After the state released $75 million to pay for the construction of new preschool classrooms last week, the Hawaii Department of Education compiled a list showing where the money would be spent.
But Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke — who is spearheading the state’s $200 million preschool expansion plan — said the list isn’t accurate.
“Oh, no. So that was a preliminary list,” Luke said.
The list included $20 million for the Kamaile Academy in Waianae to build 10 new classrooms and $6 million for Kapaa Elementary School on Kauai.
Sources said some of the schools were already expecting the money. Gov. Josh Green even sent out letters to state lawmakers informing them about preschool expansions in their districts.
In one letter to state Sen. Angus McKelvey of Maui, Green wrote that McKelvey’s district will see a total of $5 million in preschool construction at Kihei and Princess Nahienaena elementary schools.
“This investment in our keiki addresses barriers to child care so prevalent in our islands,” he wrote.
 

Last week, the California Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in a very complex – but very important – case that had been percolating for more than a decade, dealing with how local school officials evade competitive bidding on construction projects.

The case began in 2010 when Fresno Unified School District persuaded its voters to approve a bond to build new schools and upgrade old ones. In 2011, the district sold more than $100 million in bonds from that issue and an earlier one, and in 2012 awarded a $36.7 million contract for a new middle school to Harris Construction Co.

The contract with Harris, which had been a major contributor to the bond issue campaign, was structured as a “lease-leaseback” deal in which the district leased the school site to Harris for a nominal sum, Harris built the school and the district then leased the completed facility from Harris.

“Lease-leaseback” arrangements have been common for years, providing a way for school systems to build new facilities without borrowing money themselves. Typically the “leaseback” runs for several decades, after which the district becomes the owner.

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s back to the drawing board for the Grand Haven Public School board after a $155 million bond proposal was rejected Tuesday by voters in Ottawa County.

The bond would have updated the infrastructure of 11 GHAPS facilities and funded the building of a new Lakeshore Middle School. The current middle school is 70 years old and is no longer efficient, according to Superintendent Scott Grimes.

“We just need to start addressing our aging buildings,” he said. “Our elementaries are going to be in this spot in 10 years. Our middle school is 70 years old. So it’s just something that we have to continuously keep out there, because the need isn’t going away.”

School-based health centers offer a broad range of health care supports for students that may otherwise be difficult to access in their communities. At the health centers, overseen by Public Health—Seattle & King County, students can get mental health care, immunizations, family planning, and other care in the context of a school environment. What began as a pilot program in Rainier Beach High School in 1989, has expanded to 36 school-based health centers across King County. 

New Orleans public school officials announced the completion of the largest school rebuilding program in U.S history.

A total of 89 public school buildings in New Orleans have since come into usage after the implementation of the School Facilities Master Plan (SFMP). Adopted in November 2008, 110 of New Orleans’ 126 public schools were severely damaged or destroyed.

Under the master plan, 32 new schools were constructed, while 17 schools were renovated. Thirty-one schools were refurbished, and there was preservation of nine schools. Former Louisiana State Superintendent Paul Pastorek launched the massive school rebuilding effort.

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Cynthia Velazquez parks her car outside Central Middle School as she waits for her child to be released from school.
Velazquez said there are a few things that have changed at the school since she graduated from the Galveston Independent School District, but the decades-old building where her child goes could use more improvements.
"I went to this school. I've been here all my life, so I was born here and raised here, and I went to all the schools, and they were all good," Velazquez told 13 Investigates. "They have been upgraded, but it still kind of looks the same."
Galveston ISD said it could make more updates to schools or even build new ones and give teachers raises if only it could keep all of the millions in property taxes residents pay specifically for education.
In Texas, districts can only keep a certain amount of local property taxes per student. The rest is "recaptured" and sent back to the state.
If a district, like Galveston ISD, collects more than the basic amount it is entitled to per student, they are required to send the extra property tax collections to the state. The state then redistributes those funds to other districts that don't collect enough in taxes locally to fund their own enrollment.
Advocates say it's a way to ensure every student receives the same amount of basic funding regardless of where they live.
 

