The Smart Schools Initiative is a multi-partner, national effort designed to bridge the movements for education equity and for smart growth. It aims to build healthier, more sustainable communities, especially for our most vulnerable children. Our founding partners include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Public Education Network, and Smart Growth America.

Schools going green?
As the public has begun to embrace the notion of "going green" over the last few years, so have school planners. In fact, so many schools applied for LEED green building certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that the U.S. Green Building Council created a separate set of benchmarks to judge schools apart from commercial and residential construction. The trend toward “green schools” is chronicled in this widely-circulated AP story that appeared in Education Week. Such efforts to promote environmental stewardship and energy efficiency are no doubt admirable. But does the most energy-efficient school turn a pale shade of green when an old neighborhood school is torn down or neglected to make way for it? Or when the school is built in a location that no students can walk to?

How about a school sandwiched between busy highways? Take the new magnet school building being proposed in New Haven, Conn. with “green features.” As described in the New Haven Independent, the heavy traffic surrounding this project location results in a "hot spot" where air quality is extremely poor. So poor in fact, that architects proposed windows for the building that wouldn’t open, a complicated LEED-quality air filtration system to keep students from breathing the dangerous air, and the elimination of outdoor areas for kids.

If such steps seem necessary, maybe city leaders should listen to the community and think about another site, perhaps not right next to a highway?

Meanwhile, with massive numbers of students across the country needing to ride school buses each day, the U.S. EPA has examined the effects of idling engines on air quality and the impact on students. Kids are forced to breathe the toxic air emitted as they get on and off buses and while sitting on stopped buses. Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont recently banned school bus idling, curtailing the negative impact this pollution has on kids.

- Find out more about EPA's Clean School Bus USA campaign
- Read more about EPA's anti-idling campaign



Planning for School Facilities: School Board Decision Making and Local Coordination in Michigan
This systematic study of school planning in Michigan examines the choices to renovate or build new, where to locate a new school, and how that relates to sprawl. “The findings suggest that school boards, in general, are influenced most by a sense of competition with neighboring districts and by shifting demographics. Moreover, little meaningful coordination is occurring between school districts and local governments, largely because of the institutional arrangements that shape the school board decision-making process.”

Reconnecting Schools and Neighborhoods: An Introduction to School-
Centered Community Revitalization (pdf)
This paper from the Enterprise Foundation, drawing on the experiences of eight school-centered community revitalization initiatives in five cities, presents the case for integrating school improvement into community development.