Multi-Year Improvement Plan

Facing rapid growth and decline, dynamic demographic shifts, crowded, aging buildings, widespread inequities, and a lack of public consensus on what priorities to act on first, the Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) enlisted FOS and CannonDesign in the spring of 2020 to deliver a Multiyear Improvement Plan for All Schools (MYIPAS). This plan included both facility condition and educational equity assessments as well as capacity and utilization studies to inform a new districtwide master plan.

Our comprehensive, data-driven strategy aimed to define operational reforms and capital projects in close partnership with its diverse communities. Beyond advancing educational outcomes for students and optimizing facility use, the MYIPAS also intends to lift statutory Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) restrictions on residential growth triggered by localized capacity overutilization. The resulting data collection and analysis is targeted to produce a physical Facility Condition Index (FCI), an Educational Equity Index (EEI), and a combined index with weighting applied to each of the subcategories.

Engaging School Communities During Coronavirus

This project launched shortly before the global pandemic, which caused an abrupt disruption of school operations. FOS worked closely with BCPS to rethink the means, methods, and processes necessary to deliver on the project’s intent. Deploying innovative technologies such as web-based video-conferencing, virtual breakout rooms, cloud-based documents, and live polling, our team successfully overcame unprecedented challenges to facilitate critical interactive educational visioning workshops, building early momentum and stakeholder enthusiasm.

Due to the District’s aggressive timeline driven by the State IAC’s annual funding request cycle, we rapidly deployed interdisciplinary assessment teams to gather facility condition and inventory data used to benchmark all schools for educational adequacy and equity. FOS also developed an innovative, scalable approach that dialed in the depth of assessment to suit each school age and mission priority, and leveraged inhouse district resources to self-perform aspects of the project, saving BCPS over $1 million in fees.

Building Consensus for Equitable Decisions

Baltimore County Public Schools selected FOS based on our track record of successful relevant projects, familiarity with specific challenges facing large, complex school systems, and our unique, transparent, data driven process designed to build consensus among the County’s diverse stakeholder groups. The resulting capital improvement planning efforts will be submitted for county and state funding and will provide a long-term roadmap for improvements across the district.