Changes to how the state constructs new schools edged closer to reality Monday after Assembly lawmakers approved a bill with amendments that would shed direct funding for charter and renaissance school development in favor of a loan program.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), would retool the long-troubled Schools Development Authority, requiring authority-funded projects in certain districts to meet model specifications while offering loans to fund remediation to charter and renaissance school facilities.

“We think that this is the best version of this bill that we’ve seen since discussion on the bill first started in the Assembly Education Committee a year ago, nearly to the day,” Jessie Young, legislative advocate for the New Jersey School Boards Association told the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

During a hearing held last December, public school advocates worried that allowing charter and renaissance schools to receive Schools Development Authority funding through grants could leave public dollars in private hands if such a school closed. They noted that few charters own their buildings, and such closures are not uncommon.

The Schools Development Authority is responsible for capital improvements — including modernizations, renovations, and new construction — in 31 court-identified districts, which are typically low-income school districts, and funds similar work in other school districts, albeit at lower amounts.

Lawmakers have sought to retool the agency amid growing dilapidation in a broad portfolio of aging school buildings.

Bipartisan legislation that proposes the installation of solar panels in schools across Pennsylvania awaits a vote in the state Senate.

The Solar for Schools bill aims to combat climate change and invest in education. Fewer than 2% of Pennsylvania’s nearly 7,000 schools are powered by solar energy.

Mick Iskric is superintendent of Steelton-Highspire School District, which has a 42-acre urban school campus that serves more than 1,300 students from low-income families. He explained that, after partnering with McClure Company to install solar panels, the district now sees a monthly credit on its electric bill.

Iskric is convinced the legislation would be a game-changer for school districts in the Commonwealth.

“And then ultimately, all that savings, what we’re trying to do is get more funding to offset our expenses and get more programming for students,” Iskric said. “So, the more money I save, the more support I can get directly into the classroom.”

According to Iskric, the district has achieved 100% reliance on solar power for its electricity and will save an estimated $1.6 million over the next 20 years.

YABUCOA, PUERTO RICO — Silence reigns on the basketball court of Ramón Quiñones Medina High School at the start of the school year. There are no shouts from students practicing sports like basketball or volleyball. There are no deafening whistles from teachers calling out defensive fouls, no thuds of sneakers running this way and that, no echoes of balls ricocheting off the ground.

At midday, recess time, when students used to get together to play sports, the voices, yelling and applause of classmates who would relish watching and encouraging their teams have now disappeared.

While the requirement may still stand — as it does for all schools in Puerto Rico — to provide physical education classes five days a week, Ramón Quiñones Medina High School has gone six years and counting mired in this silence. Its students are supposed to spend one hour per day on physical education, but the nearly 300 young people who attend this school each year have been without formal instruction in basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer and even track and field since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. When the storm swept through the school’s basketball court, it severely damaged its columns, beams and roofing.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - Millions of dollars are headed to schools across South Carolina to bolster security and safety.

But it fell short of covering what districts reported they needed to ensure students and staff are safe, so the head of South Carolina’s school system wants to see more money put toward this focus next year.

Lawmakers allocated $20 million in the current state budget for school facility safety upgrades at the request of State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver.

When the Department of Education opened up this pot of money for applications, it received nearly double that amount in requests from districts.

“While it might seem like a lot, really when you think about it at the state level and 77 school districts across the state, it dries out pretty quick,” South Carolina Department of Education Communications Director Derek Phillips said.

Last month, the State Board of Education approved a plan to distribute that money to more than 40 traditional school districts, along with several charter schools and the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Every district that applied for funding received money, ranging from a few thousand dollars to $1 million, which is going to Marion County School District (Marion 10), Marlboro County School District, Laurens County School District 56, Darlington County School District, and Florence County School District 2.

“At the end of the day, the first priority is keeping our school staff and our students safe each and every day when they enter the school buildings,” Phillips said.

