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Imagine having a color-coded map curated just for your school district – a treasure trove of information at your fingertips, allowing you to not only say ‘X marks the spot’ but to know exactly how many ‘spots’ your school district has. Through the power of data – GIS can help school districts to regain control over their time, save money, and gain impactful knowledge about the land they own.

Digitization and Efficiency

Northwest Independent School District

As school districts grow, they need to know where every easement is located. In the case of Northwest Independent School District (NISD), Dunaway worked with district staff to digitize all easement and important documents associated to a location on the map. Now, as they navigate renovations, rebuilding, and land purchases – they can see the easements on the property in real-time.

Land Procurement

According to Texas Law, while the Texas Constitution prohibits the gift of public funds to any individual, an expenditure of public funds for a public purpose is not prohibited. The result is that while school districts may be gifted land, they may not be aware of just how much land is given or how suitable the gifted land is for building upon.

This information is especially impactful for actively growing, larger districts like Comal Independent School District (CISD), which spans not one but five counties. In the past, a district this size would have to go to each separate appraisal district to look at what parcels have been gifted, as well as what land is still available to purchase. Dunaway’s GIS professionals partnered with CISD to simplify this process. Now, with the one source of truth that GIS provides, they can view all parcels county-wide. Thanks to the set-up of unique filters, they can also locate the amount of acreage needed for a specific school size – for example, 100 acres to build a brand-new high school.

Staffing and Maintenance

Every school district and campus face unique facility challenges. For example, where is the valve to turn off a specific water line? How can a new Facility Manager quickly learn the district’s utility network? Dunaway builds GIS systems that can house this data and more in an easily accessible and user-friendly interface. GIS is also hugely beneficial when it comes to staffing coordination. This was the case for Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (CFBISD). Located in Carrollton, Texas, CFBISD staff partnered with Dunaway to create GIS maps and applications to gain a better understanding of their land-locked district.

Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District

The team started by mapping all CFBISD-owned properties and overlaying that data with layers such as city limits, proposed residential developments, attendance zones, surrounding ISD boundaries, and more. The next steps included categorizing the various components of each campus and mapping them individually.

Items such as pavement, driving aisles, parking lots, lawns, athletic facilities, and playgrounds were also mapped for every campus across the district. Once all properties were mapped and categorized, a dashboard was created, allowing for quick reference to the square footage and acreage of all property features. This allowed the district to not only have a better grasp on what was available but also gave maintenance the ability to put numbers on how many acres of grass they needed to mow across the district and allowed personnel to accurately assess how many maintenance crews they would need to complete the task – saving not only money but also time.

“

The testimony we’re getting from superintendents is that GIS has become a single source of truth and it’s making their life easier in a variety of ways.

”
Matt Patyk, CPSWQ, CFM, Senior Discipline Lead and Associate

Campus Mapping and Awareness:

Long after the last bell for the school day has rung, public schools are still needed to house extracurricular, athletic, and community events. When these requests arise, a typical question asked is – “how many parking spots are associated with this campus?” Using ArcGIS Online, staff now have quick access to all data, including the amount and location of available parking spaces from any computer or handheld device with an internet or cellular network connection.

“The testimony we’re getting from superintendents is that GIS has become a single source of truth and it’s making their life easier in a variety of ways,” explains Matt Patyk, CPSWQ, CFM, Senior Discipline Lead and Associate, leading Dunaway’s GIS, and Environmental teams. Regardless of size or location, a geographic information system provides school districts with an analytical approach to answering questions, solving problems, and meeting challenges that call for an integration of spatial (location) elements with data. With a personalized, superpowered map at their fingertips – school districts can work smarter, not harder – allowing personnel to reclaim their time and shift their focus to what is most important – the students.

Ready to streamline your district’s processes? Reach out to Dunaway’s GIS professional below to learn more about how our in-house database can blend with your district’s data to deliver information and answers quickly and efficiently.