The New Hampshire Public School Infrastructure Commission awarded $8 million to fund school safety projects at at 149 schools across the state, according to a news release from the New Hampshire Department of Education. The funding comes from the Security Action for Education (SAFE) grants program and this round of funding focused on projects that “enhance surveillance, emergency alerting and access control” at schools.

Those projects include installing exterior cameras, camera monitors, locks, bollards, gates, fencing, blue light emergency alerting systems, public address phone systems and exterior door alarms, according to a description of the grant application process.

Hundreds of schools, child cares, parks and other care facilities around San Diego County are located near idle oil wells, which can emit toxic gases, a new study finds.

They’re among the nearly 4,500 wells statewide that an analysis of state data by the Center for Biological Diversity found are within 3,200 feet of such sensitive locations. That’s the minimum distance state law requires new oil and gas drilling to be from such sites.

Idle wells no longer produce oil or gas, but because they remain unplugged, they can emit explosive gases like methane and toxic chemicals like benzene, said Emily Diaz-Loar, a staff scientist at the environmental nonprofit. The group has pushed to speed up capping idle wells.

California has prohibited new drilling within 3,200 feet of these sensitive sites based on studies of the health harms of pollutants coming from oil and gas activity. Idle wells can also release harmful pollutants, yet thousands of idle wells remain unplugged within these health protection zones.

Addressing years of deferred maintenance is paying off for the Guam Department of Education (GDOE) which has seen significant improvement in the results of sanitary inspections renewals for school year 2025-2026 with the near perfect rating obtained by Agueda Johnston Middle School.

The push to improve the condition of Guam's public schools followed a big U.S. Department of Education push to return students to safe and healthy learning environments after the COVID-19 pandemic, spurring local efforts to enforce compliance with the Department of Public Health and Social Services Division of Environmental Health's school building sanitary codes mandated by local law.

Agueda was initially one of the schools identified as Tier III, meaning it required extensive work to bring the decades-old facilities into compliance.

Maine’s long-running school construction crisis may finally have a roadmap.
A state commission that has spent more than a year studying how Maine builds and renovates public schools released its final report Friday, calling for a major shift in how the state plans, funds and manages school construction projects.

Last year, the Governor’s Commission on School Construction estimated it would take roughly $11 billion to repair or replace hundreds of aging school buildings across the state, but commissioners say the price tag is only part of the problem.
The larger issue, they argue, is that the current system isn’t built to handle the scale of the need.
This marks the first time in 25 years that Maine is conducting a full study of how school construction projects are funded.
In 2024, the CBS13 I-Team surveyed every public school district in Maine and found the average age of a school building in Maine is 54 years. Of Maine’s roughly 600 public schools, the commission estimates that 500 will need replacement or significant renovation by 2045.
Some schools struggle with aging heating systems, poor ventilation, accessibility issues and outdated classroom layouts that no longer match modern educational standards.
At the same time, limited state bonding capacity and tight local budgets mean many projects wait years to move forward, if they move at all.
 

The message from Montana’s school maintenance directors to lawmakers is straightforward: “We need help.” Several spoke before members of the School Funding Interim Commission this month, including Helena Public Schools’ facility director Todd Verrill.

He told lawmakers the district’s deferred maintenance bill had ballooned to more than $100 million before voters approved a major building overhaul last year. Verrill says the school was doing its best with scant resources.

“If I sound like I’m angry, folks, I am. I come from the military where there’s a $900 billion budget per year at the federal level, and we’re scraping for pennies to educate our children,” Verrill said.

New data from national school infrastructure advocates backed up the administrators’ concerns. The 21st Century School Fund found Montana pays $100 million less than it needs to annually keep up with basic school maintenance like fixing faucets, replacing light fixtures and keeping the heat on.

Concerned parents and educators gathered to discuss the Philadelphia School District's $2.8 billion Facilities Master Plan Friday night with school leaders, including Superintendent Tony Watlington. 

The plan, if approved, proposes investments across ten city council districts. 

