Urban communities are “disproportionately” receiving K-12 Common School Trust Dollars, despite the trust’s revenue coming from timber harvesting in rural areas, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said his office wants to change that. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Reykdal held a press conference Tuesday — the first of nine OSPI has planned leading up to the legislative session in January — to outline their priorities for “transforming” public K-12 schools in the state. “We are a state that has to share in our interests,” Reykdal said. “Our kids deserve equitable opportunities to learn no matter where they are.”
The major challenge raised by OSPI is that the revenue being generated in rural Washington is “almost exclusively” ending up in counties such as King, Pierce, Spokane and even Yakima. Reykdal said that the Department of Natural Resources is responsible for managing a trust for public schools, which is primarily funded through timber harvesting. Agricultural lands and leases also fund that trust, but 50-60% of the money is generated from trees. Reykdal said that money, in turn, goes to the legislature, which decides how to appropriately fund the school system.
The Washington legislature puts that money towards the School Construction Assistance Program, OSPI’s largest capital budget program, which the state uses to match funding when voters pass local school district bonds. But to pass a local bond for school funding, 60% of voters in school districts must approve the bond issue and the accompanying taxes to support it. Even if smaller, less affluent communities can pass a bond, they might be “property poor” so the amount they are matched by the legislature isn’t always significant enough to transform schools, he said. Due to the declining revenue from the harvesting of timber, Reykdal said OSPI wants to “stop depending” on those funds for the School Construction Assistance Program.
 

Food deserts. Poor housing conditions. Lack of community investment.

These challenges may not always come to mind when people think about how to improve America’s public schools.

But when my colleagues and I studied the 21st Century School Buildings Program, a US$1.1 billion school building and renovation initiative in Baltimore, these were the kinds of issues that staff from community-based organizations, schools, philanthropic organizations and city agencies hoped to address through improved school facilities.

Schools are the “hubs and hearts” of neighborhoods, as one community member told us during our research in the Southeast, Southwest and Cherry Hill sections of Baltimore. If, as one community school coordinator shared, schools want to achieve their goals to educate students, they should strengthen the communities that surround them.

Greenskies Clean Focus and its partner Eznergy Solar Energy Solutions, a New Jersey-based solar developer and EPC, have completed a 490-kW solar portfolio for the Rumson Board of Education. Annually, the 1,225 solar panels at the schools are projected to generate more than 550,000-kWh of clean energy, offsetting approximately 87-90% of the electricity needs of the individual schools.

The rooftop solar installations located at Deane-Porter Elementary School (204 kW) and Forrestdale Middle School (286 kW) will help the school district save on energy bills over the long term and increase its sustainability profile.

“Greenskies is excited to support the Rumson School District in its adoption of renewable energy,” said Stanley Chin, President and CEO of Greenskies. “Solar provides stable energy costs and a highly-visible demonstration of the environmental benefits for years to come. Schools are an important component in the transition to clean energy in New Jersey and across the US.”

In St. Louis and across the country, school buildings are in bad need of updates. The American Society of Civil Engineers does a regular report card of the country’s infrastructure, and in the most recent one, schools got a D+.

“A large portion of the system exhibits some pretty significant deterioration,” said Marsia Geldert-Murphey, president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Funding for school infrastructure has been a national problem for decades, she said.

“In the 1950s and ’60s, people were very willing to participate in building this amazing infrastructure that we have,” Geldert-Murphey said. “But it is now aged out, and we haven't been keeping up with the maintenance and the operations, and so we’re suffering for it.”

Those types of maintenance issues are especially prevalent in St. Louis Public Schools, where the district estimates the average age of buildings is 87 and many were built at the turn of the 20th century. As federal funding for school infrastructure has stalled, districts like SLPS are asking voters to pass local bond measures to address decades of wear and tear.

All Denver school buildings will get air quality sensors this summer as part of a broader pandemic-fueled effort to improve the air students breathe. 

Denver Public Schools is spending $1.5 million on about 800 sensors, which will be placed in 10% of the district’s classrooms, a spokesperson said. The $1.5 million is a small fraction of the $205 million in federal COVID stimulus money, known as ESSER funds, that the 90,000-student district received. The district must spend the money by 2024. 

