In the wake of the deadliest school shooting in state history, the Texas Education Agency plans to check whether hundreds of thousands of external school building doors lock properly before the next school year begins.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told Texas senators Tuesday that the agency will review external entry points of every school in Texas, which is about 340,000 doors. It will evaluate school facilities to determine what repairs may be needed to secure campuses. There will also be a review of each district’s safety protocols and meetings held between state officials and each district’s school safety committee.

Morath’s comments came during a Texas Senate committee hearing about the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, during which a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. At the same hearing, Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said the law enforcement response to the shooting was an “abject failure” and police could have stopped the shooter three minutes after arriving. McCraw also told lawmakers the teacher who taught in the conjoined classrooms where the shooting occurred had flagged to the school administration that the door would not lock.

The city’s aging school buildings, which spew out the same volume of carbon dioxide emissions as 154,000 cars each year, will be a key battleground in efforts to reduce air pollution and boost clean energy across city, advocates say.

The more than 1,800 public and charter schools overseen by the city occupy buildings that are 70 years old on average, and many are equipped with outdated heating and cooling systems that are both inefficient and emission-producing, energy advocates claim.

“The emissions are huge. We’re spending a ton of money on energy; it’s building stock we control as a city. It’s a huge opportunity to improve school infrastructure … and create union jobs,” said Dave Hancock, executive director of Climate Jobs New York, whose group authored a May report calling on the city to adopt an aggressive clean energy plan for schools. “It just makes a lot of sense.”

City officials have ramped up their solar energy efforts in recent years, building panels on the rooftops of 110 city facilities, including 60 school buildings, that produce 16 megawatts of energy a year — enough to power 2,600 homes.

Safety and security updates and a host of repairs are desperately needed across the Coeur d'Alene School District.

The district has more than $25 million in deferred maintenance — projects and repairs that have been needed for some time.

The average age of Coeur d'Alene public school facilities is 30 years, which means students are surrounded by buildings and equipment as old as, or even older, than their parents.

That age is showing, and it's only going to get worse. If nothing is done, that $25 million in facilities work needed now will increase to $68 million by 2027.

"It just snowballs and keeps getting bigger and bigger every year," said Coeur d'Alene Superintendent Shon Hocker. "We have to get a handle on this deferred maintenance, or it's going to become a bigger issue."

Earlier this month, the district's long-range planning committee presented to the Coeur d'Alene school board a recommendation for a school plant facilities reserve fund levy to help resolve the maintenance concerns. The levy would fund deferred maintenance projects for up to 10 years. The long-range planning committee deems deferred maintenance to be one of the district's highest priorities.

A school plant facilities reserve fund levy is a property tax measure decided by a school district's registered voters.

Many U.S. schools were in dire need of upgrades—burdened by leaking pipes, mold, and antiquated heating systems—long before the covid-19 pandemic drew attention to the importance of indoor ventilation in reducing the spread of infectious disease.
The average U.S. school building is 50 years old, and many schools date back more than a century.
So, one might assume school districts across the nation would welcome the opportunity created by billions of dollars in federal covid-relief money available to upgrade heating and air-conditioning systems and improve air quality and filtration in K-12 schools.
But a report released this month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found most U.S. public schools have made no major investments in improving indoor ventilation and filtration since the start of the pandemic. Instead, the most frequently reported strategies to improve airflow and reduce covid risk were notably low-budget, such as relocating classroom activities outdoors and opening windows and doors, if considered safe.
 

Kansas City Public Schools may close and consolidate as many as seven to 12 schools with low enrollment, so that the district can spend more money on updating classrooms, expanding programs and ensuring all students have access to the same opportunities. Officials are evaluating how best to address inefficiencies and inequities caused by an overstock of outdated school buildings operating under capacity, as part of a long-term restructuring plan to improve offerings across the district. It will be a major overhaul of the Kansas City school system that officials say is stretched too thin. Superintendent Mark Bedell has said that students in some under-enrolled schools are missing out on having full-time music or art teachers, as well as certain services, extracurriculars or even a football team. And while some schools have modern upgrades, others are outdated, with high school science classrooms that do not have sinks to use during lab experiments, for example.

City Council’s unanimous vote this past week to require the School District of Philadelphia to replace all of its water fountains with lead-filtering hydration stations by 2025 is a good first step, but it’s a temporary fix, said 4th District Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr.

“Some of these school buildings are just too old. At the end of the day, we need to take a look and evaluate all of our facilities,” Jones said. “If you look at the state of physical plants in our schools, we are looking at a $5 billion problem. We have to address all of that.”

Lead contamination in drinking water is a problem across the School District of Philadelphia, according to a February 2022 report by public interest research group PennPIRG. The group reviewed testing information available on about 2,000 fountains and found that 98% of schools tested had at least one tap where lead was detected in the water and over 60% of all tested outlets had lead contamination.

Some schools’ fountains showed extremely high levels of lead contamination, such as one at the Duckrey School in North Philadelphia.

