Community-School Planning Case Study

At the beginning of this project, it was zero-sum; either the school district built its project, or you stopped them. Through negotiation, it has evolved into a school with housing, early education programs, and some open space. Out of this Herculean effort, what could be replicable to the hundreds of other school facility investments in neighborhoods throughout the Los Angeles Basin?...Do those taxpayer dollars for new schools create spaces that are isolating and that discourage a sense of belonging to a community? The billions of dollars that we are investing could be an opportunity to create centers like those that New Schools Better Neighborhoods has promoted, that are community assets, that allow people and families to participate, to join, to belong. It is goal that we as a society need to embrace, expect, even demand."