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.

HUDSONVILLE, MI – Hudsonville Public Schools is on track to open its new $36 million intermediate and upper elementary school building for the start of the 2023-24 school year.

The 112,000-square-foot facility for grades 5 and 6 will feature state-of-the-art technology, ample natural lighting, open spaces for student collaboration, and breakout rooms for small group instruction.

A $139.9 million dollar bond approved by voters in 2019 supported the construction of the new Georgetown 5/6 school, which was proposed by school leaders to adapt for a growing student body. The school will address space issues at the elementary schools in the area and middle school, eliminating the need to redistrict or move kids to different buildings.

Alabama Power and the Chilton County Board of Education are partnering to pursue a Renew America’s Schools grant for energy efficiency upgrades.  Danielle Crowder of Alabama Power presented information about the partnership during the April 18 BOE meeting.
“Alabama Power is really excited to partner (with the school system),” Crowder said. “This grant program focuses on rural, disadvantaged communities, (those) school systems that have a high percentage of students that are eligible for free and reduced lunch.”  Renew America’s Schools is a grant program through the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding is specifically for energy efficiency improvements and addressing building-related health issues. At the national level, $80 million will be distributed in this funding cycle.
 

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has fully committed the $180 million budgeted for the School and Small Business Energy Efficiency Stimulus Program (SSBP), aimed at helping schools and small businesses reduce their water and energy consumption and improve indoor air quality for children and small businesses. The program is closed and no longer accepting applications.

“Through the Schools and Small Business grant program, we are putting the health of our children first and ensuring small businesses have access to the tools they need to streamline energy and water use and improve indoor air quality in their establishments,” said NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso. “As we rise to the challenges of climate change and the ongoing pandemic, these grants will enable the direct benefits of cleaner facilities, as well as the economic boost in local labor needed to complete these projects, especially in underserved communities.”

“As one of the prime sponsors of the law that established the School and Small Business Energy Efficiency Stimulus Program, I am incredibly proud that it has been so successful,” said Senator Troy Singleton. “This program is providing the necessary funding to allow these already cash-strapped businesses and school districts to upgrade their HVAC and plumbing systems, which will improve the air our residents breathe and the water they drink overall.”

TALLAHASSEE — A proposal that would require school districts to share local property-tax revenue with charter schools is teed up for consideration by the full House, after a committee debate Monday about whether it could bring “parity.”

Property taxes collected through discretionary 1.5-mill local levies go toward such things as constructing and renovating traditional public schools and buying land. Meanwhile, charter schools largely receive such money through the state budget.

The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee voted 20-7 along party lines Monday to approve a bill (HB 1259) that would allow charter schools to receive part of the local money. Charter schools are public schools but often are run by private organizations.

“Eventually, over time, charter school students will be on parity with district public school students in terms of the 1.5 mills,” bill sponsor Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, said.

Under the bill, school districts would be required to share the money based on charter schools’ “proportionate share of total school district” enrollment. Charter school enrollment next fiscal year is projected to total 371,253 students, according to House analysts, representing about 13.6 percent of enrollment in public schools.

Canady said the bill would provide what she called a “five-year glide path,” which would phase in sharing the property-tax money.

Maine’s third attempt at a rural regional high school is in jeopardy if the four districts involved cannot get state help to pay for an engineering study.

The Maine Department of Education told superintendents from districts around Dexter, Guilford, Milo and Corinth last year they would have to fund pre-construction costs on their own, which would get them through a challenging site selection process. But the superintendents said recently that the state helped school districts in northern Aroostook County with such funding for a similar attempt and should be more supportive. That project ultimately failed.

It’s an effort to pool resources as enrollments decline at most of the rural schools

The state-initiated pilot began about six years ago, and the districts in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties moved up the priority list after previous attempts in Houlton and St. John Valley in Aroostook County fell apart. If the ambitious project succeeds, the school that would serve several established multi-town districts would be the first of its kind in Maine. But the districts are stuck, and superintendents wonder why the St. John Valley project was able to access funding early on to hire an engineering firm, while they cannot.

JEFFERSON CITY — All Missouri school district buildings would be fitted with bullet-resistant doors and windows under a plan House lawmakers gave final approval to on Monday.
The legislation, included in a wide-ranging public safety bill, would require bullet-resistant doors and windows for all first-floor entryways and bullet-resistant glass "for each exterior window large enough for an intruder to enter."
The state Classroom Trust Fund would pay for the installations starting in the 2024-25 school year until completed, according to a summary of the legislation. The requirement is subject to a specific line item in the budget, the bill says.
Legislators advanced the measure to the Senate late Monday on a 116-10 vote, with 26 lawmakers voting present.

