Oregon’s recent winter weather severely damaged multiple school buildings in Portland, rendering them unusable and leaving hundreds of families frustrated in the process.
Dozens of parents gathered at Portland Community College’s Sylvania campus for an open house on Saturday to hear the Portland Public Schools’ plan for getting the schools reopened and express their many concerns.
The meeting was organized by state representatives Daniel Nguyen and Dacia Grayber, both of whom represent Southwest Portland.
School district officials have announced that students at Markham Elementary School and Robert Gray Middle School would temporarily move to different campuses while the schools undergo massive repairs.
Robert Gray suffered 10 breaks in its main water lines due to freezing temperatures, damaging the ceilings and leaving the floors soaked and deformed.
Burst pipes led to extensive damage across Markham Elementary’s western portion. PPS Chief of Staff Jonathan Garcia said they explored using only a portion of the building, but that it would have likely slowed repairs.
The district had asked Portland Community College if its Sylvania campus — located near Markham — could temporarily host students, but was told the college could not accommodate hundreds of elementary students, Garcia said.
 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Rhode Island a $5 million grant to support school infrastructure.

Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) announced the grant Thursday, which will go toward creating modern learning environments in schools.

“Modern and sustainable school facilities are critical in ensuring our students are able to learn year-round and be present in the classroom,” said Governor McKee.

The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District says it will take at least a month to clean up the damage from Monday’s storm at Bancroft Elementary.
The campus is at the bottom of a hill surrounded by storm drains that got clogged in the sudden downpours and flash floods.
Five hundred students and 60 staff members were safely evacuated and are now holding classes at nearby Spring Valley Academy while their campus is dried and disinfected.
“Safety is the No. 1 priority here. We don't want to rush anyone back into conditions if they're not safe to be rushed back into," said Robert Cochran, the district's chief safety officer.
District officials have determined that the damage was so bad that flooring in every classroom and office will have to be replaced. That is expected to take until the end of February.
The campus was devastated by high water, mud and debris.
Students were in class and saw it all happen in a matter of minutes before they were evacuated.
"It was kind of making me nervous because I was like: ‘Oh my God, what if it comes into my classroom?'” said Bellamy Haylock, 11, a fifth grade student.
 

WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Earlier this week, NewsChannel 7 went to the Walton County School District board meeting. Multiple parents spoke, expressing their concerns about unsanitary classroom conditions at Van R. Butler Elementary School in Santa Rosa Beach.
Since Tuesday’s meeting, we’ve been looking into the classroom conditions that caused the parents at Butler to be so concerned.
“It’s not fit for students, or teachers. No one should be in there,” said Nina Mayes, parent of a 3rd-grader at Butler.
Mayes is referring to the modular classroom building that houses all 3rd-graders at Butler.
“The AC issues, moisture, possible mold, general air quality inside the portable buildings,” Mayes said.
Parents say the 3rd-grade wing, which is the learning area for 178 students, has long been a problem, and it came to a boiling point at the beginning of January.
“It’s completely unsanitary, unhealthy, and I was not going to send my child to school in those conditions,” said Mayes.
NewsChannel 7 visited the school on Friday, and principal Jimmy Ross gave us a tour.
 

PARSIPPANY, NJ — The Parsippany-Troy Hills School District will be getting new state funding to address critical facility needs.

The New Jersey Department of Education and the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) announced recently that $75 million would be appropriated to school districts across the state to assist with emergency construction and other capital needs.

“Every New Jersey student and school staff member deserves a space for learning that is safe, secure, and supportive of the highest educational outcomes,” said Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan, Acting Commissioner of the Department of Education.

The Parsippany-Troy Hills School District will receive $167,152, according to the state's figures.

Air quality is an environmental concern 15-year-old Adalayde Scott has been passionate about for most of her life — it’s personal for her.
The Skyline High School sophomore has seen her three younger brothers, who’ve dealt with lung problems since birth, struggle on bad air quality days. She said her youngest brother, a preschooler, has been hospitalized several times and sent home with oxygen.
“It’s really sad to see someone that you love being impacted,” Adalayde said. “And it’s especially difficult knowing that we live in an area that doesn’t even experience the worst air pollution in the valley.”
That’s one reason why Scott joined four other Granite School District students last year to campaign, with help from the Sierra Club’s Utah chapter, for a clear commitment from the district: to operate on 100% clean electricity by 2030, and all other energy sectors by 2040.
That could mean operating on solar and wind power, and stepping away from natural gas for building heat and cafeteria cooking, said former Granite student Ava Curtis, who is now a sophomore at the University of Utah and helps with the Granite Clean Energy Campaign. It also means replacing fuel-reliant school buses with electric ones.
 

CHESTER/DEEP RIVER/ESSEX — The consensus between Board of Education members, town leaders and community members is clear: Get John Winthrop Middle School students back into the building, and do it fast. 

The school board voted Tuesday to address immediate problems at the building — cleaning up the mold, reinsulating pipes and making limited repairs to the HVAC system — with the goal of having the students return by September. 

