The Philadelphia School District and city have settled a lawsuit challenging a law that would have given the city more environmental oversight over school buildings — and the ultimate authority to decide whether they can open.
The school system has agreed to drop its lawsuit, and the city prevailed on the creation of an advisory panel to examine district environmental issues. But the district retains final say-so on whether schools can open, and will get an additional $2.5 million in city money to address data management issues around asbestos, lead and other environmental hazards.
City and district leaders praised the settlement, announced Wednesday afternoon, hailing it as a way to move forward with one voice. The lawsuit, filed in January in federal court, was an unprecedented move by the school board against the authority that created it and chooses its members.
 

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — We've been talking about the nearly 2-billion-dollar bond and how it is paving the way to build new Guilford County Schools (GCS).
We even took a look inside at the new designs and what it takes to construct a brand-new school. 
But what about the older schools left with problems needing to be fixed? 
Bond money is also being used to make much-needed repairs. 
Picture this: your home is 20-30 years old and at this point, it's time for needed repairs. You're going to need to replace the HVAC, and fix pipes, the roof, and windows, and the longer you wait, the more expensive it will be. 
This is exactly what GCS is dealing with on a much bigger scale. 
"As you can imagine a school district that has over 126 schools and 12 million square feet, it is very difficult to have that size of a funding budget just for our operations and our capital," Deputy Superintendent of Business and Operations, Dr. Julius Monk said. 
Without the right upkeep, it has created a lot of problems over the last few years. 
 

At least 25 of the gardens were severely damaged to the point that all their produce had to be thrown away, according to the Vermont Garden Network. Now, gardeners are evaluating how long the remediation process will be before they can replant.
Members of the Duxbury Community Garden gathered for two Saturdays in July to perform an excruciating task: uproot their flood-ravaged plants.
At least seven gardeners worked side by side, tearing out of the earth vegetables and herbs they’d been nurturing for months. They got rid of cucumbers, garlic, onions, peppers, potatoes, squashes and tomatoes, as well as basil, cabbages, fennel, kale and shallots.
The produce all became contaminated when the Winooski River overflowed on July 10, submerging the community garden in Duxbury in up to 3 feet of floodwater.
 

While school shootings and mass shootings continue to plague the U.S. at near-record levels, “campus vulnerability assessments” of Hawaii’s public schools have progressed at a slow pace, with only 140 of the state’s 258 regular public school campuses formally evaluated since 2017 for problems that could make them more vulnerable to a potential active shooter.

Based on the assessments conducted so far by the state Department of Education, officials say they know that outdated door locks and campus fencing, and inconsistent security staffing, announcement systems and threat-assessment initiatives are among the most common inadequacies that need critical attention at many public schools.

Six new schools will open for the 2023-2024 school year in Prince George's County, Maryland.

The six schools include:

Drew-Freeman Middle School in Suitland
Hyattsville Middle School
Kenmoor Middle School in Landover
Sonia Sotomayor Middle School in Adelphi
Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights
Colin L. Powell Academy in Fort Washington
In total, the schools created 8,000 new spots for students.

Funding to build the schools came from what's known as the Blueprint Schools Program, a public-private partnership used to accelerate new school construction in the county.

By partnering with the private sector, the county was able to build the schools in two-and-a-half years.

Each of the schools has science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) labs with 3D printers, etchers and robotics; a video production studio; smart boards in every classroom; voice amplification systems; parent resource rooms; state-of-the-art dance, choral, orchestra, drama and band rooms; state-of-the-art kitchens; art studios; multipurpose fields and more, school officials said.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Virginia public schools are facing a critical deadline Monday and are about to lose a ton of federal money.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced health officials to think differently -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) distributed $42 billion nationwide, including $62 million to Virginia as part of a HEPA Air Purifier Program, which entitles Virginia schools to air purification systems at no cost. However, only 61% of local schools have applied for cleaner air systems in classrooms. The federally funded program ends Monday at midnight.

7News spoke with the head of the National Parents Union about the lack of participation in this program by superintendents and local school districts.

This summer, Boise School District began work on remodeling and renovating Collister Elementary School. Last summer, BSD started construction on Dallas Harris Elementary School. These projects were made possible by voters who passed the 2017 bond for $172.5 million, which needed a 66.67% ‘yes’ vote to be approved and received an 86% approval vote, BSD Public Affairs Administrator Dan Hollar said.
After the bond’s approval, BSD began 22 projects, Hollar said, and right now, the district’s 2017 bond projects are about 90% completed. Both Dallas Harris and Collister are expected to continue construction during the upcoming school year.

The state’s Department of Energy is giving economically disadvantaged public schools a better chance at accomplishing energy efficiency projects, as part of an effort to align itself with a federal directive from President Joe Biden.