WASHINGTON — The warm days are adding up in Alexa Cacibauda's fourth grade math class.
"We are sweltering up there," said Cacibauda. "They're hot, they're sweaty."
With only a few windows that will only open a little, and the heat rising to her third-floor classroom at the Wheatley Education Campus, Cacibauda says her students are suffering.
"My classroom has been 80 to 85 degrees for going on two weeks now," she said.
"A third grade teacher reported that her students were crying today," Cacibauda said. "Students are very cranky. They're miserable."
Twice a year the building's heating and cooling system has to be switched between hot and cold - just one of 500 buildings the Department of General Services has to switch over.
Last week, DGS told the D.C. Council different mechanical systems in different buildings slow the switch over down.
"Some are a lot easier to switch over than others," Delano Hunter, Director of the Department of General Services told councilmembers.
DGS says this transition from hot to cold is a challenge every year - but not at every school, says Cacibauda.
 

For years, students and clean energy advocates have been pushing Miami-Dade County Public Schools to install solar panels in a city seen globally as emblematic of the threats posed by climate change

On Thursday, MDCPS unveiled a 114-panel solar array at MAST@FIU — a magnet high school on the university’s Biscayne Bay campus. According to school officials, the installation is the first of its kind in the district.

“Imagine a school, a community or a nation where carbon-based energy sources have been replaced with clean, affordable energy from the sun or other renewable sources,” said MAST@FIU Principal Matthew Welker. “That's the promise the solar canopy creates in the minds of all those who visit the school.”

Miami is one of the country's most vulnerable cities to climate-related problems, including sea level rise, extreme heat, strong tropical storms and threats to vulnerable wildlife such as manatees. Last month, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a global climate conference in Miami Beach that the area has more days of extreme heat than anywhere else in the U.S.

Helena Public Schools has increased the amounts of their Building Reserve Levies for the elementary (K-8) and high school districts to keep up with the rising cost of materials and labor for construction, school officials said.
The elementary Building Reserve Levy went from $1.25 million to $3 million. The high school Building Reserve Levy increased from $700,000 to $1.5 million on the ballots that go out Friday. The last Building Reserve Levy passed in 2013, and if these two pass, it would be a renewal of the existing levies.
“How do we buy nuts and bolts, pieces of plywood, doors, windows, boilers — how do we pay for that stuff? It comes out of the (facilities budget),” said Todd Verrill, HPS’ facilities director. “... We have a large footprint. We have a lot of facilities, and they’re getting old.”

Thirty of 37 New Brunswick schools that had peak carbon dioxide readings above the "desirable" level during air quality testing more than a year ago still lack proper ventilation systems, data quietly released by the Department of Education reveals.

Among them is a school that had a peak more than double the targeted maximum of 1,500 parts per million, and another that also had an overall average above that peak limit.

Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is commonly created indoors when people exhale. It's used as a proxy to measure air quality and the rate at which air is being renewed, which can contribute to the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, according to experts.

Infection control epidemiologist Colin Furness contends carbon dioxide levels should be kept below 800 to 1,000 ppm and describes the test results as a "public health crisis."

"Let's be clear, the CO2 readings are a measure of how much of other people's exhalations you are breathing in. And I just, you know, I really want the 'ick' factor to sink in," he said.

"This is not what we should have anywhere — particularly schools. … What could be more important than child health?"

Newton school board members already received survey input from teachers and staff about proposed master planning options, but they want even more feedback from the elementary faculty who would be most affected by any building closures, which administrators hinted as a definite possibility in the coming years.
Elected officials also agreed that of the three scenarios presented by the master planning committee, only two seemed to be the most viable.
Here are the scenarios the master planning committee came up with:
• Scenario No. 1: Construct a new grades 1-4 elementary school at Thomas Jefferson or Aurora Heights site and demolish original buildings, selling Woodrow Wilson Elementary site for development and add and remodel Emerson Hough for a pre-K and kindergarten center. This scenario costs more than $40 million.
• Scenario No. 2: Add and remodel Emerson Hough for pre-K-1st grade center, add onto and remodel Thomas Jefferson Elementary into a nine-section grades 2-4 building and then sell the remaining sites for redevelopment. This scenario costs more than $20 million.
 

During the April 11, 2023 school board meeting, South Pasadena Unified School District (SPUSD) unveiled plans to install solar panels at all five district school sites and the District Office before the end of 2024. Each site will add roof, carport or field arrays in single- and double-wide configurations to maximize the amount of power produced while taking the existing landscape into consideration.

According to Generation180, a nonprofit that promotes and tracks clean energy, by early 2022 nearly one in 10 K-12 public schools across the country were using solar energy and the number continues to grow.

The SPUSD solar project was approved by the Board of Education and includes installing panels that will supply more than 1100kW DC of power. The panels will produce an energy (solar) offset ranging from 33-90% depending on the site where they are installed. Solar offset is the amount of electricity the solar project produces in a year divided by the total amount of electricity actually used that year expressed as a percentage. These estimates are impacted by roof size, solar seasonality, and utility regulations.