Thousands of new homes are coming to Mountain View over the next decade as a result of state housing requirements and the city has spent recent years making extensive plans for this growth. What remains an open question is how local school districts will find the money to accommodate the expected influx of students.

With Google's massive, 7,000-unit project in North Bayshore on the horizon, tensions are rising. The city and school districts have had public disagreements over how many students will actually move into the new units, what the cost will be to educate them and who should foot the bill. District officials have warned that they may have to cover fields and blacktops with portable classroom buildings, impacting the community's access to this open space.

While local school districts aren't governed by the city -- they have their own elected boards -- they often have projects and priorities that overlap or conflict with the city of Mountain View's interests. City and school officials have long negotiated agreements on everything from community use of school fields to subsidized teacher housing to traffic safety.

Owyhee Combined School Vice Principal Lynn Manning-John stood on the Nevada Capitol lawn Thursday in front of her students — her "babies" — from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada, a community she grew up in and returned to after attending an East Coast college.

The students, many wearing ribbon skirts and shirts, carried signs with a common theme: "don't leave us behind." Among them was her daughter, a senior at the school who was recently admitted to Tufts University, an elite research institution in Boston.

"We have produced some phenomenal kids out of Owyhee," she said. "But I have to tell you, we do it in some really hard-to-describe conditions."

The Owyhee Combined School is located on the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada, along the Nevada-Idaho border. Built in the 1950s, the school serves about 300 students. Administrators and teachers at the school described bat feces dripping from the ceilings, and old equipment making it impossible to consistently regulate classroom temperatures, among other conditions that they said have not been addressed by the school district, despite maintenance requests.

“No other school in the state of Nevada would have that type of condition acceptable to students,” said Manning-John.

A sixth Philadelphia school has closed because of damaged asbestos.
Universal Vare, a charter school on South 24th Street in South Philadelphia, closed Friday after damaged asbestos was found in plaster above second-floor ceiling tiles during a routine inspection.
It’s unclear how widespread the problem is, or when the school might reopen.
“Given the scope of the work, the Universal Vare building will remain temporarily closed due to the confirmed asbestos fiber release episodes that were identified,” Universal CEO Penny Nixon said in an email to Vare families. “Portions of the building are still being assessed and the complete scope of asbestos abatement needs will be determined over the the next few days.
The school, a charter run by Universal Companies Inc., operates in a district building constructed in 1924.
Standardized testing complicates the closure; students are currently taking their Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams, and still must take science and math tests, Universal officials said.
Students will be bused to Universal Audenried High School on assigned test days to take their exams; classes will otherwise be virtual, Nixon said.
“We will provide an update early next week on the status of the Universal Vare building,” wrote Nixon. “We appreciate your cooperation, and we will continue to engage with you as information becomes available.”
 

It’s finally happening. After decades of discussion and planning, the city will begin rebuilding Buford Middle School in June. It’s now a more than $90 million project that will take about three years to complete.
Plans for the new middle school are fairly grand. When finished, all the buildings will be either new structures or entirely re-built. There will be high-tech classrooms, collaborative spaces, a spot for a garden and a new performing arts center.
To really understand the significance of this moment, we need to start from the very beginning.
Buford Middle School and Walker Upper Elementary School both opened in 1966 as two middle schools. During this period in Charlottesville’s history, the city was at the tail end of overt massive resistance to integration, and the city’s neighborhoods remained starkly segregated. As a result, Buford received more Black students and Walker Middle School more white. Buford also served areas of the city where people with lower incomes lived. So it wasn’t long before Buford was perceived as inferior to Walker — and it received less investment as a result.
 

