Progress is being made on a comprehensive overhaul of Austin ISD's facilities master plan—a process that aims to address the needs of the district over the next 15-20 years. Based on their collection of objective data relating to facility conditions and educational suitability, the consultants behind the plan, Brailsford & Dunlavey, Inc., recently submitted their preliminary options for the facilities master plan to the Facilities and Bond Planning Advisory Committee, or FABPAC, for its review. The options are meant to serve as a starting point for the FABPAC in its deliberations over which school buildings and facilities should be addressed first. Project manager for Brailsford & Dunlavey, Inc. Greg R. Smith was careful to note that the preliminary options are not set in stone, and will be contingent upon review by the FABPAC, community input and, eventually, a vote from the AISD board of trustees. "This process is deliberate," Smith said. "We are trying to take an objective look first, and then the next step is to get those qualitative pieces—the things we aren't thinking of, or what makes Austin unique, and infusing those with the data-based options." Community engagement has been a key element of the facilities master plan process and will continue with two more community engagement series events in January and February to prepare for March 27 when the board is scheduled to vote on the FABPAC's recommendations. Engaging the public is essential in determining how facilities can be modernized to serve the needs of the community, said Paul Turner, executive director of the AISD Department of Facilities. Utilizing schools as a community hub is just one of three components crucial in the modernization of facilities—plans to incorporate state-of-the-art technology and flexible learning spaces in all schools are also included in the facilities master plan. "This [facilities master plan] is a 30,000-foot view," Turner said. "In previous bond programs, the [facilities master plan] was a band-aid approach that looked at certain deficiencies. This is about a transformational change in the school district, to bring schools into the 20th century." The facilities master plan process was already underway when structural deficiencies were discovered in the crawl spaces of T.A. Brown Elementary School, prompting AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz to initiate an indefinite closure of the building and emergency relocation of Brown's 360 students. While this degree of damage was not discovered at any other schools, Turner said the closure of Brown has influenced the guidelines of how district facilities are inspected in the future. "We haven’t found any others [schools] that have issues at the magnitude of what we had at Brown," Turner said. "We have things we need to work on. We are setting up structures in the maintenance department to check those crawl spaces regularly, so that if conditions are deteriorating, we can take care of it before it gets too bad." Over the next few months, the FABPAC will continue to meet to review preliminary options and draft a recommendation to present to the AISD board of trustees. More information on the facilities master plan can be found here.