July 28, 2015
Dear Mayor De Blasio and Chancellor Fariña:
Over the past year and a half, the members of the Blue Book Working Group have worked to
answer the question of how to make the Blue Book (officially known as the Enrollment,
Capacity, and Utilization Report) a document that is a more accurate reflection of the current
state of our school buildings and more accessible to families and other stakeholders.
Our Working Group, comprised of community stakeholders, including families from district
schools, charter schools, principals, advocacy organizations, Community Education Councils, the
United Federation of Teachers, and elected officials, met regularly over the past year and half
and challenged itself to better understand the many elements that make up the Blue Book. In an
effort to help achieve this, we conducted seven (7) building site visits in multiple boroughs,
examining the day to day space conditions of schools representing all grade levels. This was our
baseline to ensure that as a group, we were the best informed to make these recommendations.
As a Working Group, we challenged ourselves to produce a better Blue Book document and to
examine each formula, assumption, and factor, including the Principal Annual Space Survey
(PASS), formerly known as the Annual Facilities Survey, which informs the Blue Book. We
must also acknowledge the work being done by the Instructional Footprint focus group. While
separate, the re-evaluation of current practice will impact existing schools.
The Working Group members have identified and proposed changes that were implemented
immediately into the 2013-14 Blue Book.
Changes include:


Affirming our commitment to remove Transportable Classroom Units (TCUs) over the
next five years by not including them in a school’s capacity. With this change, the Blue
Book presents a fairer representation of overcrowding in schools with TCUs. The change
will help the Department and school communities better understand the steps that need to
be taken to eliminate trailers while not creating more overcrowding. Total enrollment for
the school reflects not only the number of students in the main building, but also those
who attend class in TCUs.



Dividing the report into two distinct sections: An organization report and a building
report. The organization report details capacity, enrollment and utilization numbers for an
entire school organization, which may include multiple buildings. All the buildings that
are utilized by an organization are grouped together. For example, if a school has three
separate buildings, total enrollment and capacity across its different locations will be
listed. Families and communities now have a more accurate representation of conditions
within their school organization. The building report documents the information on a
certain school building, making available in one location information about all school
organizations utilizing a building.

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 

Releasing two Blue Book versions: one with our target calculations and one with
historical calculations. Previously, both calculations were included in one book.



Enhancing the Principals Annual Space Survey (PASS): As the tool that informs the Blue
Book, additions were made to the PASS Survey in an effort to ensure a greater level of
information sharing. By including a column where principals can denote whether a room
was formerly used for a different function and whether that function is still needed, we
strove to enhance PASS as a planning tool. In addition, a comment box has been added to
PASS to make it a more interactive document for our principals and ensure a greater level
of engagement.



Ensuring accuracy and providing additional building information: In an effort to lessen
the workload of our principals and to ensure the accuracy of key pieces of information in
PASS, the SCA has begun measuring each instructional and administrative space in every
single public school that has not been previously vetted through an audit. The space
measuring process will conclude in the coming months and will reach over 1,100 of our
school buildings, ensuring that every building in the entire system has verifiable room
measurements. In addition, the construction year and building opening date, when
available, will be included in PASS in order to account for differences in our building
stock.

In the past year and a half, we’ve had an up-close look at the Blue Book and its function. We are
reminded, though, that even with the up-close look, we must acknowledge the realities that face
our school system and be mindful of the school system’s constraints. At the same time, we
cannot offer solutions that solely live within those constraints. The recommendations set forth in
the attached document are both an acknowledgement of our school system’s constraints and a
push to see changes that are blind to the constraints.
Sincerely,

Lorraine Grillo
President and CEO
School Construction Authority
Blue Book Working Group Co-Chair

Shino Tanikawa
President
Community Education Council 2
Blue Book Working Group Co-Chair

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 Recommendations of the Blue Book Working Group