Small rural elementary school districts interested in forming their own high school had one hurdle removed by the Montana Legislature this week. 
House Bill 707, sponsored by Rep. Jodee Etchart, R-Billings, was approved on its third reading Wednesday after having gone through the Senate. It now heads to the governor's desk.
The bill removes the requirement that adjoining elementary districts must consolidate to form a new high school district. Instead, it would allow those small districts to still to operate independently while sending students to the same high school.
Currently, a single K-8 school district has to meet or exceed 1,000 students enrolled to form a high school district. Those districts that don’t have enough students must consolidate with adjoining districts to meet the threshold.
HB 707 was a response to a recent push from Billings West End parents who are exploring the feasibility of building a new high school west of the city. 
 

For years, Bellows Free Academy Fairfax has needed renovations.
The sprawling pre-K-12 school was constructed piecemeal over the better part of a century. The oldest section is roughly 80 years old. The newest dates back to the turn of the millennium.
As such — and as the district’s population grows — the school needs upgrades. A dearth of space has forced administrators to pack pre-K students into one classroom and teach elementary school classes in the high school section. Many rooms are cramped and lack proper infrastructure. 
The whole building needs to be outfitted with a sprinkler system in case of a fire. (The original BFA Fairfax was destroyed in a 1941 inferno.)
“We do regular upgrades on things,” said John Tague, the superintendent of Franklin West Supervisory Union and former principal of BFA Fairfax. “But, you know, to be able to really do a major project (that) requires any kind of expansion is going to require more money than we can set aside in a single year's budget.”
For Fairfax, however, passing a bond to finance such an expansion has not been easy. 
In 2017, voters rejected a $16 million bond for expansion and upgrades. Two years later, voters turned down a second, roughly $26 million bond. 
Last October, the district finally succeeded in getting voters to approve a $36.4 million bond — a sum more than twice the original amount, due to the rising costs of labor and materials. 
Even that vote, however, did not end the school’s saga. 
 

Some schools across the West Ada School District need some major repairs — with exposed wires, peeling paint, ruined siding and cracked asphalt among them. 
Those are mainly cosmetic issues. But Superintendent Derek Bub said there are bigger, more serious problems as well, like old boiler systems and thin walls that aren't soundproof.
"One thing that we heard from our taxpayers, through our surveys that went out, was, 'we expect you to have a plan,'" Bub said. "'We expect you to have a long-term plan.'"
So, the district hopes to pass a $500 million plant facilities levy during the May 16 election. Bub said the district would get $50 million every year for 10 years to address various issues.
If it passes, he said the district wouldn't ask taxpayers for any additional facility-related levies during the decade.
 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board agreed Tuesday that it needs more data and a clearer sense of purpose to do the comprehensive review of student assignment that board policy calls for every six years.

The discussion came almost two years after CMS officials started talking about the latest round, and after massive turnover in leadership. Members said among the tasks facing them is defining exactly what they’re reviewing and what they mean by “comprehensive.”

“Me as an individual board member, I don’t have a clear picture still … of what ‘comprehensive’ means. So I feel like we’re kind of running this on a hamster wheel a little bit,” said Vice Chair Stephanie Sneed, one of five new members elected in November.

Student assignment involves redrawing boundaries, revising magnet programs and talking about school segregation and housing patterns — and it’s consistently one of the most controversial things any school board can do. To avoid constant turmoil, the CMS board voted in 2011 to get it all done at once with a big student assignment review every six years.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Greenville County is growing and so is the number of students attending South Carolina’s largest school district.

On Tuesday, the Greenville County School Board voted to unanimously update the Long-Range Facilities Plan and Capitol Improvement Program, which helps guide the district on when, where, and what to build.

“We review it, and we revise it annually so that we’re constantly watching growth patterns to make sure, again, that we’re staying just ahead of growth in the county,” said GCS Superintendent Dr. Burke Royster.

Eleven projects, ranging from brand new buildings to renovations to additions to schools, are having their timelines moved up in the update.

Data the district has collected projects the number of students in elementary and high schools will increase over the next five years.

The U.S. Senate passed legislation Wednesday to require the cleanup of Jana Elementary School, a measure introduced by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

If it becomes law, the bill also would mandate further testing for radioactive contamination throughout the Hazelwood School District.

