Infrastructure funding and policy priorities have a critical impact on how we grow. Decisions as to where we put water and sewer lines, roads, and schools, and how we pay for these needs play a big role in shaping our communities and the use of our natural resources.
Saving Old Schools - Dwindling Assets, Harrisburg Patriot-News, April 15, 2007
"Hundreds of public school districts throughout Pennsylvania have faced similar decisions in recent decades - whether to renovate existing schools or to replace them with new schools on virgin land."
Please
click here for the booklet
Renovate or Replace? The case for restoring and reusing older school buildings. Thomas Hylton's organization
Save our Land, Save our Towns can be found
here.
State, Lehigh, Bethlehem Planners Can Save Broughal, Allentown Morning Call, August 22, 2006
The Bethlehem Area School District sees mounting pressure to forego the demolition of the 1917 Broughal Middle School, where 90 percent of the 630 students arrive on foot, and to use the public’s $43 million better than on a less pedestrian-friendly school farther away, writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author Thomas Hylton, in his Allentown Morning Call guest column, revealing that last year the district’s architect Spillman Farmer unsuccessfully offered a plan that would have met all its criteria.
New School Faces Crowd, York Daily Record - June 14, 2006
"Central York School District is in an unusual situation: Growth within the district outpaced projections, and the board has to decide whether to spend $18 million to $21 million on additions to the high school it opened in August." Please click here for the article.
New School Proposal Echoes EPA "Smart Growth" Guidelines, Pottstown Mercury - February 11, 2006
Tim torma, a policy analyst with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Growth Program, Torma was in town Wednesday to talk to Borough Council -- and two school board members -- about all the things a new school can mean to a community. Please
click here for the article.
Thomas Hylton: Schools and the City Fabric, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - February 11, 2006
"In making hard decisions about cutbacks, Pittsburgh's schools must keep the public interest in mind too." Please
click here for the article.
For details on how communities can and should employ smart growth planning principles to build schools that better serve and support students, staff, parents, and the entire community, please visit these websites.
Why Johnny Can’t Walk to School
Smart Growth America
Saving Historic School Buildings: Keeping Schools At The Center Of The Community
Creating Connections: CEFPI Guide for Educational Facility Planning
For readings on school building in The Philadelphia Inquirer (May 2005), click on the articles below:
