By Mary Ruppenthal����

Creating safe environments is the top priority when it comes to designing schools. From an architectural standpoint, addressing both physical and psychological factors when it comes to safety is vital. After all, security isn’t simply a matter of creating a safe and secure campus perimeter and single point of public entry. It’s about fostering community and placemaking, empowering ownership and promoting positive interactions—all of which serve as a foundation for student and staff safety. Effective school design practices nurture belonging, flex to adapt to evolving learning styles and, of course, establish physical security.��

Belong: Safeguarding Openness and Inclusivity

Building community starts with framing schools as student-centered spaces. By minimizing secluded and isolated areas and maximizing passively supervisable open spaces for a variety of large and small group gatherings, designers can craft places that enhance positive connections while reducing stress and anxiety. Conversely, dark corners and unsupervised spaces tend to increase the potential for bullying and disruptive behavior. Clear sightlines matter, so that teachers, staff, and students can observe or engage across adjacent spaces.��

While students need to be seen in the literal sense, they also need to feel seen. Students are less likely to slip through the cracks when their learning environment delivers options for a variety of learning styles, including smaller gathering and break-out sessions, contemplative spaces and room to gather on a larger scale. Therefore, weaving collaborative spaces of different sizes throughout the environment is key to nurturing a sense of connection.����

Architects are also finding ways to shift teacher-student interactions from purely occurring in the classroom to more organic encounters throughout the campus. For example, by building administrative offices at the back of the student union, teachers and students naturally and informally interact as teachers pass through the communal space.��

On larger campuses, the idea of creating a school within a school is gaining traction. Designing educational environments to accommodate cohorts of 250 students or less can help nurture a sense of belonging. If students feel engaged and welcome in part, through a campus’ layout that’s an important step toward building pride of place. Technical elements, like comfortable seating and warm colors, help create an inviting atmosphere. Leaning into flexible spaces is also an excellent path to supporting a strong, inclusive culture.������������

Adapt: Enhancing Flexibility for Maximizing Learning and Community��

Accommodating different learning styles requires flexibility in terms of classroom and campus configurations. For example, kinesthetic learning requires ample space for movement and collaboration, ideally with plentiful wall and even interior window space for whiteboarding and wallboarding. Without losing connection to the main classroom, break-off spaces for varying levels of small-group lessons or contemplative study require passive supervision.������

The average 960-square-foot classroom can flex in a variety of ways to meet students where they are. For example, operable partitions can help reconfigure a classroom, creating smaller spaces or opening to a larger collaborative environment. Beyond the classroom itself, glass walls and windows to common areas allow visible connections to adjoining learning and gathering spaces. In the case of indoor-outdoor layouts, a glass garage door connection could provide a supervisory link to an exterior space where louder, messier or larger projects can take place.��

At the high school level, creating a multi-use, dynamic space rather than a siloed building not only enhances efficiency, but also checks all the boxes of a safe environment: passive supervision, pride of place and interconnectedness. For example, HED’s Yerba Buena High School’s new performing and fine arts classroom and theater building completely re-envisions and revives the visual and performing arts community on the campus. The design of multipurpose classrooms and stage space (divided by an operable partition as needed), replaces what was once a stagnant and rarely used theater at the end of its useful life and will, when complete, be dynamically full of student life with space to gather throughout the day, visual and performing art classes and display, performances, and community events.����

Mary Ruppenthal is an architect and Education Market Sector leader at ��

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As the Florida State University (FSU) community grapples with the horrific violence and loss of life experienced on April 17, ���سԹ� remains committed to promoting school and university design, construction and innovation that helps students and educators thrive and ensures their security.����

While design, construction and materials are critical campus safety components, crisis training is paramount for staff and campus police. In the case of FSU, campus police were prepared to immediately respond and neutralize the violence, quickly communicating with and receiving assistance from other local agencies. All responding agencies were thanked for their speed and support by FSU President Richard D. McCullough in a press conference following the incident.��

“We’re absolutely heartbroken by the violence that occurred on our campus earlier today,” McCullough said. “Our hearts go out to our students and the victims of this terrible tragedy. I have to say that our law enforcement, our FSU police officers, [are] absolute heroes in this regard.”��

While ���سԹ� annually dedicates its May/June digital edition to Safety and Security, these topics remain a daily concern. Many design, construction and technology professionals are actively working to fortify education environments without sacrificing student comfort or campus culture. With advanced technologies, stringent access controls, and thoughtful design improvements, design and construction leaders are pioneering safer educational environments.����

