CATHLAMET — It’s an unremarkable day at the Wahkiakum School District when a bathroom floods, rainwater drains from the ceilings and classrooms are cold enough that teachers pass out blankets.

From his office at the front of the high school, Superintendent Brent Freeman can hear kids from rival sports teams disparaging the building as they walk inside. His brain is an intimate catalog of the district’s various infrastructural failures and how to fix them. That is, when they finally get the money.

This 433-student district on the Columbia River hasn’t been able to pass a school bond — the main way that school districts raise money for building and repairing schools — for 22 years. And the state’s largest lifeline for school construction funding won’t spare a dime unless they can pass one.

Frustrated by the perennial failure of school bonds, this tiny district is suing the state in a move that, if successful, could change the way school building construction is funded across Washington.

When a bond fails, there are slim options for school districts in the state. While large and wealthy districts like Seattle can run several school construction measures simultaneously, an increasing number of property-poor districts cannot get their measures over the hump. Districts like Wahkiakum are left scrambling for whatever patchwork of funding they can find to prolong the life of deteriorating buildings.

“With so many of our systems, we are one rung away from total failure,” said Freeman.

GREEN BAY ― As the Green Bay School District adjusts to declining enrollment, aging buildings and a $32 million projected budget deficit, the district is looking to downsize and reduce its operational expenses.
The district hired ATSR, an architecture and building consulting firm from Minnesota, to assess the conditions of the district's 42 buildings and what it would cost to maintain them for the next three decades.
Those findings were presented in January to the School Board, and now a community task force of 26 people is working to create recommendations on how to downsize and restructure the district.
Firm suggests closing MacArthur Elementary, plus other takeaways from Green Bay schools facility plan.
The task force, in conjunction with ATSR, has developed nine plans for building closures, additions, redrawing school boundaries and repurposing existing buildings to accommodate different grade levels or programs.
The task force will make its final recommendations to the board in May, and the board will vote on final building decisions in June as part of the district's 10-year facility plan.
 

As if crumbling ceilings and rat infestations weren’t enough for San Francisco’s public schools to deal with, one middle school was recently found to have lead and arsenic in its water. These structural and maintenance issues have grown so dire that the district estimated a comprehensive fix would cost at least $1.7 billion. 

In spite of visibly aging buildings and rodents on the grounds, routine state-mandated facilities inspections rated numerous SF schools as either “exemplary” or “good” between 2019 and 2021. Peering into San Francisco Unified School District’s own data, however, reveals that the condition of dozens of schools changed dramatically in a short period, and the district-hired inspector who evaluated them did so on a truncated timeline, calling into question accuracy of the district-mandated inspection reports.

In 2022, a different building inspection survey run by Vanderweil Facility Advisors found that many of those facilities once rated “above average” on School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) are suddenly listed as being in “poor” or “fair” condition—and not just a handful, either. At least 25 school sites received lower facilities ratings, when comparing older SARC surveys with more recent Vanderweil findings. Many schools are in low-income neighborhoods serving students of color.

Nevada is working hard to repair its underperforming K-12 education system. With the new pupil-centered funding formula championed by former Gov. Steve Sisolak and nearly $2 billion in new investment promised by current Gov. Joe Lombardo, bipartisan leadership is increasing the opportunities for Nevada’s K-12 students to succeed.
Unfortunately, the promise of a thriving K-12 education system cannot be fully realized until we remedy the troubling state of disrepair in Nevada’s classrooms and school buildings.
Within the first four days of the 2022-23 school year — when summer temperatures are still at or near their peak highs — two dozen Clark County public schools experienced entire-site air conditioning failures. Dozens more experienced partial failures.
All of that occurred less than 10 years after the Legislature granted additional bonding authority to the Clark County School District in 2015, leading to a $4.1 billion capital improvement plan that included replacements for several schools and modernization upgrades in others. Even with that infusion of money, far too many Southern Nevada children are being educated in buildings where air conditioners go out, rainwater runs in through the roof and the plumbing goes bad
 

RICHMOND — The responsibility of meeting school construction costs has shifted out of reach for some localities in Virginia. Many schools, lawmakers say, have fallen into disrepair, while others need modernization.
In recent years, some lawmakers have said supporting school capital projects is the onus of local governments. In response, some localities have successfully asked the legislature to allow them to increase their sales tax to fund school capital projects pending approval by voters in a referendum. However, legislative efforts to support other extensions of that right – including one for Prince William and for the entire state – remain in limbo. To understand why, let’s start from the beginning with Dillon’s Rule.
 