The members of the Blue Book Working Group make the following initial recommendations,
which are explained in greater detail below.
 Sharing and ensuring that critical data points are available to all stakeholders is
important. We recommend publishing the Place of Assembly (PA) posted capacity of
any and all gymnasium, cafeteria, gymatorium, or other comparable spaces within a
building in PASS;
 Ensuring adequate space for Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) allows students to be better
served in their education settings, and we believe ICT classes should be programmed in a
school’s largest instructional space(s). Within PASS, we recommend to principals that
their larger room(s) be used for this purpose;
 Providing adequate space allocations is a significant theme of the Blue Book Working
Group’s recommendations. As such, Special Education and English Language Learner
space allocations should transition to a formula that is based on the population of the
targeted students and away from the current practice of allocating space without
maximum or minimum limits;
 Building on the need for critical data points to be shared and readily available, we
recommend including the total enrollment population of English Language Learners
(ELL) in PASS;
 To ensure a continuation of information sharing and critical data points among
stakeholders, we recommend including the total enrollment population of students with
an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in PASS;
 Sufficient administrative space is needed to properly run a school. We recommend
requiring a minimum number of administrative spaces within a school and a
corresponding maximum number, a departure from the current practice, which provides
for a maximum number of spaces at the elementary level with no corresponding
minimum and no restriction at the Secondary level;
 Dedicated private counseling space for our students should be a priority. We recommend
a minimum of one (1) dedicated private counseling space, which should be
accommodated within the administrative space allocation;
 Accommodations should be made for a teacher’s workroom to ensure the ability of
teachers and staff to prepare for each day’s instruction. We encourage principals to allow
available space to be used as teacher workrooms, subject to repurposing at the
principal’s discretion;
 Specialty room allocations for Secondary level, grades 6-12 and 9-12, should transition to
a formula based model with minimum and maximum spaces allowed, ensuring both
adequate access and equity. Minimum spaces for all schools within these categories
should be three (3) to account for physical education, science, and art;
 Cluster room allocations for the Elementary level should be adjusted to increase the
minimum number of cluster rooms to two (2) for schools with an enrollment at or below
250 students. The distribution of the allocation for enrollments greater than 250 students
deserves further thinking in order to ensure that all students have adequate access to
cluster rooms;
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  Within the Blue Book calculations for capacity and utilization, we recommend including
the class size standards set forth in the City’s 5-Year Class Size Reduction Plan, required
under the Contracts for Excellence (C4E) legislation and approved by the State in 2007.
We also recommend renaming SCA’s “Target Calculations” to an alternative phrase;
 We previously recommended that all schools, regardless of grade level, be organized by
geographic district - a change that was implemented in the 2013-14 Blue Book. Support
for this change continues with a recommendation to add subtotals for each school level
at the end of each geographic district section. Allowing parents to see total enrollment,
utilization, and capacity of school buildings within a particular grade level in a
geographic district will support our goal of increased access to information;
 We recommend that the Working Group continue meeting in order to monitor the
progress and the results of the above recommendations and make further
recommendations as needed.

