Integrated Planning for School and Community

Abstract

The Operations Research/Education Laboratory (OR/Ed. lab) at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education, North Carolina State University, has a long history of providing school systems with data-driven solutions for school population forecasting, school attendance studies, and determination of new school locations. These planning processes, known as Integrated Planning for School and Community (IPSAC), provide school districts with mathematically optimal solutions that minimize transportation distance. The OR/Ed. lab works closely with school districts in politically and emotionally charged environments involving school locations and attendance district changes. The success of IPSAC lies in its approach to enumerate school planning needs and school population growth impression through the use of data. Furthermore, through the operations research optimization techniques, favorable solutions are achieved to satisfy the constraints, needs, and policies of the school district. Recent national studies in active school travel have reported that distance to school and built environment have a significant influence on how children travel to school. These research findings prompted the OR/Ed. lab to investigate ways to enhance IPSAC so that school districts may obtain solutions to include multimode school transportation as one of their considerations. This paper describes the IPSAC process, challenges faced by school districts, and areas in which the integration between school planning and transportation planning deserve explorations.