PHILIPSBURG, Mont. — On a recent day in this 19th-century mining town turned tourist hot spot, students made their way into the Granite High School lobby and past a new filtered water bottle fill station.
Water samples taken from the drinking fountain the station replaced had a lead concentration of 10 parts per billion — twice Montana’s legal limit for schools of 5 parts per billion for the toxic metal.
Thomas Gates, the principal and superintendent of the small Philipsburg School District, worries the new faucets, sinks, and filters the district installed for roughly 30 water sources are temporary fixes. The high school, built in 1912, is likely laced with aged pipes and other infrastructure, like so much of this historic town.
“If we change faucets or whatever, lead is still getting pushed in,” Gates said.
The school in Philipsburg is one of hundreds in Montana grappling with how to remove lead from their water after state officials mandated schools test for it. So far, 74 percent of schools that submitted samples found at least one faucet or drinking fountain with high lead levels. Many of those schools are still trying to trace the source of the problem and find the money for long-term fixes.
In his Feb. 7 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden said the infrastructure bill he championed in 2021 will help fund the replacement of lead pipes that serve “400,000 schools and child care centers, so every child in America can drink clean water.”
However, as of mid-February, states were still waiting to hear how much infrastructure money they’ll receive, and when. And schools are trying to figure out how to respond to toxic levels of lead now. The federal government hasn’t required schools and child care centers to test for lead, though it has awarded grants to states for voluntary testing.
 

Barnstead Elementary School fifth grade teacher Annabelle Boyle waved goodbye to her students as they put on their winter jackets in preparation to leave the classroom and head to their next class.

The jackets were necessary because when students exit Boyle’s classroom, they step directly outside into the crisp February air. That’s because Boyle’s room is one half of a modular classroom building – one of two such structures that sit adjacent to Barnstead Elementary’s main building. When students need to go from one class to another – or even when they need to use the bathroom – they must walk outside between the buildings.

School administrators placed the fifth grade in the modular classrooms because the students are old enough to walk between the buildings unsupervised but still small enough to fit in the rooms. Boyle, who maintains a cheery, positive attitude, has done her best to make her small, dark room as beautiful as possible, adding colorful curtains, wall art and decorative vines. But there’s no denying that teaching in the space is a challenge.

We see the lawns are green, the gyms shine, the halls are cleared, and the cafeterias are spotless. We see Boggus Stadium set up for graduation, and the sidewalks clean.
What we don’t see are the people who make it happen.
While it’s commonly known that the custodians and maintenance workers operate a well-oiled machine 24/7 to keep the Harlingen school district running, they are often unseen and are the unsung heroes in the community.
The machine they operate has many parts — mops and the mowers and the power washers and the tractors and the weed eaters and the blowers serve as the district’s gears and pulleys, the spark plugs, the pistons and the carburetors. And one doesn’t work, the whole machine falters.
The custodians are the most important component, as are the mechanics, welders, carpenters and electricians.
On Friday morning, Ivan Barajas and Rudy Duran joined others in taking the Valley Morning Star on a day in the life of their job, and among their first tasks was working on a tractor and shredder so the signal lights would work properly.
Oscar Fragoso just finished directing traffic so the children at Austin Elementary could cross safely, and Robert Quintanilla at Vernon Middle School moved up and down a hallway with a broom, leaving a shine in his wake while students passed. Outside on the neatly manicured lawns Adan Martinez rode a mower with a precision only a veteran could muster.
 

A problem with the HVAC system at Dexter Elementary School has caused the school district to move everyone out of the building and is the subject of pending litigation, according to Dexter Consolidated School District Superintendent Heather Garner.

The fix also is expected to require additional state funding of at least $1.5 million, she said.

“The crux of the issue is that it is nonfunctional,” Garner said about the heating-venting-air conditioning system installed in 2020.

Garner, who became superintendent in July 2022, said the exact extent and nature of the problems are being investigated and that the pending litigation prohibits her from discussing the problems in detail. She also said she could not identify the contractor by name.

When wildfire smoke blocked the sun and turned the sky orange above the San Francisco Bay Area in September 2020, Andra Yeghoian’s two young children, ages 3 and 5, were scared. And they had questions: What was going on? Was this normal?
Yeghoian did her best to explain and to comfort them.
“I can’t not talk about climate change with my kids,” she said. “It’s the same for teachers with their students.”
It’s a fascinating read, full of useful ideas for teachers, lawmakers, government agencies, school districts and kids. It was written by university researchers and staffers at a variety of nonprofits, advocacy groups and other organizations, with funding from the Schmidt Family Foundation, which is backed by former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy.
The report’s basic argument is that schools are uniquely positioned to help solve the climate crisis.
California’s elementary and secondary schools have a huge physical footprint, covering 125,000 acres of ground and 730 million square feet of buildings. That means they’re prime spots for solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, electric buses and efficiency measures that can reduce the need for fossil fuels. The report estimates that K-12 public schools produce 9% of all carbon dioxide pollution from the state’s nonresidential buildings — not counting pollution from cars and buses going to and from schools.
 