Many U.S. schools were in dire need of upgrades — burdened by leaking pipes, mold, and antiquated heating systems — long before the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the importance of indoor ventilation in reducing the spread of infectious disease.
The average U.S. school building is 50 years old, and many schools date back more than a century.
So, one might assume school districts across the nation would welcome the opportunity created by billions of dollars in federal COVID-relief money available to upgrade heating and air-conditioning systems and improve air quality and filtration in K-12 schools.
But a report released this month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found most U.S. public schools have made no major investments in improving indoor ventilation and filtration since the start of the pandemic. Instead, the most frequently reported strategies to improve airflow and reduce COVID risk were notably low-budget, such as relocating classroom activities outdoors and opening windows and doors, if considered safe.
The CDC report, based on a representative sample of the nation’s public schools, found that fewer than 40% had replaced or upgraded their HVAC systems since the start of the pandemic. Even fewer were using high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters in classrooms (28%), or fans to increase the effectiveness of having windows open (37%).
 

WAYNE COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - The Wayne County School District is making improvements to school facilities this summer.

All campus buildings will receive new air units with clean air handlers for better ventilation. Additionally, the district will replace some of the old windows with new tinted windows, increasing energy efficiency and making the classrooms more pleasant. Every classroom will also receive new smart panels and new chrome books.

The stated goal of the project is to ensure each student is provided with a safe and comfortable learning environment as they continue getting their education.

The $7 million project funded through grants from Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Skyrocketing construction costs mean that some school projects in the $350 million bond proposal that voters approved in 2016 may need to be delayed.
Officials with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools told the school board in a workshop recently that the sale of bonds will fall about $34 million short of covering all the work on the project list.
“We have a $34 million problem if we continue with all the projects we have in the bond,” said Nick Seeba, the director of facilities and construction for the school district.
Two of the eight remaining projects are most at risk for postponement, according to Darrell Walker, the assistant superintendent of operations for the school district.
Those projects are an addition at Ward Elementary School in southwest Forsyth County and a new middle school in the Smith Farm area, in the southeast part of the county.
Combined, those two projects were estimated to cost about $38 million, but with inflation factored in, the costs for the two projects has ballooned to about $47 million, according to school district figures.
 

Arizona schools are entitled to get their day in court on their claim the state has shorted them by billions of dollars.
In a ruling released Wednesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin rejected arguments by state officials and Republican legislative leaders that he has no right to rule on the legality of the formula they use to finance new schools and repairs for existing schools.
Martin said it’s clearly within the purview of the courts to determine if the state is complying with the constitutional requirements to maintain a “general and uniform’’ school system.
The judge also rejected arguments that he cannot review the claims first filed five years ago because the state has made adjustments to its capital funding system.
“Accepting defendants’ arguments based on mootness would preclude courts from ever deciding whether Arizona’s capital finance system complies with the constitution,’’ Martin wrote.
“Because a case of this complexity always will span multiple years — and multiple legislative sessions — the Legislature can always pass some new law that nibbles around the edges of the system, and claim that the case is moot and unripe,’’ he wrote. “Not surprisingly, Arizona law does not support such a contention.’’
There was no immediate comment from legislative leaders.
The lawsuit, filed in 2017 by a coalition of public schools and education organizations, contends lawmakers have been shorting schools each year for the capital funds to which state law says they are entitled.
The cumulative loss to schools from failure of legislators to obey the funding formula is now close to $6 billion, Danny Adelman of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said Wednesday.
The issue’s roots date back to 1994.
 

The Jeffco school district is preparing to make recommendations this fall to close multiple elementary schools, kicking off its long-term plan to downsize its number of schools.

Jeffco district leaders say 49, or 58% of district elementary schools, currently have fewer than 250 students, and/or use less than 60% building capacity. Six elementary schools, in six different areas of the district, have fewer than 200 students, and also utilize less than 60% of their building’s capacity.

“While we have a large issue in this district, there are a few schools that are really facing dire situations with how small they are going into next school year and we must confront those,” said Lisa Relou, Jeffco’s chief of strategy and communications, who is overseeing the plan’s creation.

Five faucets at Lincoln School in Ashland still produce water with unacceptably high levels of lead, and district officials will work over the summer to address the issue, Ashland schools Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove said Thursday.

Bogdanove made those developments known in an online message to families and staff of the facility after receiving a second report June 7 from a local firm that tested the water.

A May 9 report from the Medford-based Neilson Research Corporation revealed 12 of the 60 faucets in the school had lead above levels deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The next step is to replace the fixtures and shut-off valves on all the affected faucets, and retest,” Bogdanove said.

Jun. 13—After years of neglecting its buildings and being unable to afford repairs, the Scranton School District plans to invest $95 million through 2024.

Plans include a major renovation to West Scranton Intermediate School, repairs to heating and ventilation systems and upgrades to security. Federal COVID-19 funding will allow the district to borrow less money and help shorten the time frame for work.

District leaders, who received a feasibility study last year identifying $300 million in repairs and improvements needed, are optimistic of the progress made so far.

"Decades of neglect can't be fixed overnight," said school Director Ro Hume, chair of the board's operations committee. "Every step forward we take puts our kids in a warm, safe, dry environment. The better the environment, the research shows, the more learning can take place."

