Rhode Island Urges School Districts To Plan Smarter

As a new school year gets underway, communities applying for school construction aid in Rhode Island will find a new emphasis on building guidelines that promote smart growth concepts and asks school districts to consider the impact of sprawl in planning for school space needs. These guidelines, which encourage the renovation of existing facilities where feasible and the siting of new schools away from remote locations and closer to neighborhoods where more children can walk, were originally adopted in 2002 following a recommendation of the Governor’s Growth Planning Council on which Grow Smart Rhode Island has been a participant and an advocate. This month, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) fully integrated the recommendations into its updated School Construction Aid Guidelines that can be downloaded from their website.