Tamera Powers, Chief Financial Officer at Byron Center Public Schools
In 2018, Byron Center Public Schools was in the middle of several large construction projects. At the same time, the popularity of the district was growing at a rapid pace. Leadership realized mid-construction that the new spaces would not be enough to keep pace with student populations and additional capacity would be needed in the near future. BCPS needed to find a way to be more proactive and anticipate future growth so they could better plan for the future.
With support from TowerPinkster, BCPS hired Cooperative Strategies, an educational planner and demographer. The study and report produced - which looked to the year 2100 - significantly changed BCPS’s masterplanning efforts and actually reduced the number of new buildings they planned to build. Other decisions the report has influenced include: land purchase and future facility planning, Bond election timing, school size and grade configuration.
In this session, we’ll discuss the importance demographic forecasting can play in long-range planning. This includes timing your bonds to the right election cycle, giving your community stability and predictability in future construction projects, and building trust with the taxpayers as you deliver new facilities as they are needed.
