Degree Name

Education Specialist (EdS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1977

Thesis Director

Robert V. Shuff

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This paper deals with the evolution of a construction project which was undertaken by application through the Elementary and Secondary School Capital Assistance Program enacted in 1973. The study began in November of 1973 with work on the initial application and continues to the construction phase of the project which was reached in September of 1977. It is the conditions that caused a four-year time schedule between application and construction that are focused upon.

This study attempts to chronologically show the life of the Georgetown project and the events that have made it a learning situation. It is also an attempt to present a history of the project for the historical records of the district.

WRITING THE PROPOSAL

The topic of this field study was proposed in the Spring of 1977. The experience was seen as one of a definite value as an in depth case study of a specific Capital Development project. The study goes into details of the project which include initial application, a change in the scope of the building project from a junior high school to a senior high school, and a law suit and disposition concerning using life-safety bonds as the school districts share of the cost of the construction. A court decision was also rendered on the use of an alternate site of construction in replacing a structure.

The field study is concluded with the most important task of writing a complete set of educational specifications for the new high school and the drafting of the architectural drawings for the building and their approval which led to actual construction.

PLANNING AND CONDUCTING

The field study project, at that time not a formal proposal, began in November of 1973 as a personal undertaking to keep a record of the Georgetown application to be used as a subject later. A file was kept of all formal communications from the Capital Development Board to the district, as well as other important papers on the project. Notes from meetings attended were also placed in the file. Copies of newspaper articles covering this period were kept to make the documentation as complete as possible.

It was this file, plus personal experience with the events, that were drawn upon to make the formal field study proposal and to provide the material from which the project was written.

EVALUATION

This paper's main focal point is the local Capital Development project. Thus the evaluation is of the positive and negative side of developments encountered in that frame of reference. Such evaluation also includes examination of the state-wide program as it affected the local project. One area explored is the heirarchial problems in the Capital Development Board and the Illinois Office of Education which led to long periods of inaction and indecision at the state level. Problems with the state guidelines for selection of districts for a project approval and funding are also dealt with, including use of a double set of standards according to district size and political potential.

The final evaluation for the Georgetown project rests with the stark realization that the only way a building project could be realized for the citizens of Georgetown was through this form of state funding. Whatever steps needed to achieve that result were judiciously followed.

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