Visual Alerts as a School Safety Strategy��

In a 2024 article for ���سԹ�, Corey Shelton, vice president of product at Vivi, advocated for visual alerts as an essential campus safety component, providing a critical layer of communication during emergencies so that swift and clear messages reach everyone involved. These systems use clear, attention-grabbing messages to guide students and staff to safety. They are also crucial in settings that serve diverse populations, including English Language Learners or those with hearing impairments.������

Alerts display instructions across screens placed strategically throughout classrooms and common areas, guiding everyone on campus towards clear next steps without confusion. The technology not only enhances the speed of response but also minimizes panic.  In the case of FSU, the university used its existing alert system to direct recipients to shelter in place and later to confirm that the campus was safe.��

“By allowing emergency management systems to trigger statuses in a digital signage and visual alerts system, schools can create a unified network that issues timely alerts using a variety of delivery formats and directs both students and staff during emergencies,” Shelton said. “This coordinated approach speeds up response times, making every second count when safety is crucial.”��

Synchronization of these technologies facilitates rapid reaction to emergencies and bolsters daily communication. It supports consistent safety drills and routine operations, building a strong culture of preparedness. Such integrations support the underlying safety infrastructure, offering peace of mind and allowing the school community to focus on education. ��

Access Design and Emergency Exits��

The May/June 2024 issue also included insights from John Kately, project executive at C.W. Driver Companies, on the shift away from open campuses and toward buildings with more limited access points equipped with a camera, intercom and buzzer system to screen initial contact with visitors. In some cases, schools add another technology layer via keyless badges that work on specialized entry door hardware, or integrate keypads are used that require code access to all classroom and staff doors.��

“Practical improvements to entrances are also important,” Kately wrote, offering the example of Chino Valley Unified School District, which integrated thick tube-steel members with concrete footings, heavy-duty door closer and welded hinges to some school sites.��Exterior emergency exits are required to have panic doors that are designed for a swift and easy exit in case of evacuation, but those same doors designed for fleeing must be outfitted with mesh screens to prevent someone on the outside from reaching over or around the narrow space and opening them.”

Communications and Surveillance����

Additionally, many schools rely on two-way communication systems between floors, classrooms and offices, which can be critical during emergencies.����

“If the need arises, [administrators] can start a lockdown sequence, sealing all campus doors,” Kately said. “This emergency procedure may be due to flagging an intruder who managed to enter without permission but was picked up on one of the many security cameras installed throughout the school.”��

Closed-circuit TV systems have also evolved into state-of-the-art cameras, strategically placed throughout a campus, and of the highest image resolution. An administrator can quickly assess situations using multiple views on their computer.����

To prevent campus shootings in particular, some institutions are aiming to detect and identify violence in the briefest time possible via gunshot detection systems, which pick up on a combination of specific sound, percussion and infrared flash that is the signature of a gunshot.����

“Once detected, the system calls the police directly, not waiting for a shellshocked person on the scene to make that alert,” Kately wrote.��

Watch for more school safety and security innovations in the upcoming 2025 May/June edition of ���سԹ�, available in late June.��

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McGrory Glass’ DefendEd School Safety Security Glazing is an attack-resistant security glazing suitable for K-12, higher education, childcare facilities, preschool and daycare facilities and general school safety needs. Designed for interior and exterior use, the security glazing is tested to meet top security standards and is available in combination with fire-rated and ballistic glazing as well as one-way vision solutions. Several different thicknesses are available and can be customized to fit multiple dimensions.

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The intersection at 29th Avenue and 12th Street North serves more than 14,000 vehicles a day, and is a main pathway to school for both students and staff. This is a bad combination, considering the intersection is missing a crosswalk button on the school side of the street, according to . Pedestrians instead depend on the green traffic light to be alerted of when to cross.

As part of the school’s Community Problem Solving (CmPS) team, Grace Fischer and Caleb Dirckx, both 12, came up with a detailed action plan to solve the problem. The plan included asking for intersection improvements, recruiting neighbors to serve as crossing guards and meeting with city officials to voice their concerns.

At the May 4 city council meeting, the St. Cloud City Council approved $16,000 in improvements at the intersection. These include creating a school zone within one block of both directions of the school, installing flashing lights on the pedestrian sign, painting zebra stripes in the intersection, replacing the crosswalk button and installing a countdown timer, reported . All improvements will be completed by the time school starts this fall.

Council Member Carol Lewis told that one of her classmates died at a similar intersection along 29th Avenue when she was attending North Junior High School, so she is glad the council finally approved the safety upgrades. Mayor Dave Kleis was so impressed by the students’ initiative that he made Dirckx an ex-officio member of the Transportation Infrastructure Advisory Board.

North Junior High School is one of two schools in St. Cloud Area School District 742 that are actively involved in the CmPS program, which was founded in 1974 to encourage critical-thinking skills, help students develop a vision for the future and stimulate creative problem-solving skills.

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