Introduction

The Shaker Heights City School District is pleased to provide updates on the latest developments with the Ludlow and Woodbury renovation projects as a part of the District’s Long-Term Master Facilities Plan. The District's commitment to enhancing the educational environment for students continues to drive these efforts.

Activating the Long-Term Master Facilities Plan has been well underway. Below are opportunities for engagement. If you have a question or comment on the facilities plan, please fill out this form. Share this newsletter with friends and neighbors in Shaker Heights! Subscribe to the facilities newsletter.

In this Message

• District Starts Sustainability Plan Stakeholder Engagement
• Key Terms to Know for the District Sustainability Plan

Stakeholder Engagement Underway for District Sustainability Plan

Part of creating the Sustainability Plan includes engaging residents and stakeholders with expertise in the broad field of sustainability. Cleveland-based Emerald Built Environments will be reaching out to stakeholders to conduct key leader interviews, scheduling topic-specific design charrettes, and promoting a community survey on the District’s website. If you have professional expertise in the field of sustainability and would like to be interviewed, please email info@cobaltgroupinc.com with your contact information and brief summary of your expertise. Interviews are being scheduled now.

The Emerald team is also designing a survey for all Shaker Heights residents to complete. If you have a group of individuals interested in promoting the online survey, please email info@cobaltgroupinc.com with the name of your organization and contact information.

Key Terms to Know for the District Sustainability Plan

One goal of the Sustainability Planning process is to define what sustainability means to the Shaker Heights Schools and the broader Shaker Heights community. Below are a few “terms” to understand to create a common understanding of what sustainability means.

• Sustainability – The creation and maintenance of conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).
• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) – The world’s most widely used green building rating system.
• Basis of Design (BOD) – The information necessary to accomplish the owner’s project requirements, including systems descriptions, indoor environmental quality criteria, design assumptions, and references to applicable codes, standards, regulations, and guidelines.
• Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) – A written document that details the ideas, concepts, and criteria that are determined by the owner to be important to the success of the project.
• Emissions Baseline – The reference point against which an entity’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) will be measured going forward.

As the process unfolds, we will add more terms to this list as we create a unified sustainability vision and action plan for our natural and built environment.