Board member John Stack said tackling the mold and pipe problems first would buy the group time to address the larger issue of decreased enrollment across the three towns. 

“I think we are probably putting that building in better condition than it has been for, let’s say, the last 10 years. Because we’re watching it. We’re hypersensitive to it. And I think from a safety point of view, what we do is we buy ourselves a few years so that the leaders of these towns can get together and start to solve some of these bigger picture issues,” Stack said. 

Just before the pandemic began, administrators for the Oneida school district in upstate New York started pondering a plan to consolidate two elementary schools where enrollment had been steadily declining for years.
The onset of COVID-19, and the burst of federal relief aid that followed it, put those plans on hold. In recent months, though, the 1,700-student district has revisited the possibility that it could better serve students and spend resources more prudently with five schools instead of six.
On paper, the decision might seem simple. Having one less building reduces the cost of facilities maintenance, as well as compensation for principals and their deputies, nurses, counselors, and other building aides. That, in turn, frees up funds that could be redirected to staffing and support for students at the remaining schools.
But closing a school is almost always a logistically and emotionally arduous process.
The Oneida district’s students live across 42 square miles, which means closing a school could lengthen bus rides for many. Staff at the shuttered school might not be keen on shifting to another school, meaning the district could find itself needing to fill positions it otherwise wouldn’t. And the school building slated for closure, North Broad Street Elementary, has been a fixture in the community since it opened in 1911, meaning the 10,000-person city would be losing a part of its identity.
 

BEATRICE – A Nebraska lawmaker wants to require voter approval before a public school district can spend building funds. Senator Steve Halloran’s LB 1063 was heard in the Education Committee on Tuesday. It would set a target of $250,000, above which would require voter approval to spend district building levy funds. Why $250,000? Halloran admitted it’s an arbitrary figure.

"Not all schools abuse their buildings funds....some do. But, the nature of what we do in the legislature is, if a few people abuse something and we make laws that everyone has to follow....sometimes it can be intrusive to do that. If the committee can think of a way to narrowly control those districts that abuse it, I'm all for that."
The bill drew no support testimony during the hearing, but plenty of opposition from school officials and organizations that represent schools. Those included the Greater Nebraska Schools Association, which represents 25 of the largest school districts.  Crete Public Schools Superintendent Josh McDowell spoke on behalf of his district, the STANCE organization…Schools Taking Action For Nebraska Children’s Education…. The Nebraska Council of School Administrators and the Nebraska State Education Association.  He said the bill represents an erosion of local control and undermines the authority of elected school boards.

As the Moscow School District decides what to do with its aging buildings, it is learning from the Lewiston School District’s mistakes and successes with building a new high school.

The Moscow School Board on Tuesday listened to Lewiston School District Superintendent Lance Hansen share his district’s journey to passing a $59.8 million bond for a new high school in 2017 after previously failing three times.

Hansen spoke about the importance of keeping the district’s message to voters simple and clear in order to earn yes votes.

“Doubt equals ‘no,’ ” Hansen said. “Unclarity equals no, to me.”

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced $100 million is now available through the Clean Green Schools Initiative under the historic $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act. The initiative will allow for the advancement of construction projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help public schools improve environmental sustainability and decarbonize school buildings. Today’s announcement supports the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050 and ensure at least 35 percent, with a goal of 40 percent, of the benefits from clean energy investments be directed to disadvantaged communities.

“Creating a safe and healthy learning environment is critical to providing our children the best education possible,” Governor Hochul said. “These investments will make our school facilities cleaner and more sustainable – and will have a tremendous positive effect on future generations of students.”

WICHITA, Kansas — About a half-dozen Wichita public schools will close for good at the end of the school year, as the district deals with declining enrollment and a massive budget shortfall.

Wichita Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said four to seven schools will likely close. Officials plan to present a list to the school board at its next meeting Feb. 12, and board members plan to vote on closings before spring break in March.

Wichita faces a $42 million budget gap, and leaders say closing buildings is the only way to prevent job cuts.

Susan Willis, chief financial officer for Wichita schools, says resources are spread too thinly over the district’s 90-plus schools. Wichita’s enrollment is trending downward. Meanwhile, the district faces about $1.2 billion in needed building repairs and maintenance, and staff shortages continue.

“It’s hard to even say the words, right?” Willis said. “Because it’s emotional to say the answer that solves those three problems is: Reduce the number of school buildings.”

Wichita is the state’s largest district, but enrollment has been declining since 2016.

Residents of Stow and Munroe Falls would rather scrap and replace many of their current school buildings than renovate those facilities at a modestly lower cost, according to feedback the district has collected so far.

During a public forum Thursday at Kimpton Middle School, the Stow-Munroe Falls City School district received positive responses to proposals to:

Build a total of four new elementary schools to replace the current six.
Construct a new middle school at the current site shared by Highland Elementary and Lakeview Intermediate schools.
Place new elementary buildings at the current sites of Kimpton Middle and Fishcreek and Woodland elementary as well as on district-owned property on Housley Road.