A competitive matching grant program designed to advance projects in public and chartered public schools in small communities, the School Energy Efficiency Development Grant Program, known as SEED, was created with federal dollars in 2018. Since the program’s inception, four energy efficiency projects have been successfully completed in Hill, Lempster, New Boston, and Litchfield using $335,000 in grants. A fifth project in Berlin is underway. 

The projects have resulted in a combined annual savings of more than $65,000, 335,945 kilowatt hours of electricity, and more than 5,200 gallons of heating fuel, according to the Department of Energy, which puts out a request for proposals annually. Schools can apply to use the funding for insulation, lighting, weather sealing, appliances and equipment, retrofitting, and replacement of windows and doors. 

Last year, the grant program changed its scoring criteria for the pool of federal energy efficiency money to tip the scale in the application process for less-advantaged schools, part of an effort to advance a federal environmental justice initiative by President Biden. A related public comment process in February explored how the department could improve grant accessibility and the application itself. 

Across the nation, a new school year is about to start amid record-breaking stretches of scorching heat and sporadic spikes in poor air-quality conditions. Individual districts’ preparedness to confront these weather-related challenges varies widely.

But an aging infrastructure coupled with these increasingly hot temperatures are factoring into districts’ struggles to keep up with cooling demands.

“The average school building is 50 years old,” said Mike Pickens, the executive director of the National Council on School Facilities. “Forty-one percent of schools in our country need their HVAC system updated or replaced.”

Pickens advises districts to be “proactive, preventive, or even predictive” when it comes to maintenance of school buildings’ heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, or HVAC, systems. But the sudden onslaught of heat and poor air quality that is pummeling most of the nation this summer has increased the urgency for air-controlled school buildings.

As the very first of the school bond construction projects begin to rise on their sites, massive cost increases for future projects loom on the horizon for Guilford County. 

Through ballot referendums in 2020 and 2022, voters approved a historic $2 billion in school bond debt, putting their support behind a plan that aimed to address the poor physical condition of many schools as well as changing enrollment trends, safety concerns and other issues. 

Now, inflation, elevated construction costs and other factors are making it look like the money might only be enough to pay for a fraction of what was planned. 

While county commissioners and school board members had already been through sticker shock over increased costs for the first round of projects, some estimates for future projects appear even worse.  

For example, it looks like costs to replace Vandalia and Bessemer elementary schools could each be nearly triple the original 2019 estimates. Their anticipated $83 million and $84 million price tags put them in the same ballpark as the expected costs to build Kiser Middle School, now about 10% complete, according to the district. 

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids school leaders will be doing more “fact finding” and “go back to the drawing board to seek out other possibilities” for middle schools based on feedback they received from the city council about a facility plan, Superintendent Tawana Grover said.

The school board and Cedar Rapids City Council held their first joint meeting Wednesday to discuss a facility master plan proposed by the school district. The plan requires a combined $445 million bond referendum to be approved by voters — the first half of which could go to voters in November. The second bond referendum of $225 million could go to voters in November 2029.

Grover, who began as superintendent of the almost 16,000-student school district April 3, said she was “very grateful” the two councils could discuss the plan together. This was the first time the entities held a joint meeting since facility planning began with the school district’s elementary schools in 2018.

Indianapolis Public Schools says its planned sale of two school buildings that closed this year is exempt from a state law designed to make such district facilities available to charter schools for $1. 

The school board on Thursday voted unanimously to authorize officials to begin the sales process for Raymond Brandes School 65 and Francis Bellamy School 102, two of the six schools that closed at the end of the 2022-23 school year as part of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger reorganization. 

But the district will only consider transferring the properties to another government agency or selling them to a nonprofit organization for the first 30 days of the process before opening up the sales to other buyers.

The state’s so-called $1 law in general requires districts to make such buildings available to charter schools or state educational institutions for a sale price or annual lease of $1. But IPS maintains that changes to the statute that lawmakers approved earlier this year mean the law does not apply to its sale of the two facilities. That interpretation of the law has garnered pushback from charter supporters. 

The Virginia Board of Education moved Thursday to open a second application period for School Construction Assistance Program funding. About $85 million is still available for school divisions with plans for construction or renovation projects.

In May, the board approved 40 grants for projects in 28 school divisions. Those awards used about 80% of the $450 million allocated by the General Assembly in 2022 for the program. 

The state received 119 applications for the grants this spring. Each was graded on a 100-point scale based on 11 criteria including building age and economic need. 

Projects needed a minimum score of 65 to receive a grant for 10%, 20% or 30% of the project cost.

A second application period means schools that did not submit projects have another chance to do so. It also means that projects that didn’t meet the funding threshold can reapply. 