Hawley said this cleanup process should have happened decades ago.

“This community in St. Louis has been asked to live with the fallout of the federal government's actions for decades,” Hawley said. “This is just the latest instance.”

In the U.S. House on Tuesday, Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, introduced companion legislation.

“No one should have to live with hazardous radiation in our community, let alone elementary school children. Parents and community members deserve to know that our children’s learning environment is safe,” Bush said in a statement. “Our government created this waste to construct the most deadly nuclear weapon in history. They have a responsibility to clean it up and ensure that the safety and well-being of our community is a top priority.”

The bill goes beyond St. Louis, establishing a fund for any school that has been financially affected by radioactive contamination related to U.S. government atomic projects.

Philadelphia’s school system cannot manage the massive scale of its facilities needs, so an independent authority should bond and manage building repairs and new construction projects, City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said Tuesday.

Thomas will call for hearings on the subject in a Council resolution to be introduced Thursday, and wants to fast-track the process to take advantage of a historic budget surplus in Harrisburg, the education committee chairman said. Thomas and others want the state to give $5 billion over five years for improvements to school buildings across Pennsylvania, with a significant chunk dedicated to Philadelphia.

“This issue is an emergency,” said Thomas.

The move reflects both the scope of environmental and other facilities issues in a district now beset by an asbestos crisis and the district’s capacity to address the problems, Thomas said. It also attempts to diminish the historic distrust many state-level politicians have for Philadelphia’s school system.

State Sen. Ron Muzzall, R-Oak Harbor, secured $27.5 million in state funds to rebuild two schools in the Oak Harbor School District.

The earmark made it through both chambers in Olympia and will be used as matching funds to secure an additional $106 million from the federal government to construct two new school buildings. The Department of Defense promised to pay 80% of the cost for the two projects if Oak Harbor Public Schools came up with the additional 20%.

The federal funds seemed out of reach after a $121 million school bond measure failed to receive a supermajority in February, but the district will now be able to rebuild two of the three schools that were on the ballot.

The state’s capital construction budget will provide $13.9 million to construct a new building that houses both Hand-in-Hand and HomeConnection, which offers early learning programs and classes for home-schooled children. Another $13.6 million is allocated to Crescent Harbor Elementary School.

Schools across the country are being asked to take part in a huge citizen science project to help monitor and evaluate the quality of the air in our classrooms.
It is hoped more than 1,500 schools will sign up to SAMHE (Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education) and help provide important data to scientists studying the quality of classroom air. 
It is expected to be the biggest study of air quality in schools anywhere in the world.
Experiments
SAMHE schools will get a free high-spec air quality monitor that measures carbon dioxide (CO2), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), particulate matter (PM), temperature and relative humidity. 
Through the SAMHE Web App, teachers and pupils can view the data in a range of interactive chart and graph formats and see how air quality changes over the course of hours, days or weeks and months.
 

Jan Bayer sank into the couch in the family room of her Bonners Ferry, Idaho, home and stared at her phone, nervously awaiting a call. Her twin teenage daughters were nearby, equally anxious.

It was election night in March 2022, and Bayer, the superintendent of the Boundary County School District in a remote part of Idaho on the Canadian border, had spent months educating voters about a bond that would raise property taxes to replace one of her district’s oldest and most dangerous buildings: Valley View Elementary School. Built just after World War II, the school was falling apart.

The walls were cracked. The pipes were disintegrating. The ceilings were water-stained. The electrical system was maxed out and the insulation was nearly nonexistent. Classrooms froze in the winter and baked in the summer. The roof, part of which had already collapsed once, was nearing the end of its lifespan. Outside, potholes pocked the parking lot and deep splits formed in warped sidewalks. The kindergarten playground, weathered from decades of brutal winters, had turned hazardous; at times, sharp screws protruded from some of the equipment, and kids routinely got splinters from the wooden crossbeams.