In a sweeping about-face, Oregon’s largest school district on Friday said it will “strive” to increase a key measure of air quality to minimum levels long-trumpeted by a wide swath of experts nationwide.
Portland Public Schools’ announcement comes after an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive in May found nearly 500 classrooms with subpar ventilation rates. Experts said those ventilation levels could increase the risk of airborne-disease transmission as well as lower the ability of students to think and learn in classrooms with stale air.
The district’s announcement also comes on the heels of clarified COVID-19 guidance from the Oregon Health Authority, brought about by questions raised by The Oregonian/OregonLive earlier this month. On Thursday, the health authority told school officials it “recommends a range of 3-6 air changes per hour” in classrooms and other “public indoor spaces,” along other strategies to improve air quality.
Air changes measure the number of times a room’s total volume of old, stale air is replaced by fresh air within an hour’s time.
 

BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- Beachwood Schools have learned that those who responded to a recent survey on its elementary school properties want to renovate and update Hilltop and Bryden schools, both built in 1956, rather than tear them down, and do not want to consolidate the buildings into one.

On Sept. 12, residents gathered at the Fairmount School/Board of Education building to hear the results of the survey, and three days later at Bryden School, to work in small groups to give input to representatives of ThenDesign Architecture (TDA), the firm that will design what residents prefer, and Project Management Consultants, the company that is overseeing the entire project.

At the Sept. 12 meeting with residents, Clint Van Dine, senior partner of Triad Research Group, went over the results of the predominantly online survey. In all, 564 adult residents answered the survey, which took place from July 27 to Aug. 15. “We had, what I think, is a very good response rate,” Van Dine told those in attendance.

APPOMATTOX, Va. (WDBJ) - It’s a project that has been 25 years in the making for Ora McCoy. She’s been working to tell the history of a Rosenwald school building in Appomattox.
“I graduated from Carver-Price High school in 19 and 60, and you know we love our school and we just wanted to preserve it,” said McCoy.
In 1928, Carver-Price High School was built to serve the African American community during segregation. Led by Mrs. Mozelle J. Price, it had three teachers, with elementary and high school students.
“It was a really close-knit school,” said Hattie Gibson.
Hattie Gibson stayed with Mrs. Price, who housed students at her place called Camp Winonah. Gibson was from Nelson County.
“She was a smart woman. And she was a good person,” added Gibson. “She was wonderful to us.”
Gibson was the only graduate in the 1949 class.
“I mean a lot of doors that are open now to girls my age and my color, it wasn’t that way during that time. I mean you had to really work hard,” explained Gibson.
 

Seven Indianapolis Public Schools buildings would shut down at the end of this school year under the district’s proposed reorganization plan, which would make them available to charter school operators for the low cost of $1. 

District officials, however, are betting on their ability to successfully lobby the state legislature to keep those closed buildings. Current state law says such buildings must first be offered up to charter schools or state educational institutions for a $1 sale or annual lease price.

The district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan, which the school board will vote on in November, is a sweeping shake-up of the state’s largest district that attempts to tackle declining enrollment figures, racial inequities, and looming financial instability. 

The potential closure of seven school buildings comes five years after voters approved a referendum to pay for roughly $7 million in safety upgrades and construction for these specific sites and Sidener Academy for the Gifted, which would vacate its current building under the proposed plan. The funding was a portion of an overall $52 million capital referendum, one of two referenda passed in 2018. 

NEW JERSEY, NJ — As part of Gov. Phil Murphy's fiscal year 2023 budget, the state allocated $1.55 billion to advance more than a dozen school construction projects in Schools Development Authority districts through fiscal year 2026, a state government news release said.

Murphy visited the Dayton Avenue Educational Complex in Passaic City last week to cut the ribbon on the $241 million SDA project, highlighting the significant school construction investments in the budget, the release said.

"We are so excited to see a 21st century modernized educational campus in this area, and we are even more excited for the students who will benefit from all that it will have to offer,” Passaic School Superintendent Sandra Montanez-Diodonet said.

