New Orleans Public Schools Capital Planning Services

New Orleans Louisiana Public Schools’ tagline is “Every Child. Every School. Every Day.” For over 12 years, CSRS has proudly partnered with NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) to improve students’ educational experiences through enhanced, impactful, and uplifting educational environments.

During the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, almost $2 billion was invested in building 30 new schools and 14 fully-renovated schools. The remainder of the schools received differing levels of investment that was intended to prevent the buildings from further deterioration but did not address all of the needs for those buildings.

CSRS was tasked with the assessment of and development of a master plan for school buildings at 91 school campuses (approximately 8.54 million square feet). These plans informed the prioritization of resources for schools that support teaching and learning for generations to come. This plan identifies needs on a year-by-year basis, identifying needs in year 1, year 2, etc.

FIRM PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES

CSRS’ scope of services includes facility assessments, capital planning, and the development of a single database encompassing all information NOLA Public Schools will require to confirm the desirability of projects proposed under the new master plan. This robust, yet concise database will foster collaboratively planned campus-level, as well as district-level scenarios to ensure long-term success for years to come.

Under the new agreement, CSRS will manage the planning and implementation of the master plan. Capitalizing on its long-standing work history with NOLA Public Schools and pre-established familiarity with the facilities covered in the facility assessment and capital planning initiative, the firm also leverages its broad experience in the assessment, planning, management, and delivery of K-12 facilities throughout Louisiana and neighboring states. As a result, CSRS is quickly delivering a strong return on investment and effectively jump-starting this critical project for NOLA-PS and New Orleans’ K-12 students and families.

CSRS led a team of six sub-consultants to accomplish this project. In doing so, CSRS exceeded the Parish’s DBE requirement by 5 percent.

PROJECT KEY SUCCESS

The primary key to successfully delivering this project was close coordination with the client and stakeholders to ensure that their needs are being met.

Several strategies were implemented as part of this project to benefit the client. By properly setting up the database early in the process, the CSRS team determined that entries by assessors in the field could be made directly into the final database, saving time when compiling information. This measure allowed CSRS to meet the rigorous schedule set forth in the Proposal. Another strategy undertaken during this process was related to the COVID-19 crisis. Work on this project began during the Governor of Louisiana’s “Stay at Home Order.” CSRS was able to begin work on the project despite the restriction by coordinating and holding meetings virtually. This was key to meeting the client’s schedule, despite the national crisis.

PROJECT CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

One of the challenges stipulated with this project was the combination of data from historical assessments with data collected as part of this assessment into one unified database that could be used for conducting capital planning analysis. CSRS came up with a solution to adopt a Facility Maintenance Management Software capable of conducting the assessments and generating the necessary reporting. The added benefit to this approach provided the client the option to adopt the database as a maintenance management tool once the assessment and capital planning phases were complete.