The Florida State University (FSU) symposium on School Siting & Healthy Communities funded by the FSU DeVoe Moore Center, was held in Tallahassee on Thursday, April 3rd and Friday, April 4th, 2008; it was co-sponsored by the FSU Department of Urban & Regional Planning and Center for Demography & Population Health. The event featured presentations by nine researchers investigating the connections between school building practices and boundary decisions and the creation and maintenance of community environments for health where schools for all are clean, safe, and high quality, where children can walk or bike to school, and where decision-making processes involve multiple agencies and a broad spectrum of citizens. In addition to the participants, the symposium was attended by professionals from the Florida Departments of Transportation, Education, and Health, from the Leon County School District, facilities planners, and FSU faculty and students.

Full Symposium Program

Symposium Presentations:

Trends in School Sitting and Construction

Jeff Vincent, University of California at Berkeley, with Mary Filardo and Ping Sung - Equitable Investment in Public School Infrastructure: Trends and Policy in Florida and California

Mark A. Wyckoff, Michigan State University, with Dr. Soji Adelaja and Melissa Gibson - The Implications of School Location Change on Healthy Communities in a Slow Growth State

Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities

David Salvesen, UNC Chapel Hill - Safe Schools: ­Identifying Health and Environmental Threats to Children Attending Public Schools

Ellen Shoshkes, Portland State University - Creating Communities of Learning: Urban Schools and Smart Growth

Making the Connection between Healthy Schools and Healthy Communities

Rebecca Miles, Florida State University - School Siting and Healthy Communities: A Conceptual Framework

The Impact of State Growth Management on School Siting and Children's Travel

Noreen McDonald, UNC Chapel Hill - School siting in high growth areas: A comparison of Maryland and northern Virginia

Ruth Steiner, University of Florida - The Impact of School Siting Decisions on the Potential for Children to Walk and Bicycle to School: A Comparison of Historic, Pre-Growth Management, and Post-Growth Management Schools in Four Florida Counties

Determinants of Children's Travel: The Impact of Urban Design and Transportation System Characteristics

Reid Ewing, University of Maryland, with Michael Greenwald and Ming Zhang - School Location and Student Travel: Analysis of Factors Affecting Mode Choice in Three Disparate Metropolitan Areas

School Siting, Local Coordination and Financing: the Florida case

Maria Cahill, University of Florida - School Concurrency