The proposal would close 20 schools, modernize 159 school facilities, improve building conditions, and expand access to high-quality academic and extracurricular opportunities citywide.

"I am just glad folks are coming out to give their imprint in a plan so the plan can be better," Dr. Robin Cooper said.

This is just one stop of the public listening sessions before Watlington's presentation to the Board of Education on Feb. 26.

People who attended were able to offer suggestions and ask questions. The goal was to engage directly with the communities most impacted.

The proposed plan created mixed reaction among parents and educators. While some feel it's positive, not everyone was on board.

Vermont school districts are more than $480 million in debt from the costs of renovating school buildings, according to data from the State Aid for School Construction Advisory Board. That might sound pretty steep, but experts say it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Vermont has some of the oldest school building stock in the country. That debt means that at least some districts have started investing in school renovation projects that, with current inflation rates, may have been far costlier had they started today, Michael Gaughan, the head of the Vermont Bond Bank, told lawmakers last month.

Lawmakers might consider themselves lucky — until they look at the several billion dollars needed to bring the rest of the state’s building stock into the 21st century. Not to mention how districts might feel about taking on debt their voters never authorized.

Schools in rural Alaska are in far worse condition than Mt. Edgecumbe High School, which recently made headlines for “deplorable” conditions, a Northwest Arctic Borough official told lawmakers Wednesday, describing schools operating without functioning heating controls, fire alarms, or water and sewer systems.

“There are a hundred Mount Edgecumbes out there,” Craig McConnell, President of the Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly, told the Joint House and Senate Education Committees. “Those schools out in rural Alaska are way, way worse. Trying to run schools with no heating controls, no fire alarm systems, no water sewer in a lot of cases.”

McConnell, who spent 35 years working in rural schools, including 24 years as a facilities director, painted a stark picture of Alaska’s education infrastructure crisis.

The testimony comes as Alaska faces a $6.3 billion school facilities funding gap over the next decade, with the state historically funding only about 15 percent of identified maintenance and construction needs, according to the Alaska Municipal League.

Across Metro Detroit, school bond proposals have swelled into multi hundred million dollar asks, turning what used to be routine building upgrades into big ticket neighborhood debates. Suburban districts and the Detroit Public Schools Community District are putting sweeping construction, replacement, and safety projects in front of voters as aging systems and years of deferred maintenance pile up. That shift is forcing school boards to sell larger, more complicated plans, and voters to weigh long term taxes against immediate repairs.
Local reporting shows a clear spike in activity. Metro districts filed roughly a dozen bond requests from 2021 to 2023, then moved to 15 asks in 2024 and 23 in 2025 as they chased larger projects. The increase has reshaped campaign calendars and the way school leaders explain tax impacts to homeowners, according to The Detroit News.
 

Arielle Tozier de la Poterie, a parent of a student at César Chávez School in North Portland, spends her day job working in international disaster risk reduction. So she’s familiar with the risk of schools collapsing on children during an earthquake.

For Tozier de la Poterie, the seismic risk of many buildings in Portland Public Schools’ portfolio was concerning; she went so far as to email the district asking about any seismic improvements that had been made to César Chávez ahead of her son starting there. She recalls them telling her some roof improvements had been made.

“It was worded in a way to make me feel better about it,” she says now. “And then, honestly, I think I was just like, ‘This is too much, what am I supposed to do about this? I can’t do anything about it. Am I going to not send my child to school?’ So I put it out of my head.”

Now, Tozier de la Poterie is thinking about it again. So are a number of other parents who are troubled that César Chávez and other elementary schools with higher proportions of low-income students aren’t on the list of nine chosen to receive full or partial retrofits.

Three years ago, Tanisha Salary went out of her way to choose Cleveland schools for her son CJ. 

The Salary family lives in Euclid, which is not part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). CJ attended a combination of Euclid City Schools and Catholic schools for elementary school. When it came time to pick a high school, the different options offered at CMSD, like MC2STEM High School, the specialized science and technology high school CJ currently attends, were really attractive to the family. 

