny a project, it is possible, in certain cases where acreage did not meet standards, that they may issue a "statement" indicating that the school site did not meet State guidelines. Each project is reviewed on a case-by-case, site-by-site basis. This would also be the case when a school did not meet the minimum square footage guidelines.