Educational Facility Space Guidelines for Seventh-Day Adventist Schools, K-12 in the United States
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Babcock George 
Published: June 2023

Problem. There is a lack of definitive educational facility space guidelines that Seventh-day Adventist church groups may follow in their planning for new school plants. Since re­ quests constantly arrive at the denomination's headquarters for assistance in the planning of school facilities, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists through its Department of Education has requested that a set of guide­ lines relative to minimum space requirements be developed to cover grades K-12 in the United States. Therefore, the primary purpose of the study was to develop minimum space guidelines for the planning of school facilities for the United States portion of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. Method. In order to provide a viable basis for the space guidelines, literature and research were reviewed, the requirements and standards of the fifty states relative to space guidelines were identified, recommendations from professional associations were sought, and personal con­ tacts were made. An analysis of the data gathered yielded information from which it was possible to identify those elements considered significant and upon this information was built a set of suggested minimum space guidelines. All of the superintendents of education in the United States portion of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists were asked to respond to the suggested guidelines through the use of an opinionnaire. The guidelines were also submitted to a selected panel of jurors. On the basis of the ideas and information gath­ ered, the minimum space guidelines were revised. The guidelines were then resubmitted to selected members of the panel of jurors for their final evaluation. Conclusions. Major conclusions drawn as a result of literature surveyed, information gathered, and experience gained during the course of the study were that: 1. It is possible to ascertain facility and space requirements by surveying literature and gathering data from the various states 2. The planning of school plants is a complica­ ted process which needs input from teachers, educational administrators, the community, and architects 3. Space guidelines are generally built upon opinions or committee actions and not upon research 4. The only solid research found (Stottlemyer, 1965; Gaude, 1965; Daniels, 1966; Rosenfeld, 1968) con­ cerning the relationship of achievement in subject matter to classroom space, role behavior of pupils to classroom space, number and kinds of pupil activities to classroom space, and pupil deviant behavior to classroom space is largely ignored 5. A body of objective data derived from experimentation could be accumulated to provide the basis for defensible decisions by school plant planners regard­ ing the size of classrooms 6. It. is possible to develop school plants which are adequate to meet the educational needs of the youth and which are considerably smaller in size (and therefore cheaper in cost) than what the majority of educators think is adequate 7. The planning process for Seventh-day Adventist schools is similar to, yet distinct from, the planning of larger public schools in that particular problems must be met and distinctive answers sought for them. Recommendations. Based upon the findings of this study, the following recommendations are presented for consideration: 1. In future planning for class room space, care should be taken not to exceed the space allocation recommended in this study which could result in savings in construction costs 2. The planning processes for Seventh-day Adven­ tist schools should be closely analyzed in order to make certain that classrooms are not "over-sized" 3. The space guidelines developed in this study should be field tested by those committees planning to build Seventh-day Adventist church schools both at the elementary and secondary levels, and revised in the light of experience 4. Additional studies relative to space needs in specific areas of a school should be conducted (dormitory needs, space needs for work-study programs, and etc.) 5. Short seminars or training courses should be developed to prepare Seventh-day Adventist educators and others concerned with school construction in the developing of educational specifications for Seventh-day Adventist schools.