Executive Summary

District leaders were motivated to bring their team together, understanding that it is hard to build a strong culture of success when people are scattered and siloed. By focusing on where and how people do their best work, and by delivering renovated and refreshed spaces that support that work, team members have gained a brighter and more comfortable work environment that promotes collaboration and connection; teachers and students in the district’s schools benefit from the administration’s renewed culture of excellence and empowerment; and the community reaps the rewards not only of a strong public education system but also of an innovative approach to energy efficiency and cost savings.

PRACTICE K12 EDUCATION

CLIENT METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT (MSD) OF WAYNE TOWNSHIP EDUCATION CENTER

SIZE 19,000 SF

BUDGET $4M COMPLETED 2022

Like many other school districts in the United States, the Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Wayne Township, on the west side of Indianapolis, had been facing staff and teacher retention issues and budget constraints. The 80-person administration team was further challenged by a highly inefficient, aging workplace. Superintendent Dr. Jeff Butts and his executive team were motivated to nurture a culture of openness and collaboration that would help them overcome some of their challenges, yet their physical space was not serving them. They understood that investing in healthy environments would be critical to success but were also cautious of the public perception of investing in non-learning spaces.

The building was well maintained, its layout was very siloed. Departments felt isolated and disconnected, which negatively affected culture and collaboration. Dull colors, harsh lighting, and a lack of natural light and ‘biophilic’ elements impacted the sense of wellness.

The MSD’s Education Center still needed attention. An inefficient layout meant there was wasted space: too few offices for the full administrative team and inadequate storage. Team members were distributed across different sections of the building, and there were few places for them to come together. Tall, outdated partition walls were like barriers blocking visual connections and creating dark corridors, yet were not effective at controlling sound, so privacy was a challenge. Security, too, was a factor, as was accessibility. Staff would consistently use the building’s service and delivery entrance in order to avoid an awkward public entrance. And once inside, insufficient meeting and gathering spaces meant team members were missing opportunities to connect and engage.

Dr. Butts and the executive team, including Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations Barry Gardner and since-retired Chief Technology Officer Pete Just, had a vision for the Admin team to become more transparent and accessible to the public, internally connected, and collaborative in order to better serve the MSD Wayne Township community of teachers, students and families. They were 15 years into the district’s 25-year plan, and now that key investments had been made in strengthening the schools themselves, it was time to look inward. They recognized that their administrative team’s culture could shape the workspaces within the Education Center, and that ultimately a renewed space would strengthen that culture through changed behaviors.

Together the leaders looked closely at how they wanted to operate – at how they wanted to function as an organization, today and in the future. They clarified roles, responsibilities and titles as a first step in considering how teams could work together most effectively and efficiently. They conducted a needs analysis, asking questions multiple times and actively listening to understand the administration team’s and the broader district’s real needs. Then they considered new ways to utilize the Education Center’s space based on those needs rather than simply trying to fit within what had existed for decades. They wanted team members to feel empowered with a sense of control over the environment, rather than let the environment dictate the way work would be done

Reimaging higher levels of internal team synergies and cross-department collaborations meant blowing out 75% of the existing walls and reconfiguring the floor plan in a way that strategically connected groups and nurtured open collaboration.