“We know now, more than ever, that good indoor air quality contributes to a favorable environment for students and staff, and is part of assisting a school with its core mission of educating children,” district spokesperson Scott Pribble said in a statement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused educators and families to question the air quality inside schools, an aspect of public education some researchers said got too little attention for too long as students suffered with allergies, asthma, and airborne viruses that can disrupt learning. 

(The Center Square) — Georgia authorities are using a federal grant to fund a new website to disseminate school safety resources and updated training to Georgia schools.

The Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency are using a Bureau of Justice Assistance STOP School Violence Grant to fund the new Georgia Center for School Safety website.

State officials described the website as a clearinghouse to distribute school safety resources and updated training to school and district staff, community partners and the public. They say the information will help them recognize, prevent and respond to violent acts.

San Francisco Bay Area high school teacher Lisa Raskin moved out of a cramped apartment and into her own place this month, paying a deeply discounted $1,500 for a one-bedroom with expansive views that is within walking distance to work.
It was once an impossible dream in an exorbitantly priced region hostile to new housing. But her employer, a small school district just south of San Francisco, was the rare success story in the ongoing struggle to provide affordable housing and in May, it opened 122 apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms for teachers and staff.
“I have a sense of community, which I think is more valuable than anything else,” said Raskin, 41, a San Francisco native for whom teaching is a second career. “More districts really need to consider this model. I think it shows educators that they value them as educators.”
The Jefferson Union High School District in San Mateo County on the north end of Silicon Valley is among just a handful of places in the country that has educator housing. But with a national teacher shortage and rapidly rising rents, the working class district with excess land could serve as a harbinger as schools across the U.S. seek to attract and retain educators.
“We’ve had significant turnover of staff over the years. 25% on an annual basis. And this is a way for us to be able to retain and recruit both teachers and staff,” said Andrew Lie, a school board trustee.
 

In March, Julie Kalakau determined which children would fill the seats of Sunshine School for the 2022-23 school year. When she was done, she realized that there were still enough applicants to fill two more classroom spaces, but her preschool was at capacity.
Hawaii faces a critical shortage of early learning centers. The problem was made only worse by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced some owners to permanently close their doors. A new law seeks to change this.
In a historic investment for early childhood education in Hawaii, Act 257 allocates $200 million for the construction, expansion or renovation of prekindergarten facilities across the state. The School Facilities Authority must spend the money by the end of June 2024.
The act advances the state’s ambitious goal of providing all 3- and 4-year-old students with access to preschool education by 2032, as laid out in Act 46. Currently, Hawaii only has the capacity to serve 50% of its students in that age group, and the burden of finding affordable, accessible child care primarily falls on middle and low-income families.
However, the details of construction have yet to be determined as the new law has ambiguous language that leaves open the question about what facilities are eligible for the funding.
Sylvia Luke, the chair of the House Finance Committee who introduced the bill, promised the $200 million will fund the creation of 2,000 to 4,000 prekindergarten seats over the next two years.
“This is the starting point of aggressive preschool expansion,” said Luke, who is running for lieutenant governor.
 

Flint Community Schools’ Aug. 25, 2021, board of education meeting heard parents’ push back against a weeklong closure of the schools for “heat days.” This was the third time the district had closed classrooms in the three weeks since summer vacation, effectively exceeding the district’s allotted snow days for the year by Aug. 23.

While the Flint district may have been the first to close for excessive heat this year, it has not been the only one in the state. Detroit announced a half-day closure in anticipation of near-record high temperatures in May, and Dearborn Public Schools joined in the following month.

“On high temperature days such as today, without AC, hot classrooms and schools can lead to students overheating, sweating, and generally being irritated,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti of the Detroit Public Schools Community District said in a statement released to Chalkbeat Detroit. “This leads to students not being able to focus on learning, which can lead to behavior issues.”

A 2018 Harvard study suggested American students score lower on standardized tests when they are subjected to high temperatures in the classroom. The study concluded that air conditioning enhances students’ learning potential significantly.

