The Washington State School Planning and Design Process… in Brief #

The State of Washington has a planning and design process for school facilities. It is tied to funding and includes a number of elements designed to ensure a quality process and, hopefully, a better school both in terms of program delivery and cost effectiveness of construction and operation. The complete plan can be found on the Washington OSPI web site at: http://www.k12.wa.us/facilities/

The purpose of this article is to provide an outline of some of the major components of the process. It was developed for a presentation to a class on School Finance Taught by Dr. Lee Chapman at Central Washington University. The complete plan can be found on the OSPI web site.

I. Advance Planning #

a. Submit D-1 to OSPI

b. CompleteStudy and Survey

c. School Board approval of the Study and Survey

d. Submit D-3 Form to OSPI

II. Financing the Project #

a. Develop a budget

b. Hold bond election

c. Sell Bonds

d. Schedule the cash flow

III. Select the Site #

a. Form planning team

b. Identify potential sites

c. Evaluate each potential site

d. Select and acquire

IV. Educational Specifications #

a. Assemble the planning team

b. Hire consultant

c. Prepare Educational Specifications

d. School Board Approval of the Educational Specifications

V. Select Consultants (Architects and Engineers) #

a. Publish public announcement

b. Select design consultants

c. Negotiate agreement

d. Submit D-5 Form to OSPI

VI. Design the Facility #

a. Schematics

b. Design Development

c. Value Analysis

d. Construction documents

e. Submit Form D-7 to OSPI

VII. Bidding and Award of Contract #

a. Advertise

b. Open bids

c. Recommendation

d. Submit Form D-9 to OSPI

e. Award contracts

VIII. Construction, Acceptance and Closeout #

a. Project management

b. Schedules developed

c. Construction

d. Submit Form D-11 toOSPI