West Virginia District Considers Removing Swings From All School Playgrounds
-- Bryan Chambers, Herald-Dispatch

West Virginia: September 2, 2010 -- A state lawmaker is asking Cabell County Schools Superintendent William Smith to suspend the removal of swing sets from all elementary school playgrounds until he can bring involved parties to the table. Swings are scheduled to be removed from the 17 schools that have them by late December because of recent lawsuits and costs associated with meeting national standards for playground safety. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission sets playground safety guidelines. The current guidelines for swings require a protective layer of sand, pea gravel, wood mulch, wood chips or recycled rubber that equals twice the height of the swing in each direction. That means if a swing is 7 feet long, a layer of ground material is required 14 feet in front and 14 feet in the back. The safety standards also call for a depth of at least 9 inches. Cabell County uses wood mulch on its playgrounds, but it is biodegradable and washes away when it rains, said Tim Stewart, safety manager for Cabell County Schools. That makes it difficult to comply with national safety standards, he said. The only other viable alternative is recycled rubber, but it has raised toxicity questions among parents across the country and is more expensive than wood mulch, Stewart said. He estimates it would cost about $8,000 to cover the ground around each of the 36 swing sets. That's a total of $288,000, a cost that would have to be repeated at least every seven years, he said.

Razing of old Hubbard High gives rise to emotion
-- Elise Franco, Vindy

Ohio: August 29, 2010 -- Students and alumni grabbed scattered bricks as a reminder of the past and a look to the future as the old Hubbard High School began its descent to the ground. About 150 people stood in the parking lot of the old high school Saturday afternoon and watched as demolition began on the 56-year-old building. Superintendent Richard Buchenic, a Hubbard graduate, said the old school’s demolition was bittersweet. “Everybody that went to school here has a special place in their heart for this school,” he said. “It’s the place where I spent four of the best years, and it gave me a great education and great memories.” The school is being torn down to make room for a new middle school that will be built on the same site, Buchenic said. Construction on the middle school, which will be the second of three new district buildings, is scheduled to begin Oct. 1, and Buchenic said it should be ready for students for the 2012-13 school year. Residents are invited to tour the new $20 million high school at 2 p.m. today. The total project cost is about $56 million, 68 percent of which is paid for by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

School board approves loans; district gets good grades
-- DEB ANDERSON, The Dunn County News

Wisconsin: August 29, 2010 -- After a brief exchange regarding the difference between the committee of the whole and a regular school board meeting — raising the question of discussion vs. formal action — the Menomonie school board’s first committee of the whole meeting commenced on Monday evening. As time was of the essence regarding a decision, the board agreed to make some special approvals that night. However, it was decided that committee of the whole meetings will mainly be used for the purposes of gathering information for regular board meetings; decision-making will be limited: only issues of a timely nature will be subject to voting. And in addition to its regular board meeting on the second Monday of every month, the board will continue to meet as a committee of the whole on the fourth Monday of each month.

Eagle-Vail high school makeover could cost $10.5 million
-- Sarah Mausolf , Vail Daily

Colorado: August 27, 2010 -- enovations at the old Battle Mountain High School building in Eagle-Vail took another step forward this week. Eagle County School Board members gave the district permission to borrow $7.7 million for project. The vacant building will be refashioned into a school for pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students.Students from Minturn Middle School and Meadow Mountain Elementary schools will be combined at the former high school beginning in fall 2011. Graduating fifth-graders from Red Sandstone Elementary School will also matriculate into the Eagle-Vail school for sixth through eighth grades.

Money for New Orleans School Construction Is a Giant Step for Our Recovery: An Editorial
-- Editorial Page Staff, Times-Picayune

Louisiana: August 27, 2010 -- The transformation of New Orleans public schools has been one of the brightest and most consequential developments post-Katrina. That’s why the Obama administration’s decision to fully pay for a citywide school construction plan is a momentous step for our recovery. The total $1.8 billion in FEMA funds approved for school construction makes the award one of the largest recovery grants since the storm. The grant includes $700 million for school construction that FEMA committed last year and an additional $1.1 billion that had been in doubt until this week. The total equals the projected cost of a citywide master plan the Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish School Board approved in 2008. That means education officials should have enough money to provide every school — charter and traditional — a new building or a substantially renovated one. Just as important, FEMA agreed to lump the schools’ extensive Katrina damage into one large project. That will allow new schools to be built wherever needed, without being restricted to rebuilding pre-Katrina structures.