Madison SDAT
School Design Advisory Team
Seattle Public Schools created the School Design Advisory Team (SDAT) process to allow each school community to have input into renovation of or construction of their school building. This process provides a means of integrating a school?s vision and educational goals into the design within the structure of the district Educational Specifications (Ed Specs). The result is refinement of the Ed Specs to create school designs that support each school?s educational goals.
Representatives from the school community including parents, school and district staff, community members, and construction managers come together to form a school?s SDAT. Some SDATs also include students for part or all of the process.
The architectural design team leads the SDAT in workshop meetings and tours. Over the three- to four-month process, the group identifies the vision, philosophy, and objectives of the school and community. They also provide a voice for the school and community during the pre-design phase.
SDAT members act as a conduit to the rest of the staff, teachers, students, and neighbors during the process. They are asked to gather information and give updates on the design process to their school community.
The standard SDAT includes a series of five workshop meetings; however, many groups require longer discussion periods. In those cases, there may be more meetings covering the same topics.
- Meeting 1: Project orientation, which includes establishing roles and responsibilities and reviewing the district?s strategic plan and racial equity analysis tool.
- Meeting 2: School tours to visit recently completed construction projects.
- Meeting 3: Visioning and goal setting
- Meeting 4: Conceptual design presentation from the architectural team. SDAT reviews and provides feedback.
- Meeting 5: Revised conceptual design presentation from the architectural team. SDAT reviews and provides another iteration of community feedback.