The $1.9 billion slate of school repairs and construction that Duval County voters agreed in 2020 to help finance through a half-penny sales tax could end up costing $3.9 billion, school administrators now project.
The sticker shock is being compounded by a forecast that tax revenues earmarked to pay for the 15-year worklist could fall $1.4 billion short of the new final price.
Neither budget cuts nor tax hikes have been ordered to bridge the gap, and it’s not certain the new counts will be entirely accurate either.
But the twin forecasts underscore the administrative headaches the school system is facing trying to deliver all 180 separate projects, including building 28 new schools, in the school district’s master facility plan.
“We’re going to have to make some decisions in terms of funding” for the work, Erika Harding, the district’s assistant superintendent for operations, told School Board members in a workshop last month. “And some of the projects are going to require some cutbacks.”
While it’s not clear how the board will respond, the forecasts will be “what’s driving future decisions and conversations,” School Board member Lori Hershey said after the board took up the subject recently.
 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the V.I. Education Department two grants totalling $464 million to demolish and replace Claude O. Markoe Elementary School on St. Croix and Addelita Cancryn Junior High School on St. Thomas, according to a recent news release from the office of V.I. Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett.

The release said $140 million will be set aside for the Markoe project, and $324 million for the Cancryn rebuild. Both schools were damaged extensively during the 2017 hurricanes.

“These awards are for the prudent replacement standard which will be integral for improving our preparedness and resiliency against natural disasters. As with much of the funding released to our territory for the territory’s rebuild, I and my team worked diligently to change the provisions of the Stafford Act which is used for rebuilding after U.S. disasters,” Plaskett said in the release. “My office made the convincing argument that the level of disaster in the Virgin Islands was exacerbated by the lack of federal funding investment in our critical infrastructure prior to the storms, which made the effect of the hurricanes more profound.”

New research has found that a student's perception of their school building conditions is related to their anxiety. The researchers found that students who had a negative perception of their school's physical environment reported higher levels of anxiety.
The research was carried out by researchers from Queen's University Belfast, University of Johannesburg, University of Jyväskylä, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the University of Eastern Finland, and has been published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Public Schools is looking into possibly closing some schools to better serve the students they have.
The big announcement came during the district's third update in front of the State Board of Education (OSDE) Thursday morning. 
As TPS gave its update on financial transparency and Corrective Action Plan, Interim Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson mentioned looking into the possibility of some school closures. 
"We are also having conversations regarding ensuring we provide the best quality learning experience for our students, and in that conversation, that can lend itself to some school closures," she said.
TPS Board Member John Croisant said State Superintendent Ryan Walters has asked about closing schools before, and Walters mentioned it to the district earlier this month, and again during Thursday's meeting. 
"I think that's a huge overstep of their authority," Croisant said.
TPS parents like Ashley Daley, said the thought of closing schools is terrifying. 
 

During a School Safety Advisory Commission meeting on Tuesday, Alabama's State Fire Marshal, Scott Pilgreen, drew attention to a lack of basic safety system maintenance in schools. The advisory commission provides recommendations to the Alabama legislature regarding school security.
Maintainance of safety measures such as door locks and fire systems were issues discussed among the group.
"I'm not trying to indict anybody in these schools, but you talk to the leadership of the school you get a mixed bag. Some of them are extremely apologetic and want to get on it quickly to get it fixed. A lot, 'we don't have the money,' and they want to point to the superintendent's office. When that happens, my people call me," said Pilgreen.
 

LORAIN — As Lorain Schools’ “new” buildings start to age, the district is looking at a $35 million price tag over the next five years to keep the facilities in shape. 

During a brief presentation at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, Director of Communications and Marketing Tony Dimacchia gave an overview of the costs and projects Lorain Schools will need to complete to maintain its buildings. Those projects range from resurfacing parking lots to replacing ceiling tiles and gym floors. It also includes security upgrades like kick-plate lockdown devices for classrooms and a mass emergency notification system. 

