editorials

American school boards spend more than $20 billion a year to build public schools and billions more on other facilities issues. As state education budgets get tighter, it's time for schools to consider more creative, cost-efficient ways to construct and update facilities.

That's where a recent study by the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute offers helpful direction. The updated report from the institute's Center for School Change documents how sharing space in cooperative arrangements can benefit schools and social service agencies. The report offers case studies on 22 public school buildings in 11 states, including Minnesota. The programs are relatively small (500 students or fewer) and are in rural, suburban and urban areas. Many share space or are next door to recreation centers, libraries, colleges, preschools or seniors' programs.

In the northwestern Minnesota town of Perham (pop. 2,700), for example, the community center sits next to the secondary school. Together the city, school district and business community built a center with a pool, several gyms and other amenities that everyone can use. In Northfield, the Community Resource Center was developed by a partnership that included the city, school district and several nonprofits. The center provides services for a mix of residents ranging from infants to senior citizens. In both Perham and Northfield, working cooperatively allowed organizations to build something that none of them could have afforded independently.

Similar arrangements are helping schools in Europe. In the Netherlands, one school sits above commercial shops and another is underneath an apartment complex. Think of the volunteer, internship and job training opportunities made possible by those arrangements.

Community building is another benefit. Smaller, co-located programs encourage interaction between children and adults, which builds relationships and lessens generational fear and suspicion.

As an advocate for smaller schools, the Center for School Change has helped establish shared facilities and has studied them since 2001. The center admits that smaller facilities alone are not always better. St. Paul and Minneapolis schools have experimented with the concept and experienced mixed results.

Researchers found that the most successful programs have good arts programs, engage students in community service and share or co-locate with other agencies. On average, schools that have 500 students or fewer are safer and have higher achievement and graduation rates.

As school leaders grapple with declining enrollment and shrinking resources, more should seek opportunities to share space. As Center for School Change Director Joe Nathan points out, they should set aside the "edifice complex'' and work together.