The new 448,000-square-foot campus, which broke ground in 2018, will house four schools educating up to 3,000 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Those schools, and respective classrooms and facilities, include:

School district building plans are being negatively impacted by rising construction costs, Kentucky Department of education staff told the Superintendents Advisory Council (SAC) during its Sept. 21 meeting.

Chay Ritter, director of the Division of District Support Services, said district construction costs can grow for various reasons, from supply chain shortages to inflation. Interest rates – which have continued to rise – have put even more financial pressure on districts, he said. If building costs and interest rates increase while a school district is awaiting approval for its capital projects, then those projects sometimes become too expensive to build, Ritter said.

“A lot of people put a lot of their weight into these [capital] projects and they really want these things to happen in a way that’s good for everybody and it’s a school you can be proud of,” Ritter said.

When Menifee County first gathered estimates for a new board office in August 2021, the initial estimates were $2 million to $2.5 million. The May 2022 estimate was $3.5 million. The district has now decided to remove the basement and storage construction from the project to save money.

Nine North Carolina school districts stretching from Hyde County in the east to Cherokee County in the west will share more than $300 million in new state lottery-funded grant awards for school construction, renovation projects, and other capital improvements.

Among the projects to be funded by the grants, aimed at districts in economically distressed counties, are seven new or replacement school buildings, including three high schools, two schools combining middle and high school grades, an intermediate school for upper elementary and middle school grades and a Career and Technical Education Center. Some of these districts receiving the grants were hardest hit by natural disasters like flooding and an earthquake.

Several of the new schools will replace at least two existing schools with combined facilities.

In all, the Department of Public Instruction received 164 grant applications from 72 districts across the state totaling more than $2.4 billon.

President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration on Wednesday for Puerto Rico, unlocking additional federal assistance as island residents navigate the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi had asked the Biden administration on Tuesday for an expedited declaration, two days after Fiona pelted the island with heavy rainfall and knocked out its fragile power grid.
A feud over whether and how to shift Puerto Rico toward wind, solar and other renewable power is one factor in the years of wrangling over the direction of the territory’s energy policies.
The American Red Cross said Wednesday during a news conference with FEMA officials that some residents were benefiting from an initiative that installed solar panels and battery systems at about 150 schools at a cost of $40 million after 2017’s Hurricane Maria. Now, after Fiona, more than 50 of these schools are being used as shelters.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have drawn up a new battle plan in the fight against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in schools.
The new strategy is improving school ventilation following a new CDC survey that shows most schools have not yet upgraded their ventilation systems.
And according to the CDC, there are federal monies available to schools to help with the cost.
Cabell County Schools is getting eight new heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems and four of them are going into schools currently being built.
From the outside chiller that creates cold air, to the boiler room that provides heat in the winter, to the classroom where the air students breathe, is an important part of the educational process.
When asked what the difference is between a modern system versus an outdated system, the Cabell County Schools' energy manager’s answer was simple.
“For lack of a better word, older systems have stagnant air,” Chip McMillan said. “Students are re-breathing the same air all day long.”
With schools back in session, the CDC is urging schools to upgrade their ventilation systems to help keep COVID-19 in check.
 

Kalispell Public Schools will begin extensive long-range facility planning as more of the district’s schools near capacity levels.

The district released a request for qualifications Monday to hire consultants to facilitate the planning process. The goal is to develop a “big picture” master plan that officials can reference for the next 20 years, Superintendent Micah Hill said.

The work will include a facilities review, a demographic study, recommendations and an implementation plan, among other items.

In addition to evaluating facilities in terms of capacity and condition, Hill said the district wants to look at long-term growth from both a city and county perspective, nodding to the surrounding 13 partner school districts whose students eventually attend Flathead and Glacier high schools. “What does that long-range growth look like? And then a demographic study — where are those things happening? What are the growth rates on individual grade levels or age groups?” he said.

The district’s hope is to complete the long-range facility planning process by June 2023.