“We chose CMSD specifically for the STEM school,” Christopher Salary, CJ’s father, told Signal Cleveland. “Because he showed an interest [and] it fit directly for the type of learning he was going to do.” 

Now, the district’s decision to merge 39 schools, including CJ’s high school, is causing the Salary family to reconsider their choice. CJ is among the nearly 4,000 students who will be displaced by the mergers, which will also shutter 18 school buildings entirely. His family is not the only one grappling with the decision about where to send their kids to school next year. 

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho school districts would gain new options for spending state facility dollars under a bill that cleared a House committee unanimously Monday.
House Bill 636 would let districts use leftover money from the School District Facility Fund to secure loans and enter lease-purchase agreements for new construction. Tools that were previously unavailable to traditional public schools, though charter schools already had similar flexibility.
"Our bond success rate across Idaho is about 20%," Rep. Sonia Galaviz (D-Boise), one of the bill's sponsors, told KTVB. "So as we see communities denying bonds, we're going to have to use the dollars that we have differently to be able to meet the needs of the facilities."
The facility fund, created in 2023, pools state sales tax and lottery revenue and distributes it annually to school districts based on average daily attendance. In the 2024-25 school year, about $141 million was distributed statewide.
But the fund comes with a strict spending order that Galaviz described as a "waterfall." Districts must first use the money to pay off existing bonds, then levies. Only after those obligations are satisfied can the remaining dollars go toward maintenance or building projects.
 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Jefferson County Public Schools is proposing millions of dollars in new construction and renovation projects over the next several years as the district faces a projected $188 million budget deficit.
District leaders revealed a draft district facilities plan Monday outlining which schools they want to build, rebuild or renovate during the next roughly four-year cycle. The district's Facilities Local Planning Committee met for an orientation. 
Construction projects announced since the district's massive budget deficit have raised a central question from taxpayers: How can the district afford new buildings?
Chief Operations Officer Rob Fulk said the construction plans are funded differently than the operating budget.
"That's a really reasonable question from a taxpayer," Fulk said. "When you build a school in Kentucky, there are two funds a district works off of."
The deficit comes from the district's general fund, which pays for day-to-day operations such as salaries and transportation. Construction projects are paid through the capital fund, a separate account legally restricted to building projects.
Capital funds cannot be used to supplement the general fund. 
 

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia’s school district is proposing a $2.8 billion Facilities Master Plan that would bring major upgrades to some schools, while closing nearly two dozen others.
Funding breakdown and community concerns
What we know:
The district says the investment would address long-standing inequities across Philadelphia neighborhoods, with money distributed to all 10 council districts.
Superintendent Tony Watlington said in a press release, "This plan is about ensuring that more students in every neighborhood have access to the high-quality academics, programs, and facilities they deserve. While some of these decisions are difficult, they are grounded in deep community engagement and a shared commitment to improving outcomes for all public school children in every zip code of Philadelphia."
Council District One is set to receive more than $308 million, including over $57 million for South Philadelphia High to become a state-of-the-art career and technical education hub. 
 

A fire marshal intervention that shut down a Wake County school last month has left families scrambling to find other school options, students learning virtually for weeks, and families wondering why no one had flagged the school as unsafe years ago.
Records obtained by WRAL News and interviews with fire officials show the informal guidance the school was operating under and a lapse in oversight that allowed the school to operate outside of that guidance for years.
“It just seemed like everybody was pointing fingers at everybody else,” said Jodi Bulmer, president of the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association.
In 2023, a Wake high school administrator made what they thought was a routine phone call, attempting to find out when Crossroads Flex High School’s last fire inspection was.
But when the Wake County fire marshal’s office answered, there was a problem: They had no idea a school was at the address listed — a multitenant office building and not your typical Wake school building. While the district typically buys land and builds on it, the district leases the space for Crossroads Flex, and the Cary address’s paperwork listed Crossroads as a business, not a school.
 

