Integrated planning for school and community: The case of Johnston County, North Carolina

OR/Ed Laboratories and the Johnston County schools created a planning system, Integrated Planning for School and Community, to forecast enrollments, to compare the enrollment projections to capacity, to find the optimal locations for new school buildings, and to set distance-minimized boundaries for all schools to avoid overcrowding and to meet racial balance guidelines. Implementing the system has increased the school district's success in passing bond issues, reduced pupil-transportation costs, and eliminated frequent adjustments to school-attendance boundaries.