Giving Compass' Take:

• EdSurge reports on a recent event that brought together educators and students from schools that have experienced mass shootings; the discussion centered around how to create safe, vibrant learning spaces.

• This isn't just about physical safety and security, but ways to design schools with holistic well-being in mind. How can nonprofits take part and provide the resources needed?

• Here's why student engagement needs to be a successful element of school redesign.

Last Friday I found myself sitting in a bright sunlit room in Washington D.C. On my left was the Superintendent of Schools from Newtown, Conn., and next to him, the new principal of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School. On my right sat two high school students, survivors of the massacre at Margery Stoneman Douglas High School.

I had been uncomfortable at this event before I sat down in that spot, but once I found myself at this epicenter of pain and loss I realized that I did have a purpose that day.

Children are why we build a society. Children are the reason we want to build a just society, an equitable society, an embracing culture. Children are why we want a clean and healthy environment, why we want communities that are both safe and open, and both unified and diverse.

Children are the reason we want to build a just society, an equitable society, an embracing culture.

As our group began to speak, I watched closely as Joe Erardi, the recently retired superintendent of Connecticut’s Newtown Public Schools described his mission as he led the building of the new Sandy Hook Elementary, “I wanted a beautiful place,” he said. “I wanted a beautiful place that children would love.”

Read the full article about what it means to build a school by Ira Socol at EdSurge.