Feedback from Thursday's forum — along with another public meeting this week and community surveys — will help the district to finalize its master plan for facilities ahead of an opportunity to put a bond issue on the November ballot.

DENVER – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to award $10,670,000 in grant funding to nine selected recipients across the country to enhance community wildfire smoke preparedness. Of these recipients, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is anticipating a $1,895,705 grant to design a state-wide program for wildfire smoke awareness and preparation. 

CDPHE will use the EPA funds to provide outreach, education, and training for local community partners on how to prepare for, and respond to, the public health threat of wildfire smoke. This includes leveraging the Clean Air for Schools program, which provides air cleaners and indoor air quality monitors to K-12 schools, where CDPHE will partner with local communities to develop response plans for wildfire smoke events. Some of the expected outcomes include Smoke Readiness Plans, providing technical training on ventilation and filtration strategies, preparing school buildings to serve as Community Cleaner Air Shelters, and enabling indoor air quality monitoring in public school buildings to understand wildfire smoke impacts and evaluate effective responses.  With more than 880,000 kids enrolled in Colorado public schools, developing wildfire smoke preparedness programs improves indoor air quality and reduces public health risks for many students. 

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Help could be on the way for schools across Virginia, because on Jan. 23, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee advanced a proposal designed to dedicate more money toward school infrastructure. 

The bill, authored by State Senator Jeremy McPike (D-Prince William), would allow all localities in Virginia to charge an additional 1% sales tax to fund school construction and renovation, but only if voters of that locality approve the increase through a referendum.

“This will give the local citizens the opportunity to choose whether they want to increase the local sales tax so they can improve schools for kids in their community,” explained Washington County School Superintendent Keith Perrigan, who also represents 81 school districts as President of The Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia. 

Currently, only nine municipalities have approval from the Virginia General Assembly to charge such a tax. 

Perrigan said many localities can’t afford the cost of renovating their existing schools or building new ones.

At an afternoon committee meeting Monday, some members of the Prince George’s County Council expressed worry the county’s public school system will have to make cuts to programs for kids because of a change to the way it pays for new schools.

Prince George’s County has begun building new schools through a public-private partnership in which developers build and maintain the schools, and the county pays the developers back over 30 years.

Six new schools opened this school year under the program, and now Prince George’s County is starting a second phase in which eight more new schools are expected to be built.

Supporters of the public-private program said it’s a way to get new schools built much faster and much cheaper, and in addition, will help keep schools from falling into disrepair.

The moment something big breaks, (we’re) not going to have the money to pay for it.”

This is the worry of Deputy Superintendent Randy Meyer and others at the Victoria Independent School District.

This week, the district’s maintenance headaches came from a busted boiler at Vickers Elementary School and a frozen section of pipe at Mission Valley. Though relatively small when compared to other potential costly catastrophes like half-a-million-dollar air conditioner chillers or a school bus, it still resulted in students missing a day of school.

With aging campuses, this week’s woes once again prompted Meyer and others to wonder when they will be able to stop patching equipment in use well-past their intended lifespans and employ a solution to replace things on a healthy schedule.

Washoe County could close more than a dozen schools in a plan to modernize and consolidate over 100 district buildings as studies show enrollment numbers are set to decline.

The billion-dollar endeavor includes closing as many as 19 schools over 15 years, while reimaging buildings, education and what to do with dozens of schools, some a half-century old and below capacity.

“(This is) the most bold and broadest facility master plan, facility modernization plan this district has ever undertaken,” said Chief Operating Officer Adam Searcy.

OAKLAND PARK - Talon Frazier has big plans, the Jr. ROTC student at Northeast High School will take flying lessons over the summer.  

For now, he's thrilled to be going to classes in a brand new building that opened just days ago on his campus. 

"It's a lot more comfy and refreshing to go here every day," he says.  When I got here this was a vacant empty parking lot."

For years, the school that was opened in 1962, was a poster child for crumbling Broward schools with leaking roofs, mold and poor air conditioning.  

It was one of the schools that was supposed to be renovated immediately after Broward taxpayers approved an $800 million bond issue in 2014, but through a complicated mixture of delays, mismanagement, skyrocketing costs, and state funding cuts nothing happened. 

Grayslake Middle School will be closed for at least a month after the building experienced major issues due to the extreme cold temperatures this week, officials said.
Community Consolidated School District 46 Superintendent Dr. Lynn Glickman said there were significant issues with boilers, unit ventilators and sprinkler heads at Grayslake Middle School due to the cold weather.
“Yesterday, we were informed by our contractors that due to the scope of the repairs that will need to be made at GMS, we will not be able to reopen that building for several weeks,” Glickman said in a message to the school community Thursday.
The current estimate is four to six weeks for repairs to be made. “I know that this is difficult news to process, but I’m glad that I’m able to share this news while also sharing a plan moving forward,” Glickman said.