NEWPORT NEWS — Officials with the Mathis Independent School District in Texas were trying to learn how to improve their school buildings and maximize funding when they reached out to a national free resource.
Education Facilities Clearinghouse in Newport News sent a consultant to look at Mathis’ facilities and make recommendations, said Christopher Casarez, Mathis schools’ area administrator for operations. A thorough review of the facilities and their records helped officials there rearrange their priority list and find ways to save money in one place for use in another.
“It really helped to discuss that with somebody who is very knowledgeable in that field, and it helped us reset our priority list,” Casarez said. “So that helped us out a lot.”
The EFC collects and disseminates information on every aspect of school facilities for kindergarten through higher education at no charge. It maintains a group of experts in various fields who can be consulted if a request goes beyond the information already on hand.
The clearinghouse advises on anything inside or outside of a school building, from design and construction to school safety.
The clearinghouse program is funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant to the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. The EFC operates out of GW’s Hampton Roads Center in Newport News, and has five full-time and three part-time employees.
Established in 1998, the EFC project was awarded to George Washington University in 2013. The university is in the second year of implementing a three-year, $2.9 million grant that it will apply to continue after its expiration, according to officials.
Its website serves as the umbrella for everything the EFC does, said its Research Project Director Victor Hellman, who is a former deputy superintendent for facilities and business support for Hampton City Schools. The organization spreads the word about its services through numerous education organizations and has launched a marketing campaign that includes promotional videos and social media, as well as regular newsletters, blogs and briefs on current topics of interest.
Its mandates are to maintain a website of best practices and available resources, to track and compile best practices, to provide technical assistance to school divisions in need and to provide professional development to groups of individuals involved in the facilities area, Hellman said.
With many school facilities aging across the country, technical assistance for school divisions in need is the request the clearinghouse receives most, said EFC Director Linda Lemasters.
“There are more needs than there is money,” Lemasters said. “So we’ve had a couple of projects where they’ve asked us to come in and prioritize. What is the most urgent that we can get done first?”
Experts are available for consultation both online and on-site, if necessary. That advisory group ranges from an architect to a pediatrician.
Lemasters, who co-wrote the GW grant, said she thought it was important to consolidate all available resources in one place to focus together and that the EFC can provide research and assistance to school districts that may not have money available for everything they need to address.
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