Lorain Schools is also looking at purchasing the former health department building at 1144 W. Erie Ave. for about $200,000. The building would need about $909,000 in renovations and a 2,000-square-foot addition costing about $629,000 to meet the district’s needs. If the purchase moves forward, Lorain Schools would look to relocate its administrative offices to the former health building, while using the office space at the high school to expand career tech programming. 

To build a new building to meet the district's needs would cost an estimated $2.5 million, Dimacchia said. 

“We certainly don’t want to increase the costs of the district, but it is critical for us to maintain safe and healthy facilities,” Dimacchia said.

PEMBERVILLE – Eastwood Local Schools has started to address the future of its middle school and high school.

At its Nov. 20 meeting, the board of education approved a resolution of intent to participate in the Expedited Local Partnership Program with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.

Superintendent Brent Welker said the district was starting a fact-finding process to fully understand the scope and costs associated with new construction or renovation of the two schools.

“So we will be ready if our number is called,” he said Monday.

He said the district sent a letter of interest to OFCC in 2021, but at that time was far down the list for funding. The district was bumped up in the last couple months due to completion of the elementary school portion of its master facilities plan.

Functionality and maintenance have become issues at both the middle and high schools, Welker said.

The high school was built in 1960 and added onto in 2000.

“We’ve kept it in pretty good shape,” he said. But finding replacement parts for the mechanical systems “is a big deal.”

The middle school was built in 1970.

There has been some interest in getting the middle school and high school under one roof but providing a 21st-century learning environment is a priority, Welker said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An entire county school system in coal-producing West Virginia is going solar, representing what a developer and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s office touted on Wednesday as the biggest-ever single demonstration of sun-powered renewable electricity in Appalachian public schools.

The agreement between Wayne County Schools and West Virginian solar installer and developer Solar Holler builds on historic investments in coal communities made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democratic Sen. Manchin had a major role in shaping as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Manchin, who announced this month that he wouldn’t run for reelection in the deep-red state, citing an increasingly polarized political system, was quick Wednesday to tout U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2022 landmark climate, health and tax law, which placed special emphasis on creating new clean energy jobs.

“Let’s be clear — this investment in Wayne County is a direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act,” he said in a written statement. “This type of investment in rural America to create jobs, make our country more energy secure and lower electric costs is exactly what the IRA was designed to do.”

As California’s fund to fix crumbling schools dwindles to nothing, lawmakers are negotiating behind the scenes to craft a ballot measure that would be the state’s largest school construction bond in decades.

But some beleaguered school superintendents say the money will not be nearly enough to fix all the dry rot, leaky roofs and broken air conditioners in the state’s thousands of school buildings. And it won’t change a system that they say favors wealthy, urban, left-leaning areas that can easily pass local bond measures to make needed repairs.

“The big question is, why can’t our kids have school buildings that are safe and as nice as other kids’ schools, just a few miles away?” said Helio Brasil, superintendent of Keyes Union School District, a rural TK-8 district in a low-income area south of Modesto. “This school is in such bad shape it can feel like a jail. … I’m speaking up about this because I feel the system needs to be fixed. I don’t want the next generation of students to have to experience this.”

Boston school officials are on the “final mile” of plotting out how to address decades of neglect and disinvestment in school facilities, district officials announced.

“After many decades of the firm decision making, shifting our physical footprint will be disruptive,” said Superintendent Mary Skipper ahead of a presentation on the facilities plan at the Nov. 15 School Committee meeting. “In some cases difficult. Tools we’ve developed over the last 18 months will enable greater transparency, collaboration with our communities to understand how and why certain decisions are made.”

With about half of facilities built before WWII and some around 100 years old, Skipper said, the project is an “ambitious” and unprecedented undertaking for the district but necessary to provide students “fully inclusive, high quality education.”

COLUMBIA — Many thousands of students who studied in the now-demolished Wando High School buildings in Mount Pleasant spent part of their days walking from class to class, past banks of lockers in their school’s hallways.