Beginning next school year, the Pine Bluff School District will operate just one high school and one junior high school "in order to be good fiscal agents," Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree announced in a video released Wednesday.
Barbaree announced "her intention" to close Jack Robey Junior High School and to have all seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students attend the present Robert F. Morehead Middle School campus with the possibility the present Dollarway High School will be used to hold some of the students. Meanwhile, all 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students will attend Pine Bluff High School. The decision comes nearly two years after the Dollarway School District was annexed into the PBSD.
Barbaree said in the video she met with each campus principal and visited all nine district campuses to inform faculty and staff of the upcoming changes, making good on a statement she made following a school board work session last Thursday when she publicly indicated the district cannot financially support as many campuses after this school year. The decisions announced Wednesday must be made in order for the district to leave state control.
 

HARRISBURG, March 1 – State Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Phila., Robert Merski, D-Erie, Bridget Kosierowski, D-Lackawanna, and Tarik Khan, D-Phila., today partnered with state Sen. Tim Kearney, D-Delaware, to announce legislation addressing toxic school buildings in Pennsylvania.

Gathered outside the lieutenant governor’s office, Fiedler, Merski, Kosierowski and Khan said they plan to introduce legislation to fund the school construction program PlanCon to address the school facilities crisis in Pennsylvania. The lawmakers’ legislation would fund the maintenance program within the traditional PlanCon program for vital projects including repairs to roofs, HVAC systems, boilers, plumbing and electrical wiring.

Under the legislation, the lawmakers propose opening applications only to the new Maintenance Program created under Act 70 for a temporary 3-year period. After this period, the Department of Education would re-open the program for traditional PlanCon projects, with the Maintenance Program returning to its 20% share of available funding. 

The lawmakers announced they are also introducing another piece of legislation to address toxic school buildings. This legislation would make changes to the commonwealth’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to make it easier for public schools to submit applications for building improvements.

Their announcement comes on the heels of the Commonwealth Court’s ruling in the William Penn School District lawsuit, that Pennsylvania’s system of funding public education is unconstitutional. The group of lawmakers stressed that in addition to the need for basic education funding, the lawsuit highlighted school facilities issues. 

“When a child is sitting in a classroom with peeling paint and asbestos, shivering because they’re too cold or has a nosebleed and a headache because they’re too hot, they can’t learn,” Fiedler said. “School buildings are a statewide educational and public health issue, and we need to start funding them with that importance. The recent Commonwealth Court ruling provides the state an excellent opportunity right now to ensure all children can go to school in a safe building and pursue a quality education.”

Asbestos has closed a Philadelphia high school to in-person learning, officials said Wednesday.

Inspectors discovered damaged asbestos-containing plaster and paint at Building 21, a district school in West Oak Lane, during a routine inspection Tuesday night, according to a letter sent to families by principal Brianne Macnamara.

The damaged material was discovered in the auditorium balcony and two stairwells. The affected areas were immediately closed to students and staff, officials said.

“The School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Environmental Management & Services is immediately working on repairs,” Macnamara wrote. “All repair work will be monitored by asbestos inspectors licensed by the City of Philadelphia. The inspectors will also perform air monitoring when the project is complete to confirm that the spaces are ready for students and staff to safely use.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – The board of education for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools approved the 2024-2028 Capital Improvement Plan, a $2.9 billion plan that includes a bond to add new schools and provide renovations for several existing ones.

Originally the plan consisted of an escalated current total of over $5 billion for 125 projects. Gradually that was cut down to 30 projects for $2.9 billion.

CMS interim superintendent Crystal Hill stated the money will go toward increasing capacity and significantly improving conditions at some of the district’s older schools.

The plan passed 8-1, giving the green light for the 30 projects within the district. These include replacement buildings for 15 schools, building three new middle schools and completing ongoing work at schools across the district.

Speaking as a board member and a parent, Summer Nunn, who represents District 6, says she is pleased with the plan, stating the significant figure of $2.9 billion is a step in the right direction.

The Austin school district is prioritizing security and maintenance upgrades to improve safety at some older campuses and replace aging infrastructure as it begins rolling out its $2.4 billion bond projects, according to a timeline it recently released.