CARDIGAN, P.E.I. — A school in Cardigan is gearing up to become the first carbon-neutral school in P.E.I.
Cardigan Consolidated School is replacing its oil boilers with an inground geothermal system for temperature control in the building and installing a 100-kilowatt solar panel array system for basic electricity.
Additional renewable energy and efficiency upgrades are also planned to allow the building to produce as much renewable energy as it consumes annually.
“The education system is already leading by example by reducing transportation by using electric school buses, and Cardigan Consolidated will take the lead in reducing the emissions of our existing government buildings,” said Energy Minister Steven Myers.
“Youth leadership is essential to realizing a net zero future, so the students in Cardigan will also get a front-row seat to the latest net-zero technologies.”
 

Students and staff in the East Ramapo Central School District, about 30 miles north of New York City, cannot drink the tap water in any of the public school buildings, according to a new state-mandated survey, and the chronic state of disrepair has prompted calls for a takeover of the school system.

The East Ramapo public schools serve more than 9,200 K-12 students, and all 13 school buildings received a failing rating in a survey of building conditions completed by a New York-based architecture, engineering and construction management firm. The district’s school administration building also received a failing rating, and other buildings in the district received unsatisfactory ratings.

It would cost more than $230 million to make all the necessary repairs, the firm, CSArch, estimated.

Lead was detected in the water in many of the schools in 2016, and some taps and water fountains were shut off at the time. Tap water is available now for hand-washing and cleaning, but students and staff must rely on bottled water and water from filling stations for drinking, according to a spokesperson for the district.

SEASIDE, Calif. —
Over 400 students attending George C. Marshall Elementary School will spend the entire 2023-2024 school year at a different campus.
Students have been relocated to the Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula while their original campus undergoes construction.
Thanks to bond dollars from Measure I and P, the school is undergoing several improvements including: ADA stairs and ramp improvements, heating ventilation, new flooring, play structures, security fencing, technology tools like projectors and more.
The effort is part of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District's ongoing plan to update and modernize aging facilities, which dates back over a decade.
Measure I, which passed in 2010, provided $110 million for critical repairs but was found to be an inadequate amount.
 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As a parent, Brandon Jefferson is excited about the future of PS7 Elementary School in Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood. 
The school is getting a new campus and Jefferson says it will provide a better educational experience for his two daughters at the school.
"It's a great school," said Jefferson. "We have some of the best teachers. They get kids ready and prepared for college, and I wanted my kids to experience that. The new campus means a lot to me because they are going to be able to go to school in a state of the art facility."
The PS7 Elementary campus was built in the 1950s, making it more than 70-years-old. St. HOPE Public Schools oversees the aging facility. 
The school serves 557 students. According to the California Department of Education, 58% are Black and 25% are Hispanic or Latino. St. HOPE says all students deserve an education without barriers.
 

BEIJING, July 24 (Reuters) - The concrete roof of a school gymnasium collapsed in China's Qiqihar city, killing 11 people, state media reported on Monday, with many victims believed to be young female volleyball players.
Authorities said the illegal stacking of materials on the roof may have caused it to cave in, Xinhua reported.
Initially 15 people were trapped underneath the rubble and state media learned at 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) that authorities had pulled out the last person buried beneath, a student, who showed no vital signs.
The collapse at the No. 34 Middle School in Longsha District in Qiqihar, located in northeast China's Heilongjiang province, was reported at 2:56 p.m. (0656 GMT) on Sunday, according to the provincial fire and rescue department, Xinhua said.
A female volleyball team was training in the gymnasium at the time, a man told China Youth Daily as he waited anxiously at the local hospital for news of his 16-year-old daughter.
 

Every day, students around the country attend school in buildings that are outdated—sometimes more than a century old. Without sufficient budget for infrastructure upgrades, those aging buildings might have leaky roofs, moldy ceilings, or a lack of air conditioning—all of which make for less-than-optimal learning environments.

The Energy CLASS (Champions Leading the Advancement of Sustainable Schools) Prize was designed to give underserved communities a leg up when it comes to making those needed upgrades in their schools. Now, 25 local education agencies (LEAs) have been named Energy CLASS prize winners and awarded $100,000 each, along with the training and one-on-one coaching needed to put those funds to work helping their schools meet health and energy-efficiency goals.

Seven schools in Jefferson County will benefit from energy efficiency and system upgrades that are designed to not only save costs, but create healthier and safer learning environments for students.

Jefferson County Schools (JEFCOED) is among the first-round recipients of a federal Renew America’s Schools grant from the Department of Energy. In partnership with Alabama Power, JEFCOED will use the funds for upgrades at the following facilities.

“This grant award is big for Jefferson County Schools for a lot of reasons,” said Superintendent Walter B. Gonsoulin Jr. “We’ll be able to improve facilities at these schools, not to mention save on energy costs. That money can be put towards other programs that will improve student learning and student outcomes. We are very grateful for this grant and our partnership with Alabama Power.”