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 Principals Annual Space Survey (PASS):
The ability to deliver and present critical data points and enhanced information streams is
essential to ensuring parents, school administrators, and stakeholders are able to make the best
decisions for their schools.
The Blue Book Working Group recognizes that the PASS is a fundamental piece of the Blue
Book. Principals are required to complete an annual survey identifying how each space within
their building(s) is being used. In co-located schools, a main principal is tasked with completing
the PASS, with consultation and sign off from the other principals. This survey acts as the
baseline for information required to complete the Blue Book. As such, its accuracy is critical to
ensuring correct utilization and capacity information.
The recommendations to increase transparency and information in PASS for public consumption
will help inform a more robust and engaged process at all levels. The Blue Book Working Group
believes that improving the PASS is a critical step to ensuring a high level of participation
amongst the School Leadership Team (SLT) and others.
As such, we recommend incorporating the Place of Assembly (PA) posted capacity of any and
all gymnasiums, cafeterias, gymatoriums, or other comparable spaces. Additionally we are
recommending the inclusion of the total enrollments of both English Language Learners (ELL)
and Individualized Education Program (IEP) students. The recommendations are an effort to
ensure that stakeholders have the information needed to make the best decisions possible. We
believe that incorporating the PA posted capacity, including ELL and IEP enrollment figures,
and recommending Integrated Co-Teaching in the PASS- identified larger instructional spaces
achieves the higher level of information sharing, evaluation, and planning that we desire.
Blue Book Formula:
Creating a more accurate and transparent document is crucial to ensuring parents, school
administrators, and other stakeholders understand and trust the Blue Book. As a result of the
discussions and analysis performed by the Working Group, significant steps have already been
taken toward improving the Blue Book, but we believe additional structural changes are needed.
The Blue Book Working Group appreciates that a balance must be struck between available
resources and an accurate depiction of needs. The Working Group also believes that the priority
must always be with our students and creating space opportunities to assist our students in
achieving their educational goals.
We recommend the following actions:
Administrative Spaces:
o The current process allows for programs at the Secondary level, grades 6-12 and
9-12, to assign unlimited full size classrooms to administrative functions. While
this provides for maximum flexibility in scheduling, it also provides for
inequities. For schools that are already overcrowded, the opportunities to leverage
the current administrative space policy are hindered as administrative spaces may
be quite limited in many schools. As a result, we recommend a minimum number
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 of spaces that serve an administrative function at all grade levels. Concurrently,
we believe in maximizing space opportunities for our students and recommend
ending the practice of allowing for an unlimited amount of full size classrooms to
serve administrative functions. This will bring greater balance between schools,
regardless of their utilization, while meeting minimum needs. Most importantly,
the recommendation gives spaces back to our students.
o We feel strongly that all schools should have, at minimum, one (1) dedicated
private counseling space for students. Spaces for our students to confer with
counseling staff, school administrators, and the like must take priority.
o We believe that the needs of our teaching staff must be reflected in the Blue Book
and recommend that space for a teacher workroom in the Secondary grade levels
be accommodated. We encourage principals to allow available space to be used as
teacher workrooms, subject to repurposing at the principal’s discretion.
Special Education and English Language Learners:
o As with administrative spaces, we believe in ensuring adequate space needs are
being met as well as equitable distribution of space for our students with special
needs is accounted for. Under the current process, when identified in PASS,
spaces for Special Education in all grade levels are allocated without providing
for a maximum allowance. Schools with existing overcrowding may not benefit
from this structure as greatly as their underutilized counterparts.
o We recommend a transition to an enrollment based space allocation system which
accounts for the needs of our children.
o Similarly, at the Secondary level, grades 6-12 and 9-12, space allocations for
English Language Learners (ELL) are without a maximum or minimum
allowance. We recommend transitioning to an enrollment based space allocation
formula.
Cluster and Specialty Room Allocations:
o Cluster and Specialty rooms are spaces designated as support rooms, beyond
homerooms, required for the teaching of art, music, science, and the like. These
subjects tend to be taught by a specialized cluster teacher and often require
separate specialized dedicated space.
o The Blue Book formulas for cluster/specialty rooms are fundamentally different at
the Elementary School level and the Secondary levels. At the Elementary level,
cluster room allocation is based on student enrollment. At the Secondary levels,
specialty rooms (as referred to in the Blue Book) are allocated without a
prescribed minimum or maximum, so long as they are identified in PASS.
o The Blue Book Working Group recommends that for the Secondary levels, an
enrollment based space allocation should be established with a minimum space
allocation of three (3) rooms to accommodate physical education, science, and the
arts.
o Additionally, we recommend keeping the existing cluster room allocation
structure for the Elementary level with a new minimum of two (2) classrooms for
schools with enrollments at or below 250 students. The distribution of the number
of rooms allocated for schools with enrollment above 250 students merit
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 additional thought to ensure appropriate spaces are available for the various
student population sizes.
Contracts For Excellence Legislation
o Established in 2007, the Contracts for Excellence (C4E) legislation required the
New York City Department of Education to submit a 5-Year Class Size
Reduction Plan to the New York State Education Department that was approved
in that same year.
o The C4E program was established with the goal of providing for additional
accountability for increased State Aid.
o We recommend that the class size standards set forth in the City’s 5-Year Class
Size Reduction Plan and required under the C4E legislation be included within
the Blue Book calculations for capacity and utilization. The Blue Book Working
Group also recommends using an alternative phrase for the current figures
identified as SCA’s “Target Calculations”.

In an ideal setting, our City would not be faced with space constraints and the need to prioritize
the efficient use of space. That being said, we recognize that our space challenges are real and
must be addressed. With the recommendations outlined above, we acknowledge that the resulting
changes will likely increase our need for additional capacity system-wide. We are willing to
accept the changes that will ensue as a result of our recommendations. Furthermore, we believe
that implementing the recommendations outlined above will result in a true reflection of the
current conditions in our schools, the needs of well-functioning schools, and the space demands
placed on our school system.

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 Next Steps
Our students must always take priority, and we believe that the recommendations
outlined above achieve the goal of improving how space is reflected and used in the Blue
Book. It is the hope of the Blue Book Working Group that the administration will give
serious consideration to the recommendations.
The impacts on individual schools as a result of the recommendations are unknown. We
believe that continued monitoring of the effects of the recommendations, if implemented,
will provide opportunities to consider additional recommendations and improvements to
the Blue Book. We hope to build upon the work performed to date by continuing to
advise the Mayor and Chancellor on future Blue Book recommendations.

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