New Jersey like many other states across our nation, is in a unique period in history. New Jersey, already educating 1 out of every 36 (K-12) students in America, has seen historical enrollment rates totaling 18% during the period 1990-99. Hundreds of schools are being built each year, receiving additions, and/or renovated/modernized to accommodate the over 200,000 new students that have entered into the system during the same period. The work in over 2,300 K-12 schools in New Jersey is also required to expand capacity for class-size reduction, pre-K/K early childhood, and meet the needs of core curriculum and technology programs. The current infrastructure and physical plant are aging and suffering from being under-funded annually at 20% below the national average on a per student basis for capital outlay during 1990-97 period. At the same time, New Jersey schools are about to embark today on an ambitious program of investing more than $8.6B into these buildings at a time of rising concern over energy supplies and tight school budgets.

These figures illustrate an enormous opportunity for the state's 620 school districts to build the next generation of "technology rich" and sustainable, hi-performance schools. These are facilities that improve the learning environment while being an integral part of it and offer opportunities for life-long learning in science, math, technology, architecture, and engineering. They also save energy, resources, and money during the 20-year plus life-cycle of these buildings that are the center of our 21st century communities. 

High performance schools achieve these goals by using a whole-building, integrated design strategy that incorporates the best of today's ideas and technologies. From the beginning of the design process, each of the building elements (windows, walls, building materials, mechanical/electrical, plumbing, landscaping, etc.) is considered part of an integrated system of interacting components utilizing the technology backbone and web-based communication systems. Choices in one area often affect other building systems; integrated design leverages these interactions to maximize the overall building performance.