Puerto Rico’s Rescued Schools: A Grassroots Adaptive Reuse Movement for Abandoned School Buildings

John-Michael Davis (), Mariana Reyes, Jacob Abrogar, Jocelyn Bourgoin, Madison Brown, Evelyn Kellum, Francis Polito and Scott Jiusto
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John-Michael Davis: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Mariana Reyes: Taller Comunidad la Goyco, San Juan, PR 00911, USA
Jacob Abrogar: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Jocelyn Bourgoin: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Madison Brown: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Evelyn Kellum: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Francis Polito: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Scott Jiusto: Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: From 2007 to 2019, over 650 public schools closed in Puerto Rico. School closures not only affect students and teachers; these spaces serve as anchor institutions providing social infrastructure for the sustained health of communities. While closed schools remove a critical community asset, these vacant buildings provide adaptive reuse opportunities for alternative social infrastructure and community resources. This article explores how abandoned schools are repurposed in Puerto Rico, focusing on “rescued schools”—that is, grassroots, voluntary initiatives that repurpose schools to support community development. Through a multi-method approach, we categorized and mapped 161 repurposed schools throughout Puerto Rico—38 were rescued schools—and conducted twelve interviews and two focus groups on rescued school initiatives. Our results describe how abandoned schools offer a galvanizing opportunity for motivated community members to meet emerging, localized needs, and the challenges in gaining school ownership and attracting sustained financial and volunteer support, the lack of which impedes their potential impact. We demonstrate how rescued schools embody alternative regional political visions within Puerto Rico and argue that government authorities can minimize the harm from school closures by forging new partnerships between community-based organizations, municipal governments, and other supportive actors to repurpose schools and reproduce their role as community anchor institutions.

Keywords: Puerto Rico; school closures; abandoned schools; rescued schools; adaptive reuse; community centers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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