The next step in the facility planning process assumes that the school has a Planning Committee in place, a mission and vision clearly defined, and curriculum and pedagogy articulated. At this point the facility needs must be described.

Looking at other facilities can be helpful in determining what is needed. The Committee, or some of its members, should visit schools that have addressed similar facility issues. Knowing what other schools found to be successful and what they found to be unsuccessful can be extremely helpful information to factor into the planning.

The description of needs should reflect the planning assumptions developed in step three of the process, Assumptions, and respond to the answers to the four questions asked in Essentials:

1. What do you want your students to know and be able to do?
2. How should they learn?
3. What teaching and support facilities will be required?
4. What are your school’s priorities?

The description of needs will be a preliminary list of spaces required to support the curriculum. Each space should be assigned a code number linking it to a department or user group. Categorizing the spaces by type is helpful so that like space types will appear together. Each space will have a name and size. The size will be in terms of net assignable square feet (NASF), which is the actual useable area measured from wall surface to wall surface. Frequently there are several spaces that are the same and need to be described only once. See the Sample Summary of Space below.

Sample Summary of Space

Space Number	Space Use	Number of Stations	NASF	Number of Spaces	Total NSF
S1	Biology Lab/Discussion Area	24	1,700	1	1,700
S2	Chemistry Lab/Discussion Area	24	1,700	1	1,700
S3	Physics Lab/Discussion Area	24	1,700	1	1,700
S4	Introduction Lab/Discussion Area	24	1,700	1	1,700
S5	Lab Prep/Storage	--	600	2	1,200
S6	Teachers’ Office	6	600	1	600
S7	Greenhouse	--	300	1	300
	Total				8,900

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