We're out to answer a basic question about Hamilton County Schools: Which schools in the county have the most maintenance requests that haven't been addressed?
School officials, including former Hamilton County School Board Chair Tucker McClendon, have long pointed out there are many repairs needed across the district.
McClendon, who is now deputy county mayor for education and workforce development, is a member of a newly-created County School Facilities Working Group that Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp announced on Tuesday.
McClendon said the working group will use the 2018 MGT study commissioned by the school board as its baseline for the work.
That consulting group recommended closing 9 schools, constructing new buildings for 11 schools, renovating 27 schools, increasing the capacity of 6 schools, and having new locations or sites for 4 schools.
But where do things stand today? That's what we aim to find out. We have reached out to Hamilton County officials to get a current list of the schools most in need of repairs. We'll update this story when we learn more details.
 

WASHINGTON D.C., DC — In the four months since the school massacre in Uvalde, school security has been under a microscope. Now, records obtained by WUSA9 reveal blind spots in DC Public Schools.
Hundreds of school security cameras aren’t working.
Ward 7 School Board Member Eboni-Thompson Rose said that technology is essential to student and teacher safety.
“You both want to make sure any threats outside are deterred from coming in,” Thompson said. “You want to make sure that if something bad does happen, you're able to go back and figure out exactly why it happened, how it happened, and who we need to hold responsible.”
The list of “non-working” CCTV or closed-circuit security cameras show there were 313 broken security cameras spread across the DC Public School System as of Sept. 8. WUSA9 is not naming the individual schools due to safety concerns.
DCPS records show one high school had a staggering 82 security cameras that were not working as the fall semester got underway. An elementary school was listed with 34 non-working cameras. One middle school had 18 broken security cameras. Another high school had 13.
Add it all up, and that’s 60 different DC Public Schools spread across the city that have at least one security camera that’s broken.
“My reaction is why aren’t they fixed,” said Ruth Wattenberg represents Ward 3 on the DC School Board.
 

CARY, N.C. — Proposed redistricting of student assignment zones would move dozens of students across 46 Wake County Public School System schools next year.
But current students would not have to move schools if they don’t want to, so long as they can arrange their own transportation to school under the draft student assignment plan unveiled Tuesday.
The draft plan is intended to provide relief for overflowing schools and help fill schools that are under-enrolled. It considers, among other things, students' proximity to their schools and allowing for more efficient transportation. Family surveys have shown many parents want their children's schools to be close to home. At the same time, the district is experiencing a continued decline in bus driver employment.

BURLINGTON — State officials are calling a program to reduce lead in school and child care drinking water a success, following a new report that found 98 percent of Vermont schools and child cares have completed testing for lead in their drinking water and taken any needed steps to keep water safe. A law passed in 2019 requires all Vermont schools and child care facilities to test their drinking and cooking water for lead.

“Each year hundreds of Vermont kids are poisoned by lead. This program shows how we can work together as a state to reduce lead exposure and keep our children healthier,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine in a statement. “Parents and caregivers can take comfort in knowing that the water their kids are consuming at their school and child care is now safer.”

Lead is a highly toxic metal. There is no safe level of lead in the body, the department said, and exposure to it can slow children’s growth, impair their development and learning, and cause behavior problems.

BROOKSVILLE – The days of kicking the can down the road are over, county commissioners said on Sept. 13 as they voted 5-0 to approve a five-year capital improvement plan that will bring some major changes to Hernando County.

Budget Director Toni Brady showed a plan that has almost $174.8 million in projects for fiscal year 2023 and looks ahead to spending $306 million through fiscal 2027.

Of that amount, $39 million is unfunded, though.

While the list of projects went on for pages and pages, Brady hit the high points for the commissioners, pointing out projects such as the Dennis Wilfong Center for Success, for which the county got a $6.1 million grant for its part of the infrastructure, and including the tax collector annex, Eastside Roadway improvements, replacing the Jenkins Creek Fishing Pier, the Anderson Snow Splash Park and new lights for the Delta Woods Park tennis courts.

More than 20 Massachusetts public school districts that are home to communities who bore a disproportionate brunt of the coronavirus pandemic could share in $100 million in federal COVID-19 relief money to upgrade ventilation and air quality in classrooms.

