The Public School System has secured a $4.99-million grant it will get over five years through the Supporting America’s School Infrastructure program, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) over the weekend.

Sablan disclosed in his e-kilili newsletter that this funding, as the U.S. Department of Education announced on Thursday, is rooted in the concept of Minetgot, the Chamorro term for resilience, and focuses on three objectives: the creation of a comprehensive 10-year school facilities master plan, transitioning to a cloud-based maintenance system, and implementing a maintenance training program for district staff.

Sablan said the facilities master plan will address reducing emergency repair costs, ensuring modern safety standards, and increasing sustainability.

Anne Forrester began feeling ill during her first year of teaching, in 2016. The symptoms steadily worsened as she spent more time in her decades-old school building.

“I was getting sick all the time, including chronic respiratory and asthma symptoms,” says Forrester, who worked in Thomas C. Boushall Middle School, in Richmond, Va., at the time. “But I was new and didn’t think too much about it.”

There were, however, whispers in the building about what was really triggering these symptoms—which were also affecting many of Forrester’s colleagues and students.

It turned out that many buildings across the district were becoming breeding grounds for mold.

By 2022, says Forrester, “you could see it everywhere.” Mold was clearly visible in classrooms, hallways, and offices, covering parts of the ceiling floors, lockers, and chairs.

Mold is just one of the many pollutants that degrade indoor air quality (IAQ) in many school buildings. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly half of the educators and students working and learning in school buildings are breathing air polluted by bacteria, chemicals, viruses, and pesticides.

When hot weather hits, conditions become even more dangerous. Long before the end of the school year, temperatures— fueled by climate change—are reaching 90 degrees, creating stifling, often unbearable learning and working conditions.

“When you have breathing issues or it’s too hot or too cold or too humid, you will not be productive,” says Kristen Record, a high school physics teacher in Stratford, Conn. “It is extremely hard to concentrate for lengthy periods of time.”

Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Monday announced a $2 billion investment in public schools over the next 10 years, a large contribution aimed at shoring up dilapidated infrastructure at schools across the state.  Little said the investment, which he announced in his State of the State address, provides property tax relief that would also provide school  districts with the ability to repair and replace their school buildings, citing reporting from the Idaho Statesman and ProPublica.  Local school districts have long struggled to fix their dilapidated, aging school buildings, in part because of the high two-thirds voter approval  threshold that school bonds require.  Schools face leaking roofs, collapsing ceilings from water damage and failing plumbing, the investigation from the Statesman and ProPublica found. “We’ve all seen the pictures and videos of some Idaho schools that are neglected — crumbling, leaking, falling apart,” Little said. “In one school  I visited, raw sewage is seeping into a space under the cafeteria. Folks, we can do better.” “As elected leaders, it is not just our constitutional obligation but our moral obligation as well to prioritize and strengthen public schools,” Little added.

Urban heat islands, made worse by climate change, can push up temperatures and bring on more air pollution in larger cities. Now, a Milwaukee project is giving public schools resources to remove a key source of the heat-trapping effect.

Dozens of public schools in Milwaukee are working with the nonprofit Reflo on swapping out playground asphalt for green infrastructure, including more trees and native plants.

Lisa Neeb, manager of the Green and Healthy Schools Program Manager for Reflo, cited environmental benefits such as reduced stormwater runoff, and giving students more refuge on hot days.

“There’s often not very many areas of shade, if any, on these urban schoolyards,” Neeb pointed out. “There’s not a lot of things to naturally do.”

The Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) is getting nearly $5 million from the U.S. Department of Education.

The funds come from one of eight grants being disbursed under the federal government’s Supporting America’s School Infrastructure (SASI) program.

The goal is to help districts in various states to improve their school facilities.  

ADOA received endorsements from the Legislature, Governor’s Office, school districts and statewide education organizations to get the grant.

A department spokesperson said the money will help modernize Arizona’s Building Inventory Database so the state can more quickly address preventative-maintenance issues and new-school construction.

SACRAMENTO—On Thursday, January 4, the United States Department of Education announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) is among the recipients of the Supporting America’s School Infrastructure (SASI) Grant Program. Through a SASI Grant, CDE will receive $4.99 million toward improving school facilities in small school districts across California.

“I am pleased that we have been able to secure this federal support for our rural districts. We know how important school facilities are in providing a safe and healthy environment for our students. We must make sure that safe, healthy, and up-to-date school facilities are available to children in every community,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. “Every student should be learning in an optimal environment that supports them to be healthy, safe, engaged, and challenged.”

The Biden-Harris Administration announced eight new grant awards today totaling more than $37 million over five years under the Supporting America’s School Infrastructure (SASI) program and one new grant for $10 million over five years under the National Center on School Infrastructure (NCSI) program. This $47 million investment, issued by the U.S. Department of Education (Department), bolsters the capacity of states to support school districts in improving school facilities with the goal of more equitable access to healthy, sustainable, and modern learning environments for all students. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will highlight this announcement during a visit to Virginia today with Ranking Member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. 