The Andover High School Building Committee has recommended that the town build a new high school instead of renovating the old building.

“It’s cleaner, it’s quicker, it brings less risk, it’s less impactful for the students,” said committee member Shannon Scully. “It’s also the least expensive of our notable expensive options.”

The campus option with a new theater is estimated to have a total project cost of $480,847,000. The renovation option was estimated to cost $567,864,000 and a similar new building project that would have included a renovation of the Collins Center came in at $503,821,000.

A preliminary tax analysis found the project will result in an estimated increase on the average annual property tax bill of between $1,740 and $2,215, depending on interest rates.

Members of the Building Committee said during a meeting April 6 that the option they are recommending also has the most efficient layout.

The project will replace the current high school which town officials say suffers from overcrowding.

Though the project is progressing, it faces a significant hurdle due to the town’s debt limit. The price tag for the project will likely exceed the town’s available debt limit, meaning the town can’t currently legally pay for the build.

Jackie Uselton rifled through the mock pill bottles and test first aid kits in a mock pharmacy cabinet that doubles as storage in Westlake High School on a recent Monday morning.

“The vision would be to have a mock hospital room, hospital bay, beds,” said Uselton, health science and clinical instructor. “We do have some stuff. We’re just kind of crowded.”

Right now, the health sciences programs are stuffed into three small classrooms, she said. The roughly 200 health science students have to share one mock hospital bed.

That, however, could change if Eanes school district voters approve a proposed $131.4 million bond, which would fund facility upgrades, including some that would allow programs like health sciences to expand.

Aging facilities, safety upgrades and technology needs have driven the Eanes school board to call for a bond election.

HOUSTON — A Houston ISD teacher believes the air quality conditions at her school have gotten her sick.
KHOU 11 has previously reported on claims of mold and high levels of carbon dioxide at Kelso Elementary School. While cleanup is being done at the school, one teacher said she's concerned about her and her student's health on campus.
"I felt like something was off. I couldn't exactly explain it. Lightheadedness, headaches beyond belief," the teacher said, who didn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation.
She said she's gotten sick at school and believes it's because of reported mold and high levels of carbon dioxide in some classrooms.
"I want to hear the truth," she said. "What is there and what have they done about it?"
HISD has said there was an HVAC issue and that as part of standard protocol, crews were sent to evaluate it. The district also confirmed to KHOU 11 that there was "regular mold," which they said was not harmful.
 

New boilers in five elementary schools are some of the major repairs and maintenance needed in the Bozeman School District as part of the district’s $6 million capital improvement plan for calendar year 2023.
Of that amount, $4 million will go toward elementary schools, and $2 million will go toward high schools. BSD also has plans for a combined total of $2.5 million in upgrades in 2024 and 2025.
Mike Waterman, the district’s executive director of business and operations, said that although many projects are slated, some may go uncompleted if the district can’t find companies to do the work. The projects that don’t get finished will roll over to subsequent years.
The capital projects were approved in March, and BSD Director of Facilities Matt Stark said work is already underway to purchase equipment and to line up contractors and consultants. Stark said this year is heavy on mechanical equipment, and long delivery times mean ordering sooner is better.
Each boiler costs about $75,000, and boilers are needed at Irving, Hawthorne, Whittier, Hyalite and Meadowlark Elementary Schools. Hawthorne will need two boilers.
 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Duval County School Board will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday to mark the beginning of a new place to learn for sixth through eighth graders.
Chaffee Trail Middle School is the first middle school to be built funded by the half-penny sales tax, which was approved by Duval County voters in 2020.
Students will perform and school district leaders will share remarks about the Westside’s new addition to education.
The 6-8 grade school is estimated to cost $38.6 million and is just one of four transformational projects that will be funded by the sales tax.
In September, the design meeting between stakeholders for the new middle school was completed, and the district said it has received conceptual floor plans and proposed building elevations for the new school.
 

For years, Puerto Rico has been hit with natural disaster after disaster, making it hard for every sector to recover fully. Education has especially been hit hard, with interruptions in schooling becoming very prevalent in students’ lives. Just last fall, flooding caused many schools in coastal Puerto Rico to close while cleaning out the water, meaning students were missing out on many classes. These constant interruptions have caused students to fall behind in curriculum, worrying both parents and students who have high aspirations that rely on their education.

Back in 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, leaving the entire territory in devastation. On average, schools were closed for up to four months or more. This meant students were far behind in their academic progress, “especially in reading and math.” The gap in education especially affected low-income students who were not able to access external educational resources, widening the wealth disparities in education. After recovery efforts, schools started opening up in order to help students catch up on education. However, this relief, if any, was felt briefly. On January 7, 2020, Puerto Rico experienced a magnitude 6.4 earthquake. There were reports of strong shaking from people inside buildings and damage to homes and property. As a result, schools were declared closed again until the completion of a full inspection of each school to assess structural damage and security for future incidents.