How can the strategies and policies for siting schools and other educational institutions positively impact the health and well-being of the community’s youth?
How can educational institutions at all levels contribute to the physical and emotional health and well-being of the neighborhoods in which they are located and to the larger community?
5 comments:
Schools are vital to neighborhood development and sustainablity. It is important to have neighborhood schools where children can walk to school, foster relationships in the classroom and down the street and experience the school as a safe learning environment and community center. The Ardmore nighborhood is a perfect example of where this type of community could easily exist, but it needs a public elementary school option to develop and sustain.
At minimum, schools should be sited in densely populated areas where children can walk or bicycle to the school safely and close to public transportation access. All schools should be idle-free zones, and parents should be encouraged to have their children ride school buses. Our school buildings should be models of sustainable design. Sustainably-designed schools foster learning by being a laboratory of best practices. They also create healthier indoor environments for children by using toxic-free materials and natural light.
Schools should be sited so that most children can walk or bike to school safely. Having schools share facilities with parks can reduce land requirements and efficient use of tax dollars.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if most of our children and high schoolers could walk to an environmentally sustained "Green" school. They would be healthier and happier, our air would be cleaner, and our roads would be less congested. Placing new schools on low cost land in the outer areas of the County is based on false economics. Figure in the cost of private vehicle travel, busing, illness due to obesety and foul air, and the sprawl such schools contribute to. We'll need many schools for population growth. Let's put them where the people live.
School administrators should learn to listen to their own biologists about where and how to site schools.
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