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, K-12 school districts spend nearly $8 billion annually on energy costs, the second largest expense after teacher salaries. Aging facilities combined with limited school budgets can result in deferred maintenance of facilities, with current estimates of around $270 billion needed for infrastructure repairs.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a grant program funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) focused on energy improvements at public school facilities, especially in the highest-need districts, and designed to save schools money. Similarly, the White House released a toolkit on federal resources for addressing school infrastructure needs in April 2022. And today, the Department of Education is announcing its grantees under the Supporting America's School Infrastructure grant program, which bolsters the capacity of States to support school districts in improving school facilities with the goal of more equitable access to healthy, sustainable, and modern learning environments for all students.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Virginia is getting $5 million in federal funding to help address infrastructure at schools, U.S. Education Sec. Miguel Cardona announced Thursday during a visit to Victory Elementary.
"All too often schools are the last places that get renovated or air handling systems or air conditioners are the first things to get cut in budgets," Cardona told reporters during his visit. "You know what? That's not acceptable."
Virginia is one of eight states to receive the funding through the Supporting America's School Infrastructure program in the Dept. of Education.
The funding will let schools assess infrastructure, hire staff and develop infrastructure systems, among other things.
While Virginia is receiving the funding, Cardona acknowledged it's just a drop in the bucket.
"It's five million more than it was ever done at the Dept. of Education," he said. "What we're doing is recognizing that infrastructure needs to be part of the conversation when we're talking about student achievement, student equity."
 

Boston Public Schools officials shared their long-awaited “master plan” for school facilities Wednesday, after narrowly meeting a deadline set by state education officials.
The plan is presented as an opportunity to address long-standing problems with Boston school facilities, including under-enrolled schools, deferred maintenance and, generally, inadequate spaces for working and learning for students and staff.
And it imagines a future of larger, newer, greener — and fewer — standalone schools as it seeks to address present-day problems. The 80-page plan suggests that, at the very least, a little more than a dozen district schools eventually should merge or close.
Of the 119 school buildings citywide, the report finds that dozens are “underutilized,” or well-below capacity, after years of sliding enrollment. According to district data, just 18% of them are equipped to provide what it calls a “high-quality student experience.”
For example, the district has long argued that its many small, single-strand elementary schools — with just one class per grade — can severely hinder enrichment opportunities and administrators’ ability to best serve students with disabilities or those who are learning English.
 

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The first day back from the holiday break was also the first day at the brand-new Thomas M. Peirce Elementary School in North Philadelphia.

Almost 200 students, in pre-kindergarten through 5th grade, arrived for their first day of learning inside the new building on Wednesday.

The building, which the school district said cost about $44 million, is the first public elementary school built in North Philadelphia in more than seven decades.

"I graduated from this school in 1969, and it's so wonderful to see these children have a building like this." Terry Rembert, the grandparent of a current T.M. Peirce student, said.

The old T.M. Peirce, which was built in 1909, was shut down about four years ago.

The Maryland Energy Administration on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to help K-12 public schools across the state reduce and eliminate carbon emissions. The Decarbonizing Public Schools Program will provide capital to help local education agencies more fully incorporate a wide range of clean energy and energy efficiency measures into Maryland’s public schools.
The program provides incentives for a comprehensive suite of grants focused on capacity building, infrastructure upgrades, renewable energy adoption and the use of new, sustainable construction methods. Notably, the Decarbonizing Public Schools Program will expand statewide construction and access to net zero energy schools – school buildings that create and save as much renewable energy as they use.
Under a precursor to this program, Maryland built and opened its first three net zero energy schools. The first was Wilde Lake Middle School in Howard County, followed by Holabird Academy and the Graceland Park/O’Donnell Heights Elementary/Middle School, both in Baltimore City. This new initiative will help local education agencies retrofit, design and construct state-of-the-art, net zero energy campuses that produce enough on-location renewable energy to meet their total annual electricity demands.

On the first day of the 2024 legislative session, state education officials presented lawmakers with the latest estimates for Vermont’s school construction needs — a whopping $6.3 billion in the next 21 years. 

And that number, Agency of Education staff cautioned, is likely a significant underestimate.

Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, chair of the House Committee on Education, called the figure “eye popping.” He signaled that his committee would make addressing school construction needs a priority this session.

The cost estimate came as part of a school facilities assessment ordered by the Legislature in 2021, which gathered baseline data on 384 school buildings in Vermont and translated the findings into cost projections for every district statewide. The Agency of Education expects to create a public dashboard with that data later this year. 

From fiscal years 2000-2008, the state provided more than $280 million in construction aid to schools, but amid the Great Recession it suspended state assistance for such projects. This year, lawmakers will consider how the state could revive some funding, though Conlon made clear that footing the entire bill was out of the question.

Nearly 540 million children globally go to a school with no usable toilet, affecting them physically and emotionally during crucial education years. New research from Economist Impact reveals that almost half of these children are affected by 'toilet loss' — toilets have been built in their school, but they have been lost and are not usable due to lack of operation and maintenance (O&M). This hidden worldwide problem puts school infrastructure maintenance sharply in focus.