Everett voters did not hedge in the Feb. 10 special election, signing off on a nearly $397 million construction bond and renewing the district's education levy in a double win for local schools and a modest hit to local tax bills. Together, the measures will lift the district's combined local schools tax rate to about $3.95 per $1,000 of assessed value, with money aimed at adding permanent classrooms, modernizing career and technical education spaces and replacing scores of portable classrooms. District officials say the package is designed to balance long-term building needs with day-to-day staffing and programs that state funding does not fully cover.
Preliminary returns showed Proposition 1, the school construction bond, pulling in about 63.8% support, while Proposition 2, the education-levy renewal, landed roughly 64.4% approval, according to My Everett News. The bond cleared the 60% supermajority threshold required for passage, and the levy easily surpassed the simple majority it needed to continue.
 

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) - Twenty-five pictures released Thursday show deteriorating conditions inside Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka: narrow stairways crammed with boxes, brown ceiling stains dripping down walls, exposed classroom wiring, and a rat hole students named “Tip Toes.”

Lawmakers released the pictures during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, one of several this week examining why conditions at the state-run boarding school have deteriorated so badly that 108 students withdrew this year. The school’s website says it typically enrolls about 400 students.

Since lawmakers visited the Sitka school last week and called conditions “deplorable” at a Tuesday press conference, three legislative committees have questioned Department of Education Commissioner Deena Bishop and Mt. Edgecumbe Superintendent David Langford.

“In the case of Edgecumbe, we are directly responsible for the safety, quality of life and well-being of the students,” Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, NA-Sitka, said opening her Wednesday hearing.

Hawaii’s public schools, many aging and overcrowded, could see major upgrades if Congress approves a $130 billion nationwide plan to rebuild and modernize campuses. Local officials say the funding could address longstanding repair needs, including roofs, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, and school broadband. However, the proposal faces uncertainty as it must pass a sharply divided Congress.
What Lawmakers Are Proposing
Sen. Mazie Hirono has joined a bicameral group of lawmakers to roll out the Rebuild America's Schools Act of 2026, a measure that would create a $130 billion fund over five years, according to Sen. Hirono's Office. Roughly $100 billion would flow through formula grants, with another $30 billion in school construction bond authority. The proposal is aimed squarely at high-poverty districts and schools with urgent health and safety needs, and it puts a premium on green construction and stronger classroom broadband to support digital learning.
 

LITTLE FALLS – When students and staff walk the halls of Little Falls Community High School each day, they see lockers, classrooms and familiar corridors. What they don’t see is a mechanical system that has been quietly working and straining for more than half a century.

Constructed in 1972, the high school’s heating, ventilation, electrical and plumbing systems are now more than 50 years old. According to district officials and maintenance staff, those systems have far outlived their expected lifespan and are increasingly difficult and costly to keep running.

That reality is one of the primary drivers behind the upcoming Little Falls School District referendum, which would fund major mechanical upgrades at the high school as part of a broader facilities plan.

To better understand what’s at stake, the Morrison County Record spent time with the people who know the building best: head custodian Craig Gruber, boiler specialist Kevin Keeton and Executive Director of Operations Mark Diehl.

Under the bill, $100 billion would be provided through formula grants to the states. Ninety-five percent of the funds would go to districts based on criteria that include the poverty level of children in the school district, fiscal limitations to raise funds to improve facilities and the severity of the facility needs.

An additional $30 billion would be provided in bond authority for two types of bonds: qualified school infrastructure bonds and qualified zone academy bonds, both of which were eliminated in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The bond authority would be spread out in increments of $10 billion for each year between 2027 and 2029. 

“Local communities have shown us time and time again that they support investments in modernizing our schools, as evidenced by the overwhelming support for bond initiatives to address these issues,” said Talcott. 

For lower-income areas, which lack the tax base to get bonds passed as frequently as wealthier areas, inclusion of the qualified zone academy bonds in the bill could become an important tool; they’re targeted to low-income areas and, in rule changes the bill makes, school districts wouldn’t have to put up as much matching funds and there’s more flexibility in what the money can be used for.