DANVILLE, Va. (WSET) — The numbers are in for a huge renovation project at Danville Public Schools.

It's going to cost $141.5 million to improve and renovate school buildings over the next four years.

Superintendent Dr. Angela Hairston gave this update to school board members at Thursday's meeting.

The majority of the money to fund the project is coming from the 1% percent sales tax referendum Danville voters approved last fall.

Idaho likely has a record budget surplus, and some education leaders say it’s time for a big change.

They’d like to see legislators use some of the money to repair or replace aging and overcrowded schools.

The history isn’t encouraging. Legislators have long resisted the idea of using state dollars for buildings — putting the responsibility, and the out-of-pocket cost, on the shoulders of local property taxpayers.

But education lobbyists hope two factors will change the conversation this time around.

The first factor is the surplus itself. Based on projections, Idaho ended the 2021-22 budget year on June 30 with a $1.3 billion surplus. The final numbers are expected next week.

The second factor is a scathing January report from the Legislature’s research arm, the Office of Performance Evaluations. The report said it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to bring Idaho’s schools to “good” condition. But researchers were hesitant to put a price tag to the maintenance backlog, because the Legislature hasn’t bothered to ask for a statewide school buildings assessment since 1993.

Big surplus, meet big problem. Big problem, meet big surplus.

But only if lawmakers are willing to make a historic shift in how they view the state’s obligation to education.

“This is a golden opportunity,” said Rod Gramer, CEO of Idaho Business for Education. “I know it’s controversial, but what better time to start tackling that problem?”

The D.C. public school system would have to report to lawmakers the percentage of doors in each school building that properly lock and the working status of every air conditioning and heating system ahead of the upcoming academic year, under a bill approved unanimously this week by the 13-member D.C. Council.

Council members said they wanted to avoid a repeat of last August, when teachers and parents returned to classrooms and reportedly complained to their representatives of broken HVAC systems and other faulty equipment. After the school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., this spring renewed discussions about school safety, some teachers and parents in the District reported that locks on building and classroom doors were broken.

The legislation would also require traditional public and charter schools to report the percentage of students who have not received the routine immunizations required to attend schools. Many families missed doctor appointments during the pandemic and about a quarter of students are not up to date on their non-coronavirus vaccines, according to city officials.

MILO — Following last month’s affirmative 182-131 referendum vote, SAD 41 will soon start an approximate $935,000 Revolving Renovation Fund project for the upgrades to the air system at the Milo Elementary School. 
The project would be funded in large part through the Maine Department of Education’s Revolving Renovation Fund, and a request for proposals will be sent out soon.
“Tonight the board has to approve what the public approved,” Superintendent Michael Wright said during a school board meeting at the Penquis Valley School on July 13. The directors signed the paperwork for the Revolving Renovation Fund as well as the approved $10,818,490 2022-23 budget.
Under the Revolving Renovation Fund, 70 percent of costs are forgiven and SAD 41 would pay back 30 percent interest-free over 10 years (a $670,000/$280,000 split). This would equal about $28,000 annually to be paid by the district for a decade, and would be built into future budgets.
SAD 41 has utilized the school Revolving Renovation Fund in years past. In 2017, SAD 41 residents approved an approximate $474,000 loan for a sprinkler system and elevator at Penquis Valley.
“We can take other monies and apply them in different places,” Wright said last month, mentioning that COVID-related grants are being used for various purposes across the SAD 41 schools.
Business Manager Heidi Sisco said COVID-19 funds cannot be used to pay for part of the 30 percent portion of Revolving Renovation Fund monies.
 

When a May 12 derecho hit South Dakota, with storms including an EF-2 tornado that descended on the southern edge of Castlewood, the town's school was badly damaged.

The elementary portion of the school sustained damage in the storm as the roof was ripped off, walls fell down, debris scattered around the school grounds and a bus shed was destroyed.

Twenty South Dakota National Guard officers were reportedly deployed to Castlewood after the storm to help with recovery efforts.

