PRESS RELEASE
—
Woolpert Acquires Cooperative Strategies, National Education Facility and Program Planning Firm
DAYTON, Ohio (Aug. 1, 2023) — Woolpert has acquired Cooperative Strategies, a multidisciplinary education facility and program planning firm that specializes in school facility management, assessments, educational program planning, demographic analyses and enrollment projections, capital planning, and community engagement. Cooperative Strategies has offices in Ohio, California, and Colorado, and serves schools, districts, statewide agencies, and school systems nationwide.
Cooperative Strategies CEO Scott Newell said, after collaborating with Woolpert on projects in Ohio, North Carolina, and Rhode Island, joining the company was a natural next step. He said it was evident that the firms shared an outcome-based approach to enhancing education.
“We have seen Woolpert’s dedication to providing tangible benefits for their K-12 clients firsthand, as well as their expansive expertise in consulting, planning, and design,” Newell said. “We look at life through the same lens, which is focused on the client. This is an opportunity to drastically enhance and localize our current program management and service offerings to provide best-in-class deliverables, a greater range of resources and experience, and additional services for schools and districts.”
In addition to gaining national education facility expertise, Woolpert will augment its cloud-based solutions with the My Facility Informer (MFI) app, a data collection and reporting dashboard that aggregates and displays facility, educational suitability, and capacity findings for K-12 clients. Woolpert and Cooperative Strategies will merge and evolve analytics and geospatial capabilities in demographic, housing, and assessment services.
Eric Dillinger, Woolpert vice president and strategic director, said the combined capabilities of Woolpert and Cooperative Strategies are unique to the market.
“Our products and services complement each other nicely and support our shared focus on improving educational outcomes,” Dillinger said. “This integration of needs, strategy, and financing opportunities provides an actionable approach for clients.”
Woolpert Chief Corporate Development Officer Neil Churman lauded Cooperative Strategies’ reliable client service to hundreds of school districts across the U.S. He said this acquisition strengthens and expands the intersection of Woolpert’s core services—architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG), and strategic consulting—specific to client need.
“We welcome this diverse group of dedicated and talented consultants who support our nation’s schools to plan and operate their districts for the betterment of students and communities,” Churman said. “Together, we will elevate and expand K-12 facility assessment, planning, funding, and program management for schools and districts across the country. We are very excited to have this outstanding team on board.”
About Cooperative Strategies
Cooperative Strategies provides educational facility and program planning services to school districts and education departments across the country. Staffed with former teachers, school administrators, educational thought leaders, and facility planning specialists, Cooperative Strategies enables schools to assess, plan, fund, and build their visions from concept to completion. The firm employs My Facility Informer, a proprietary facility assessment and reporting platform built for schools, which provides customized capacity data, pricing, and reporting for school districts and the public. Cooperative Strategies has assessed more than 200 million square feet of schools, provided over 4,000 enrollment projections and demographics studies, performed over 100 attendance boundary redistricting studies, developed over 320 facility master plans, and secured over $15 billion in bonds to advance education during its 27-year history. For more, visit www.coopstrategies.com.
About Woolpert
Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG), and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private, and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is a Global Top 100 Geospatial Company, a Top 100 ENR Global Design firm, earned six straight Great Place to Work certifications, and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity, and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been America’s fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. Woolpert has over 2,000 employees and more than 60 offices on five continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.