The purpose of this study was to determine if the instructional and organizational needs of educators were fully met in school buildings constructed through the provision of a public/private partnership and the degree of satisfaction in the completed facility. This study examined the implementation of the Public/Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002 (PPEA) in the Commonwealth of Virginia to construct public school facilities.

School divisions that entered into a school construction project using the provisions of a public/private partnership between 2002 and 2013 were identified by the Virginia Department of Education. An electronic survey was created to solicit feedback from participants regarding their level of input and engagement during the planning and design stages of development and teacher and principal satisfaction with the completed school facility. The survey instrument had 33 items. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The frequency and percentage from each category, mean, and mode were also reported for each quantitative survey item. Qualitative data were examined by response categories according to the experiences teachers and principals.

The Public/Private Partnership Survey was sent to the administrators and teachers of 14 public schools throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. There were 131 participants from 14 schools that completed and returned the survey.

The findings indicated that while some participants had an ideal experience throughout the construction project, the majority of the participants did not feel that they had significant engagement or input during the planning stages prior to the public/private partnership school construction project. Additionally, while thankful for an improved school facility, teachers and principals consistently responded that if their feedback had been valued, they would be working in a completed school facility better suited to meet the needs of all stakeholders. Principals and teachers who were the most satisfied with their school facility had high levels of engagement during the planning stages, the input they provided was valued, and translated into the educational specification documents and into the completed school facility.