Worcester Public Schools is eligible to receive up to $7 million from the American Rescue Plan Act — and Boston Public Schools could see up to $15 million, the Baker administration announced Monday.

Springfield Public Schools, meanwhile, may get up to almost $6.3 million, a spokeswoman from the Executive Office of Education told MassLive.

The Davenport Community School District is working on a long-range facilities master plan to right-size the district, and it may involve closing schools.
The district still has a ways to go in the process, as its Board of Directors will vote to approve a master plan proposal in December. The plan sets the vision and priorities for the district over the next 10 to 20 years, though nothing in the plan is certain. 
The district says it must balance its budget with its needs and capacity. District leader say they've been thorough and intentional with the planning.  But months away from the board’s vote, parents and staff alike have raised several concerns about potential closures.
Dr. Austin Burt, a Walcott business owner, said he’d like the district to address its excess capacity internally before making any decisions on a proposal. 
“Because all they're doing now is closing buildings and cutting costs,” he said. “We want to be part of the solution, not part of a continued loss for the district.”
Proposed plans include tentatively closing/idling Buchanan, Washington, Jackson, Jefferson and Hayes or Monroe elementary schools and would convert Walcott K-8 into a junior high school. In one option, Williams and Smart junior highs are idled, but would relocate into the repurposed Jackson and Jefferson sites. 
 

When it gets too hot in Denver and Baltimore classrooms, students are sent home because their schools don't have air conditioning.
In Massachusetts, checking for rusty water leaking from a ceiling has become a "morning ritual."
In California, a school's cockroach infestation has gotten so bad that some students fear eating lunch.
While school infrastructure problems are a perennial challenge, national data and dismal stories from teachers suggest the crises are reaching an apex. Atrocious school conditions have even prompted some teachers this school year to go on strike.
"We're getting to a critical stage now," said Mike Pickens, executive director of the National Council on School Facilities. "The average age of a school building now is from 49 to 50 years" -- the highest in memory. Some schools date back to World War II.
But as schools get older and more desperate for repairs, the funding gap for public schools keeps getting worse.
 

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Department of Education may be looking at shutting down certain schools due to safety issues.

Acting GDOE Superintendent Francis Santos made mention of the possibility during a presentation before the Rotary Club of Guam during its meeting Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Guam in Tumon. He was discussing capital improvement needs and initiatives.

"There's roofing issues in every single school in our system. As I speak, we have a structural issue at the (George Washington High School) gym. We had to shut that down. And we're now looking at two additional schools that we're having some serious structural issues. And we are more than likely going to shut them down and have to move these kids around," Santos said.

One school district was able to give pay raises to its teachers as big as 30 percent. Another bought new heating and ventilation systems, all the better to help students and educators breathe easier in these times. The improvements didn’t cost taxpayers a cent, and were paid for by an endlessly renewable source — the sun.
As solar energy gains traction across the country, one beneficiary have been schools, particularly those in cash-strapped districts contending with dwindling tax bases.
From New Jersey to California, nearly one in 10 K-12 public and private schools across the country were using solar energy by early 2022, according to data released Thursday by Generation180, a nonprofit that promotes and tracks clean energy. That’s twice as many as existed in 2015.
The savings in electric bills from schools with solar panels often topped millions in each district, and many have been able to adopt the technology without shouldering any costs up front.
“If you’re conservative, we didn’t ask you for more taxes, if you’re liberal, you love the green concept,” said Michael Hester, the school superintendent in Batesville, Ark., where solar arrays paid for teacher raises. “It’s a win-win.”
In Heart-Butte, Mont., the school superintendent, Mike Tatsey, arranged for three-quarters of the energy credits generated by the district’s new solar panels to help lower the electric bills of households in the community, located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. He believed that freeing up extra spending money for staples like groceries and shoes could have a ripple effect in classrooms.
“That little bit, in my mind, might help a family feel better about themselves, and kids feel better themselves,” Mr. Tatsey said. “In a roundabout way, when they come to school, because of that little bit of extra hope we’re able to give, they’ll be ready to learn.”