Economist Impact's year-long study supported by Unilever across Ecuador, India, Nigeria and the Philippines found that poor maintenance led to 1.2 million  'lost' school toilets; that's toilets that have been built but are no longer usable. This equates to a combined infrastructure loss of US$1.9 billion and a societal and economic cost amounting to US$10 billion. The four countries, indicative of others worldwide, could be 10 percent closer to the goal of providing all children access to usable school toilets if toilet construction had been supported by maintenance.

A former special education teacher at Mountain View Elementary School is suing the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and the Kenai Peninsula Borough with and on behalf of her four children, who she says have suffered from medical issues after being exposed to mold and other materials while attending district schools.

Jennifer Harvey-Kindred and two of her adult children, Madeline Kindred and Jillian Kindred, are plaintiffs in the suit, as are two of Harvey-Kindred’s minor children. Between 2004 and 2018, the four children attended at various intervals Aurora Borealis Charter School in Kenai, Soldotna Middle School, Soldotna High School and Kenai Central High School.

School district records published for the KPBSD school board’s Oct. 2, 2023, meeting show that Harvey-Kindred worked as a special education pre-kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Elementary School in Kenai until her resignation effective Oct. 17, 2023.

Whenever the next Big One hits – a magnitude 9 Cascadia megaquake – it sure would be nice if fire trucks could still drive out of their stations and your neighborhood school could function as a shelter. 

Current seismic codes require public buildings to be built strong enough so they don’t fall down in a quake. Now, some emergency preparedness advocates want to raise the bar. Not only should essential buildings resist collapse in a strong earthquake, but also newly constructed schools, in particular, should be built so in the immediate aftermath they can be counted on to serve as relief centers.

This matters to millions of Northwest residents because buildings erected in the near future stand a good chance of being violently shaken by an earthquake. The most recent magnitude 9 rip of the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone happened over three centuries ago, in 1700. Seismologists say that means the region is now well into the window for the next catastrophic temblor.

Additionally, the Northwest faces risks from a multitude of shallow crustal faults and deep slab quakes. Each of these is capable of unleashing up to 7.0-7.5 magnitude shaking in a more localized area.

In Oregon, the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects intends to press the Legislature to require new schools and community college buildings in earthquake country west of the Cascades and in Klamath County to be built with more resilience. 

The Gillett school district in eastern Wisconsin has three school buildings. None has a sprinkler system installed to put out a fire.
The buildings were constructed between 50 and 100 years ago, well before fire codes were updated to require sprinkler systems for all newly constructed buildings. Installing a modern sprinkler system in the aging facilities would be too expensive. And new buildings, for now, are out of the question.
“The only way we could see to replace these buildings would be a local referendum, which has zero chance of passing,” said Wayne Johnson, the Gillett district’s superintendent. “You’ve got folks that don’t have any money, they’re not going to support a referendum to increase their property taxes.”
The Gillett schools are hardly an outlier.
In a survey conducted between Sept. 27 and Oct. 13, 2023, the EdWeek Research Center asked a nationally representative sample of 110 school principals whether the building where they most often work has working sprinklers.
Forty percent of respondents—2 in 5—said no, translating into tens of thousands of school buildings nationwide. Another 13 percent said they’re not sure if the currently installed sprinklers in their buildings work.
 

Department of Defense schools are preparing for an eventual large increase in military dependent students, and are looking to the Guam Department of Education to help accommodate the overflow. A DoD team recently toured multiple local campuses to see how it can help refurbish them ahead of the transfer of DODEA students.

GDOE superintendent Dr. Kenneth Swanson says the Department of Defense Education Activity team made up of planning and facility experts recently visited four campuses: Southern High, Oceanview Middle, Upi Elementary and Ukkudo High. "So they wanted to get a sense of the condition and the facilities that were there, so it was pretty much a walk and talk over the whole facility," he detailed.

Its not known yet when and how many military dependent students will attend GDOE schools, but the preparations are certainly underway. And Swanson says GDOE has plenty of room for more students.

PHOENIX — A proposed bill in the legislature could make it harder for Arizona school districts to fund new projects.

House Bill 2088, proposed by Republicans, Rep. Laurin Hendrix and Rep. Barbara Parker, said it would prohibit any businesses that give money for school bonds and override campaigns – that pass – from being able to bid on the projects that may happen.

For example, if a school district passes a bond measure to build a new school, the construction companies that donated money to the campaign would not be able to do the construction.

LINCOLN – In 2023, Lincoln schools celebrated a number of successes as the district’s officials pursued their goal of providing the best education and educational facilities for students.

A major accomplishment of 2023 was unveiling the new Lincoln High School Physical Education Center. The $8.3 million building officially opened for use in November, and per multiple officials, is the result of successful collaboration between the town and the school department.

Despite delays, the PEC was considered substantially complete on time in accordance with Rhode Island Department of Education deadlines, qualifying the town for $4.7 million in state reimbursement.