More:With no gyms due to tornado, Castlewood athletes find new ways to prepare for next season

As classes are slated to begin in Castlewood in six weeks, the school board and administration have come up with a solution to half the school being unusable: a mobile unit.

Eight classrooms and four offices are in the new mobile unit the district has purchased for $984,938 from Texas. Each classroom has its own bathroom and storage, Superintendent Peter Books said of the 9,000-square-foot unit.

The federal government contributes roughly 8 percent of the $795 billion that annually goes toward educating the nation’s 50 million children. In many cases, however, the federal share falls short of its self-imposed targets, shortchanging schools on everything from high-need students and special education to facilities and school meals.

This shortfall will persist without more vigorous and reliable federal intervention, argue the authors of a new report on funding sources for K-12 schools.

Instead of asking school districts to rely on volatile state and local revenue, they say, the federal government needs to dramatically step up its investment in K-12 education and proactively establish funding programs that help schools during economic downturns.

EATONTOWN — This summer, the Eatontown Public Schools will begin construction as part of an Energy Savings Improvement Plan (ESIP) project.
The total cost of the project, approximately $5 million, will be funded through energy cost savings, according to a press release from the school district.
District administrators said the project will not have an impact on taxpayers. They said the work will result in more efficient and reliable heating, cooling and ventilation in all of the district’s classrooms and offices.
The ESIP project will be financed using savings in energy costs from the installation of solar panels and lighting upgrades, according to the press release.
District administrators said the money saved from these improvements will be invested in replacing all of the rooftop heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units in the district, which will provide new and more reliable HVAC systems and lead to further improvements of the district’s energy efficiency.
 

As workers lay the foundation of Nashua’s newest middle school this week, Alderman Richard Dowd is keeping a close eye on the cost of what will in a few years become the Brian S. McCarthy Middle School.

Dowd, who chairs the committee of aldermen and school board members overseeing the Gate City’s major school construction, said he is wary of surprises at the McCarthy school site and the expansion of Pennichuck Middle School.

“Right now it looks good,” he said. “We always have to be careful of the unknown unknowns, everything from cost increases of products, to we open up a wall and, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to do something else.’ ”

Money the school board and the city have set aside for unexpected expenses and “escalation,” or the expected annual cost increases on a project, are holding for now, Dowd said, though it’s possible Nashua will have to find additional funds if the projects hit any unexpected snags.

Supply chain issues, difficulty hiring and the rising cost of land and petroleum have pushed construction costs to stratospheric highs this year. The school renovations and building projects that come in a flurry during the summer are getting more expensive too.

Concord hopes that when the time comes to build its own new middle school in a few years, the market will have settled.

CHESTERFIELD — New Hingham Regional Elementary School is close to fully upgrading its lighting to LEDs, a move that Principal Jesse McMillan said will yield immediate savings for the school.

The upgrade is being done as part of Eversource’s Municipal Partnership program. The $74,000 upgrade includes both lighting in and outside of the school, and $18,000 is coming from Eversource. The rest is being paid for by money the school received from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

This money was awarded to New Hingham because it was one of the school’s that suffered at least a 10% drop in enrollment in the pandemic. New Hingham received $62,236 as a result, and McMillan and the School Committee determined it would be best used for capital improvements.

The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) Thursday announced the approval of $55,643,416 for the district’s projected pre-K through 12 building. The total cost of the project is estimated at $63.23 million, with a local share of $7,587,738.

The project had been in the planning phases prior to COVID-19. At that point, the state put the funding for such projects on hold.

Crestview voters passed the 2.84 mill levy for the new construction in May of 2019, which was to cover $5.2 million of the $43 million project. The Ohio Schools Facility Construction Commission was to cover 88 percent of the project.

As the pandemic began, Crestview continued to work with architects from Holabird and Root and BSHM to design the project. A new waterline to the school was built and now brings the school water from New Waterford.

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- According to The Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo will be joining four other Colorado cities in suing the state over a recent law that pertains to school construction projects.

The law restricts a city's authority to collect taxes on school construction projects. This includes the building materials used in these projects.

According to Pueblo Mayor, Nick Gradisar, the city could lose up to 4 million dollars in tax revenue.