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We can serve our students better by revitalizing our historic neighborhood schools. It's responsible, thoughtful and fiscally sound."

According to the National Trust report, which was funded by the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, certain public policies are undermining the preservation of historic neighborhood schools. Many state education departments either mandate or recommend huge school site sizes that smaller schools in established neighborhoods cannot meet, putting pressure on communities to abandon existing schools, build large facilities outside town, and promote sprawl.  State funding policies often fail to provide incentives to maintain schools properly, leading to problems with deferred maintenance. Building codes biased toward new construction are applied to older schools that could otherwise be upgraded to meet state-of-the-art standards.

In many states, school districts are exempt from zoning and planning laws, meaning they are free to build mega-schools in outlying areas.  Real estate developers or property owners can influence local policy by donating land to school districts, thereby improving the value of new subdivisions and altering a community's growth patterns.

To save and renovate historic neighborhood schools, the National Trust calls for the elimination of arbitrary acreage standards and policy or funding biases that favor new construction over renovation and good stewardship.  It advocates the completion of cost comparisons before new schools are built or existing ones abandoned.  Local planning and zoning exemptions for school districts should be re-examined, it contends, and incentives established that encourage routine school building maintenance. "Smart codes" legislation should be adopted to encourage school renovations while ensuring student safety. School administrators and policy makers should work to ensure the majority of students can walk or bike to school, and education and training in school renovation techniques and options should be offered to school facilities managers and others.

In making the recommendations, the National Trust called attention to a few states that have adopted policies to protect older and historic schools. Maryland promotes reinvestment in existing schools and does not apply arbitrary acreage standards that discriminate against older neighborhoods. Maine encourages better coordination between general community planning and school facility planning. New Jersey has adopted a Rehabilitation Code that makes it less costly to renovate older schools. And Washington State discourages the deferred maintenance and neglect of existing school buildings.

"In fighting to save an older school, Two Rivers, Wisconsin residents raised an important question: If an older building is equated with a poor education, why would anyone want to send a child to an Ivy League college or to Oxford or Cambridge universities," said Constance Beaumont, report author and director of State and Local Policy for the National Trust. "It would be absurd to argue that every old and historic school can or even should be saved. But it is equally absurd to argue that a school's age automatically means it cannot be preserved or adapted to meet modern educa

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