When Oyster Bilingual Elementary School in Washington D.C. was threatened with closure because of a crumbling facility and lack of funds for school renovation, a diverse group of community members came together to build the first new public school in the district in over 20 years.

The project survived three mayors, four superintendents, four school district governance structures, and seven project managers. How?

Sustained community engagement and stakeholder commitment saw the project through to the end.

Success stories like this could soon be happening all over the country. Across Ohio and other states, communities are rebuilding and renovating their school facilities, investing more than $23 billion in Ohio alone. In light of this funding, now is the time for the nation to redesign its schools to better serve both students and community members.

The state has initiated a plan to spend more than $23 billion on new school construction and renovation over the next decade, and the level of collaboration between districts and their communities will help determine their level of success in rebuilding.

To help states maximize their opportunities in the renovation and redesign of their schools, KnowledgeWorks Foundation is funding and working with school districts in Ohio to uncover the most effective ways to engage their communities in this neighborhood-sustaining work.

Today, most of our nation's kids are attending schools that are on average 40 years old, with deteriorating classrooms, poor temperature control, and harsh lighting, inspiring the American Society of Civil Engineers to assign them a grade of "F" in its 1998 infrastructure report. These schools are not designed to support the needs of 21st Century learning.