Learn what district leaders discussed at the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) conference, including best practices for K‑12 facilities planning, capital prioritization, and when to implement K-12 capital planning software.
The Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) Chief Operating Officers Conference brought together district leaders from across the country to focus on shared challenges: how to plan, prioritize, and invest in school facilities amid growing complexity and constraints.
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To capture the energy and insights from this year's event, we've put together a short video recap highlighting key moments and conversations from CGCS 2026.
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Many discussions at CGCS highlighted a shift away from reactive responses toward more proactive, defensible planning models. District leaders emphasized the importance of understanding facility conditions, risks, and lifecycle needs before urgent issues arise.
For facilities and operations teams, this means moving beyond isolated data points to a clearer, system‑wide view of assets — one that supports long‑term prioritization rather than short‑term fixes.
For large school districts, capital planning has become too complex — and too important — to manage with spreadsheets, disconnected systems, or outdated assessment methods.
K-12 capital planning software gives district leaders a centralized, data-driven way to evaluate facility conditions, prioritize projects, and align investments with long-term educational and operational goals. By bringing together facility data, deferred maintenance needs, asset information, and financial planning on a single platform, districts can make more informed, defensible decisions.
The result is a smarter, more strategic approach to managing school infrastructure — one that helps leaders allocate resources effectively, reduce risk, and ensure every capital dollar delivers the greatest possible impact for students, staff, and communities.
Curious how districts are using facility data to move from reactive decisions to proactive planning?
Let’s talk about what strong capital planning looks like — and how clearer insight can support better outcomes.
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While each district's context is unique, several consistent lessons emerged:
Across CGCS, district leaders emphasized the need to move away from reactive maintenance and short‑term fixes toward proactive, long‑term facilities planning.
Conversations highlighted how aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance, and budget pressures make it increasingly important to anticipate needs — not just respond to them.
Planning ahead allows districts to better manage risk, avoid emergency spending, and align facility investments with educational priorities over time.
Rather than collecting data for its own sake, many discussions focused on using facility data to create clearer insight and stronger alignment. This signals the growing role of data in guiding capital planning decisions. Actionable facility data helps districts:
Rather than overwhelming teams, the focus was on using data to create clarity — supporting decisions that are transparent, repeatable, and grounded in real conditions.
Stability emerged as a recurring theme, particularly when discussing capital planning at scale. Districts discussed the importance of aligning facility decisions with operational realities, multi‑year planning horizons, and long‑term district goals.
By grounding capital planning in reliable data and consistent processes, facilities teams can better support continuity, reduce disruption, and create more predictable outcomes for schools and communities.
Sessions grouped leaders by role—facilities, operations, transportation, safety, and nutrition—creating space for honest conversations about day‑to‑day challenges and what's working in the field.
These peer‑to‑peer conversations reinforced that districts face many of the same constraints — and that shared learning can accelerate progress.
Leaders highlighted the value of learning from peers who are navigating similar levels of scale, complexity, and accountability.
Throughout CGCS, one message was consistent: facilities planning is not just about buildings — it's about supporting students, staff, and communities.
Conversations connected capital planning decisions to broader outcomes, including educational equity, operational efficiency, and long‑term district resilience.
Purpose‑driven planning helps ensure that investments are aligned not only with facility needs but also with the district's goals and values.
Explore How Large School Districts Use Data to Prioritize Capital Investments
The themes that emerged at CGCS — proactive planning, data‑driven prioritization, and operational stability — reflect the same challenges Intellis was built to address for K‑12 districts.
Intellis Foundation is a facilities intelligence platform designed to help school districts move from fragmented assessments and disconnected data to clear, defensible capital plans that withstand scrutiny from boards, auditors, and communities. The platform supports districts at every stage — from initial assessment through long‑range planning and project execution — using a single, consistent data foundation.
Foundation for K-12 facilities teams:
Rather than managing static reports or one‑time assessments, Foundation enables districts to continuously update, refine, and communicate their plans as conditions and funding change.
Intellis's approach to capital planning is informed by decades of experience working with some of the largest and most complex school systems in the country — including the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) and the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA).
To support NYC's Five‑Year Capital Planning process, which is based on the condition of approximately 1,600 school buildings across the five boroughs, Intellis developed the Capital Plan Development System (CPDS) and its online successor, oCPDS.
These systems were designed to:
Intellis also supported city‑wide structural inspections by replacing paper‑based processes with mobile data collection using the Foundation platform, improving data quality, consistency, and efficiency across inspections and capital planning activities.
Together, these solutions allowed NYC DOE and SCA teams to more clearly assess needs, plan projects, and allocate funding across an extensive and aging portfolio of school facilities — demonstrating how data‑driven planning can scale to meet the demands of the largest districts in the country.
For many K‑12 districts, the challenge is not a lack of data — it's turning that data into decisions that are clear, defensible, and aligned with long‑term goals. The Intellis Foundation platform was built specifically to close that gap.
Capture facility condition, component inventory, and deficiency data in a consistent, normalized format that supports comparability across buildings and over time.
Transform raw inspection data into policy‑aligned capital improvement plans that reflect district priorities, risk, and available funding — not just lists of projects.
Evaluate tradeoffs, test funding scenarios, and understand how different investment strategies impact facilities today and in the years ahead.
Monitor projects, budgets, and progress in one place while maintaining an audit‑ready record that supports transparency for boards, auditors, and communities.
As facilities evolve, funding shifts, or new needs emerge, Foundation makes it easy to update, re‑prioritize, and communicate changes without starting over.
By bringing assessment, planning, and execution together in a single platform, Foundation helps districts move beyond reactive decision‑making and build capital programs that are strategic, resilient, and transparent.
This approach directly reflects the conversations heard at CGCS — where district leaders emphasized the need for clarity, consistency, and tools that support long‑term operational stability rather than one‑time fixes.
Download the Guide: Smarter Capital Planning for School Districts
Learn how leading districts are using facility condition data to reduce deferred maintenance, prioritize projects, and defend capital budgets.
As districts continue to navigate aging infrastructure, constrained budgets, and increasing expectations, the conversations at CGCS underscored a clear direction forward: smarter planning, stronger data, and more confident decision‑making.
We look forward to continuing these discussions with district leaders and partners throughout the year.
The conversations at CGCS reinforced a shared need across districts: clearer insight, stronger prioritization, and more confident facilities decisions.
If you're exploring how better facility data can support smarter capital planning, we'd welcome the opportunity to connect.
Intellis works with district leaders to transform complex facility information into actionable insights with K-12 capital planning software — supporting long‑term planning, transparency, and defensible investment decisions.
Whether you're early in the planning process or refining an existing approach, we're happy to share what we're seeing across districts and talk through your priorities.
K-12 capital planning software helps school districts prioritize facility investments, manage deferred maintenance, and create long-term, data-driven capital plans.
It enables district leaders to prioritize projects objectively, allocate funding strategically, and make more defensible infrastructure decisions.
By centralizing facility data, using scenario modeling, and aligning capital investments with long-term district priorities.
Continuous assessment provides real-time visibility into building conditions, improves forecasting, and supports proactive decision-making.
Learn How Intellis Helps Districts Turn Facility Data Into Action