But the image of lockers in American school life — of teenagers letting gym clothes rot in them, gossiping and perhaps getting shoved into them — is slowly disappearing. The students who now attend Lucy Beckham High, opened on the old Wando’s grounds in 2020, don’t have that space to store their books or meet up with friends between periods.

That design choice is part of what school architects say is a trend: district officials prefer to leave banks of hallway lockers out of newly built campuses. 

“Maybe 20 years ago, the expectation was that you would put lockers in every single school that you designed,” said Ben Thompson, K-12 studio director at McMillan Pazdan Smith, the South Carolina architecture firm that designed Lucy Beckham and other schools. “Now, it’s rare that you include them in buildings.” 

All 4,000 schools across the country are to have solar panels installed to reduce energy costs and their carbon footprint, Education Minister Norma Foley has announced.

Schools in some counties have been invited to participate in the first phase of the Solar for Schools Scheme, to be funded by the Government’s Climate Action Fund.

The first phase will open for applications on November 30 while it is intended that all eligible schools across the country will have the opportunity to apply to the scheme by the end of 2024.

The scheme aims to assist schools in reducing their energy costs and their carbon footprint as part of the response to meeting the 2030 and 2050 Climate Action Plan targets for the school sector.

The Huntingdon Area School District is launching a multi-million-dollar energy efficiency and cost reduction project.
School board members took several major steps to put the work into motion at their monthly meeting Monday, including approving an almost $10 million bond issue to pay for the energy service company (ESCO) contract.
Representatives of the school district’s bond counsel and financial advisers and consultants spoke to school directors before they voted to take on the huge debt.
Melissa Hughes of PFM Financial Advisors reviewed the school district’s existing debt portfolio and reports showing how much impact debt services have on the HASD budget.
She said her firm’s projections showed a relatively level debt service when the amount needed to finance the ESCO project is included.
Chris Hoffert of Stifel, a brokerage and investment banking firm, also provided a market update before directors made their final decision.
“Long-term interest rates are favorable right now with recent steady improvement,” Hoffert reported.
He noted over the past three weeks rates have come down slightly, and that’s great news for the school district to lock in interest rates on the bonds in early December.
“There’s a lot less volatility than even a month ago. Things are looking good and we’re optimistic we can get the best rates for you that we possibly can,” Hoffert said.
 

A U.S. jury has ordered Bayer's Monsanto to pay $165 million to employees of a school northeast of Seattle who claimed chemicals made by the company called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, leaked from light fixtures and got them sick.
The Washington state court jury found the company liable for selling products containing PCBs used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, that were not safe, and did not include adequate warnings. The award included nearly $50 million in compensatory damages, and $115 million in punitive damages.
The verdict in favor of six teachers and a custodian who said exposure to the PCBs gave them cancer, brain injuries and other issues marks the latest trial loss for the company, which is now facing nearly $870 million in verdicts from alleged PCBs exposure at the Sky Valley center, said an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The company is appealing those verdicts.
Monsanto said in a statement that it will contest Monday's verdict, and that blood, air and other tests show the school employees were not exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs.
 

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — The Cheney School District (CSD) serves more than 5,000 students in Airway Heights, Cheney and the West Plains. 

“Those three distinct communities are experiencing a lot of growth, and have been pretty steadily for quite a while,” CSD parent Sonny Weathers said.

Weathers serves as co-chair on CSD's Long Range Facilities Planning Committee. The committee formed in December 2022 to bring solutions to the local school board on how to accommodate future growth in the area.

Beginning around January or February 2024, the Guam Department of Education will be taking a look at restructuring the number of public schools on the island, as the current capacity far exceeds the student enrollment that needs to be serviced, according to GDOE Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson.

"It'll be a very public process, and that's going to mean a couple (of) schools or buildings will close," Swanson said, acknowledging that closures are usually an emotional issue for some people, but GDOE is trying to ensure that it can adequately maintain facilities. 

"Our objective is to reduce the load in terms of financial load of what needs to be maintained, so we can do a better job, at the same time, provide adequate service to our whole community," the superintendent said.