*** 9660670 Lemberg In an era of decreasing funding for school construction and increasing student enrollment, school district administrators are faced with many complex and sensitive decisions. For example, in California alone, it is estimated that the deficit in school-related funding necessary to provide adequate classroom space that meets the minimum state standards has risen to $12 billion. The School District Planning Problem (SDPP) may be defined as how to manipulate school district site capacities and attendance boundaries to optimally manage school district resources over the long term. The problem becomes more complex when further constrained by the fact that district administrators must deal with the political feasibility of alternative solutions, evaluating parameters such as cost, travel distance, student disruption, class sizes, class scheduling, diversity, contiguity, etc. Each school district has a set of objectives, constraints, and priorities unique to the community. To assist school districts with this complex problem, this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project to be carried out by Isera Group, Inc. proposes to develop a comprehensive Decision Support System (DSS) for the generation of alternative feasible solutions to the SDPP. The DSS will provide a platform by which both the decision makers and interested parties (teachers, parents, students, and community members) may collectively formulate parameters and models, generate alternatives, and evaluate potential solutions. To complement such functionality, the proposed DSS will support protocols for communication or integration with existing geographic information systems (GIS), computer aided design systems (CAD), and student information systems (SIS). The aim of this project is to implement a Decision Support System for school district facility planning and enrollment management. The system will allow groups of school district decision makers across the nation to generate locally feasible long-rang e alternatives for district enrollment and site management, provide large cost savings in construction and/or building leasing costs, and reduce the frequency and severity of politically unpopular boundary shifts. ***