Last year I wrote a column about the Western Placer Unified School District, noting that the district and the city of Lincoln were two distinct organizations, each with its own governing board and finances. 
Western Placer Unified School District encompasses the city landmass plus adjacent areas around Lincoln. Both agencies share space in City Hall and both use each other’s facilities – parks, playgrounds and swimming pools – under a joint-use agreement that goes back many years.
Lincoln is, once again, among the state’s fastest growing cities. We’ve just passed 50,000 residents and, as reported in earlier columns, housing starts abound in all sectors of the city. More population = more students = more school facilities.
The district currently has 15 campuses - eight elementary, two middle school, two high schools (including the newly-opened Twelve Bridges High School), one continuation high school, one independent study school and one farm campus - for a total of 7,200 students. Over the next two decades, Western Placer Unified School District estimates, there will be 17,280 new housing units added within its boundaries and that growth will add approximately 10,000 new students to the district.
 

With many of its classrooms still unchanged in the six decades since opening as a high school, Northwest Suburban High School District 214's Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights is undergoing nearly $15 million in renovations.
The work will support the district's specialized educational programs and central office staff.
The phased project broke ground June 1 and begins with a major redo of classrooms in the three-story north wing building at 2121 S. Goebbert Road, from demolition to new walls, paint, lighting, heating and cooling system updates, and technology wiring, district officials said.
Construction crews also will be building out a 420-square-foot security vestibule at the northern entrance, and a 5,680-square-foot addition within an interior building courtyard will be used as a new staff training facility.
District spokeswoman Stephanie Kim said the multipurpose space also will be for student and community use, providing a gathering spot for a variety of events, classes, meetings, professional development and rentals. This past school year, the district had about 8,000 events scheduled at Forest View, Kim said.
 

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Plans to replace the contaminated high school in Vermont’s largest city may have to be modified because the cost is $60 million higher than what the district can afford.
The Burlington School District has given the city a $150 million bond limit to pay for the construction of a new Burlington High School and Burlington Technical Center but the project is estimated to cost the district $210 million, the Burlington Free Press reported.
In March 2021, students were moved into a retrofitted former downtown Macy's department store about six months after school administrators closed the existing school because toxic industrial chemicals known as PCBs were found in the building and soil during renovations.
Last week, Superintendent Tom Flanagan and the school commissioners discussed options to address the $60 million gap, including finding more funding sources and altering the design.
The board picked the design after hearing from the community. Construction is expected to cost $181.3 million and be completed in fall 2025, if voters approve it in November. Another $29 million is estimated to be needed to remediate and remove the existing building.
 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia School Building Authority handed down more than $9 million in grant awards under two separate programs in a meeting that took place Monday in Charleston.

According to information from the SBA, Cabell, Pocahontas, Putnam, Raleigh and Wayne counties were all awarded $1 million each for projects under the SBA’s MIP (Major Improvement Projects) grant program.

Each county has pledged local funds to go with the $1 million awards.

Wayne County plans improvements for Wayne Middle School. The total project is $1.7 million. Poca High School in Putnam County will get a $1.4 million addition focused on career readiness.

Nicholas County Schools has just two years to complete federally backed construction projects or risk owing millions to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

During the flooding disaster of 2016, Richwood Middle School, Richwood High School, and Summersville Middle School in Nicholas County were severely damaged.

Four years later, in 2020, FEMA awarded the West Virginia School Building Authority with a grant of $131 million to replace the schools in Nicholas County.

More than $17 million of that has been spent as of June 13, 2022. The county is negotiating a construction contract that fits within the current budget.

Construction was delayed because of increased costs due to COVID-19.

“We, by our estimations, are around 25 to 35 percent over our budgeted amount,” David L. Roach, Executive Director of the West Virginia School Building Authority, said.

Unless someone has a spare $25 billion (with a “b”) hanging around, the Virginia School Boards Association plans to move forward with efforts to change the way the state funds construction of educational facilities.

That $25 billion is the estimated cost of bringing all of the commonwealth’s school infastructure up to modern standards, given that there are about 1,000 aged facilities and more than half of the commonwealth’s school buildings are at least 50 years old.

On June 2, the Virginia School Boards Association’s board of directors established a task force that will push federal, state and local leaders to provide the support needed to upgrade facilities.

“As we seek to have the best schools for our children, our facilities are a critical element,” said Teddy Martin II, president of the association.

Rydell Davis’ mother would often wipe black soot from the bedroom window of his childhood home. He grew up in Tyler Court, a street over from Interstate 81 where cars, trucks, and other motor vehicles polluted the air with toxins, causing him, and others around him, to develop asthma. But he didn’t understand that the proximity of the highway was the reason; not until he moved away.
“I began to see that my asthma got better when we moved to another side of town,” Davis said. “I always thought asthma was something that naturally happened, but as I got older and started doing my own research I was like, ‘wow, maybe the highway did play a major role in my development of asthma.’”
The negative health impacts of highways prompted state legislators to pass the Schools Impacted by Gross Highways Act last week. The law prohibits construction of schools within 600 feet of a highway.
Car exhaust is the cause of 4 million new cases of childhood asthma worldwide each year, according to a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health.