School Building Conditions

Facilities Condition Assessment

The district regularly contracts with experts to conduct a comprehensive review of the current status of all buildings and sites. The most recent assessment was completed in 2021 by SÄZÄN Environmental Solutions and delivered to the district in January 2022.

It includes information on the condition of building systems and educational adequacy. Building systems include things like the heating and ventilation system, roofing, and windows. Educational adequacy looks at how well a building’s current design and layout supports student success. An evaluation of accessibility is also included.

This information is used to set priorities for capital levies. The Building Excellence Capital Levy (BEX) and the Buildings, Technology, and Academics Capital Levy (BTA) are the primary source of funding for modernization, repairs, or replacement of district schools.

BEX V major project schools — Alki Elementary School, Asa Mercer Middle School, John Rogers Elementary School, Montlake Elementary School, Rainier Beach High School, Van Asselt Interim Site — were not part of the evaluation.

To make it easier to find information on individual buildings, the sections covering the evaluations of individual buildings are posted separately. The full report is also available.

Building Condition Assessment by Building

The Building Condition Assessment by Building section covers:

• Civil, structural, architectural (CSA) overview
• Mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) overview
• Overall scores for Building Condition Assessment, Learning Environment Assessment, and Accessibility Evaluation
• Scores are from 1–5; 1=excellent, 5=unsatisfactory

Learning Environment Assessment by Building

The Learning Environment Assessment by Building section covers:

• Assessment of 17 spaces/functions based on district educational specifications
• Assessor comments
• Executive summary
• Capacity as determined at the time of the report
• Scores are from 1–5; 1=excellent, 5=unsatisfactory

Accessibility Evaluation by Building

The Accessibility Evaluation by Building section covers:

• Pass/fail evaluation of whether facility contains basic features of accessibility for select circulation pathways — Not a reflection of whether facility meets ADA requirements.
• Scoring: 0-7, lower is better.
• Scoring based on evaluators response to availability of accessible pathways in seven different categories.
• The more “no” responses to accessible pathways, the higher the score and worse the accessibility

Full Facilities Assessment Report

Facilities Master Plan

The Facilities Condition Assessment is used to create the Facilities Master Plan. The 2021 Facilities Master Plan update provides information about the district’s facilities, including updated building and school program names and addresses; building and site size; school capacity; and updated building condition assessment data.

2021 Facilities Master Plan Update

Asset Preservation Program

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) requires school districts to participate in the Asset Preservation Program (APP) to be eligible for state construction funding assistance. SPS has 20 buildings that are in the APP. Under this program, the district contracts with a certified consultant to conduct a Building Condition Assessment (BCA) report every six years. This is a detailed analysis of the condition of district school buildings. The required certified BCA was completed in 2020 as part of the complete review of buildings for the Facilities Master Plan.

In the report, building condition is scored on a scale of 0% to 100%, with 100% being excellent condition.

Asset Preservation Program Report

Seismic Information

Seattle Public Schools implements earthquake safety improvements/seismic retrofits to school buildings based on the most recent engineering studies. All new construction and major modernization projects are designed and built to meet applicable city codes. Learn more about Seismic Information.