The district last week announced its project timeline, with work beginning this year and expected to be completed in 2028. It has about 300 projects planned on all of its 116 campuses and a few other facilities.

The district has planned full, comprehensive upgrades at 14 campuses and completing part of a full upgrade at an additional 11 campuses, according to the district’s timeline.

Four other schools will get renovations to their open concept floor plans, a design popular in the 1960s and 1970s that featured fewer doors and walls. The design layout was meant to promote collaboration, but since then, officials have called it distracting and unsafe.

The DeKalb County School District has completed the work state officials ordered to make several dozen repairs at Druid Hills High School, interim Superintendent Vasanne Tinsley said.
“Done. Completed. Finished,” Tinsley told the school board at a meeting last week. “I’m very proud of that.”
Last year, the Georgia Department of Education intervened and told the district to address poor conditions at Druid Hills High and other facilities issues. In what a state official described as an “unprecedented move,” the state appointed a special advisor to work with the district on the corrective action plan. The advisor, Tanzy Kilcrease, worked with the district through November, according to a final report she wrote.
“They have been very receptive of all feedback and suggestions,” she wrote about DeKalb, the state’s third-largest school district. “They have a plan to continue to perform due diligence in ensuring they have practices that will foster operational effectiveness and efficiency.”
 

When Carlotta Berry viewed two TikTok videos of students giving a tour of their affluent high school less than 45 minutes away from her home in Avon, Indiana, she was speechless. 
The video, posted earlier this month and which has since gone viral, shows Carmel High School students showing off their sprawling school’s vast amenities — which include a recording studio, a 10,000-seat stadium, a café and a planetarium.
But when the video kept appearing on her time line, Berry, who originally planned on keeping her thoughts to herself, decided to post a response, pointing out the lack of diversity of the students in the video and the inequality of resources for neighboring schools in the region, like Avon High School, which her daughter attends.
“I think that was the most appalling part to me. … At what point do you say, ‘Let me stop throwing money at this high school and consider the other schools in the area,” Berry told NBC News. “If you’ve got a natatorium and three cafeterias, can we get all the schools within a 20-mile radius of the school to have one cafeteria? One gym?”
About 17% of students are Black, and 62% are white at Avon, which is in a suburb west of Indianapolis. At Carmel High School, which is in a suburb north of Indianapolis, more than 70% of students who attend the school are white and 3.6% are Black. Meanwhile, the median household income in Avon is $92,684 compared with Carmel, where the average is $119,772, according to data from the U.S. Census.
 

Sen. Jesse Lujan wants the Guam Department of Education to take ownership of its facilities at the school level with the introduction of Bill 48-37, which aims to hold the department accountable for reporting school inspections.

The bill would require the GDOE deputy superintendent for assessment and accountability to report all school inspections online on a government website to be developed by GDOE, as well as the school website, within 30 days of the inspection.

The bill allows the public to hold GDOE accountable by increasing transparency through the online postings – a right, Lujan said, parents deserve.

“Parents deserve to know the conditions of the schools their children are in,” Lujan stated in a news release.

On an 81 degree day last September, environmental city planner Sharon Danks went onto the playground at a California elementary school with an infrared camera. Grassy areas in full sun measured 83 degrees, but unshaded asphalt was 107 and rubber surfaces under an exposed play structure came in at 135. Asphalt shaded by tree canopy was more than 30 degrees cooler.

Danks, the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems, a book published more than a decade ago to guide the transformation of schoolyards, wasn’t surprised at what she found. She and her colleagues had made similar measurements many times over.

But shade itself had gained heat that September with the announcement that $150 million had been set aside in the California state budget for a two-year program to fund school forests and green schoolyards at K-12 schools. The decision was driven by the need to protect the health of students as average temperatures in the state continue to rise.

LINCOLN — Voters would have to approve agreements to finance new schools via little-used interlocal agreements under a legislative bill given first-round approval Wednesday.
State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn said Legislative Bill 299 would close a “loophole” in state law that allows financing of new school construction without a public vote.
“If you’re going to put people in debt, people should have the right to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ ” Linehan said.
She cited a recent case in Beatrice, where voters twice rejected bond issues to build one new elementary school to replace four aging neighborhood elementary schools.
The local school board, however, approved construction of a $43 million elementary school through another route, by joining with Educational Service Unit 5 to secure a loan to finance the building project.
Such an interlocal agreement does not require a public vote, which Linehan described as a “workaround” from the typically required school bond elections to approve new construction projects.