MUNCIE, Ind. — One Muncie school is undergoing an $8 million renovation, pivoting away from an open-concept school plan toward a more traditional classroom design.
Even before the changes are done, the improvements are helping teachers feel more safe.
With students home for summer, construction workers fill East Washington Academy. The school's interior is getting a complete makeover.
Friday morning, teachers Courtney Williams and Angela Butler walked through the new classrooms to check on construction with Principal Sarah Anglin at their side. The teachers said they're already in awe of the changes.
"It is so weird to walk through it now, because you've seen it in the old way and now you're seeing the renovations and it's just unbelievable," said Williams, a third grade high ability teacher at East Washington Academy.
The school's previous open-concept plan was popular in the '80s but ended up being problematic for many schools. The lack of walls and doors make for a loud setting, hard for students to concentrate. But safety is also at the top of everyone's minds.
"Our walls were partial walls around the building and then our side wall that went out to the hallway was just simply cabinets that weren't up to the ceiling and you could hear everything going on in the hallways if someone was passing by," said Angela Butler, a master teacher at East Washington Academy.
“That was definitely a concern, safety, but also just the noise level and the distractions that you’re constantly hearing throughout the building. So the renovation that we’re going through is definitely going to help with so much of that,” Williams said.
 

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - As the Saluda County School District educates future generation of Tigers, schools like Saluda Elementary are hampered by aging infrastructure of the past.
For starters, there’s the tight cafeteria that can barely squeeze in five classes at lunchtime, the wires held up by zip ties in the hallways, and the boiler rooms that flood with a good rain.
The oldest part of the building went up in 1950, and staff say it is well past its prime.
“The infrastructure is to the point now that it’s almost impossible to upgrade our facilities to be cost-effective right now,” Saluda Superintendent Dr. Harvey Livingston said.
But in Saluda County, the tax base isn’t there to afford major renovations and construction, a problem that plagues school districts in South Carolina’s poorer, rural areas.
“A millage tax in some of our poorest counties only brings in $20,000, and in our richest counties, it brings in $2 million,” South Carolina Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said. “So you can tell how difficult it is to build a school.”
Now the state Department of Education is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help these schools out.
The department worked with the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office to rank every school district based on need, using their per capita incomes, index of tax-paying ability of the school district, and index of tax-paying ability of the county.
 

Peetz School District has been awarded a $23.2 million Building Excellent Schools Today grant for the renovation and improvements to its preschool through 12th grade building, the largest grant awarded to any school district this year. It was one of 40 construction grants approved by the Colorado State Board of Education at its monthly board meeting Wednesday and Thursday, in Estes Park.

Approximately $96 million of the 2022-23 BEST grant awards will be funded through cash provided by income earned from the Colorado State Land Board, marijuana excise taxes, spillover from the Colorado Lottery and interest earned on the assistance fund. Applicants will contribute approximately $63 million in matching funds, which will ultimately amount to $159 million in total project costs. Some projects are contingent upon the approval of bond elections by school district voters.

Peetz’s project is contingent on an $11.8 million local match that must be approved by voters. The district sought a $12 million bond in the November 2021 election, but the proposal failed in a close vote with 141 against it and 121 in favor. Immediately after the election, the district made it known that they would still be pursuing a BEST grant with the intention of going back to voters this November in hopes of securing a bond.

New Orleans’ public school district isn’t bringing in enough money to maintain aging school buildings that weren’t rebuilt or renovated following Hurricane Katrina, officials said Tuesday.

On top of that, the school system is also facing rising insurance costs amid an increase in unexpected hurricane or weather-related expenses.

District operations officer Tiffany Delcour said while the district has taken steps to cut costs and will continue to do so, they still need to generate additional funding.

“It was assumed that the district would find alternative pots of capital funding dollars to really deal with the half of the portfolio that did not have significant investment post-Katrina,” Delcour told board members as part of her monthly capital and facilities update. “I think we’re basically showing that it’s time to do that.”

Delcour said the gap between available funds to repair pre-Katrina buildings over the next 10-years and anticipated need is roughly $136 million.

Harold Washington Elementary School in the Burnside neighborhood on the south side of Chicago got a new schoolyard in 2020. It features a running track, sports fields and playground equipment — but what Washington’s Principal Sherri Walker likes best are the little conversational groupings of rocks. “It’s so special for the older girls,” Walker says. “They don’t always want to play on the equipment or play sports — but they sit on those rocks and talk. It becomes a quiet space where they can sit and decompress.” In a year with so much stress and loss, especially in Chicago’s most underinvested neighborhoods, these spaces are invaluable.
Principal Walker’s schoolyard is part of a program called Space to Grow, which turns Chicago schoolyards into beautiful green spaces for play and learning using green stormwater infrastructure that also helps build climate resilience. The schoolyards include playground structures and sports fields, outdoor classrooms for nature-based learning, edible gardens and the conversation rocks or other quiet spaces the students at Washington like so much. Studies show that access to green space and outdoor play during the school day are associated with improved focus and academic performance. Daily connection with nature supports mental health. And, since Space to Grow schoolyards are also open to the community outside of school hours, the program’s benefits aren’t just limited to students.
It seems obvious that every student should have access to such a positive space, but there just isn’t enough money — or the will to prioritize spending — to replace the acres of asphalt that cover school grounds in many cities across the country. A 2021 report on the state of U.S. schools found that the country is underinvesting in school buildings and grounds to the tune of $85 billion per year. “Underinvestment in capital renewals of existing public schools as well as chronic underfunding of maintenance and repairs sadly remains the rule rather than the exception,” the report notes. And, as the report also points out, “inequity is hard-wired into public education infrastructure.” For example, in Chicago, the same Black and Latinx neighborhoods are subjected to the same type of disinvestment over and over again.
 

ST.PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Pinellas County school district officials and the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg will break ground on a new project Tuesday.
The district and the organization are joining forces to build a magnet middle school that will serve 600 students and the community as a YMCA center.
The shared campus will sit on the former site of Riviera Middle School, 62nd Avenue Northeast in St. Petersburg. It’s the first of its kind for the Tampa Bay area.
PCS sent the following quick facts about the $50 million project:
111,757 square foot two-story building shared by the middle school and YMCA sits on 19 acres
School includes 15 classrooms, an art room, family science lab, TV lab, music room and 4 Exceptional Student Education (ESE) rooms
YMCA will feature a fitness center with state-of-the-art cardio and strength equipment, three group exercise studios, a cycling studio, wellness terrace and a Kid Zone childcare center for Y members. Plus, a lap pool, splash pad and playground
Both facilities will share the media center, dining hall, gymnasium, family science lab, pool, sports field and garden
Students will attend school during the day and have access to the Y for Before-and-Afterschool Care
The project is expected to be complete for the 2024-2025 school year.
 

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A school plant facilities levy could soon be coming to residents in the Coeur d'Alene School District, as reported by our news partner, the Coeur d'Alene Press.
A swift timeline would be necessary to tackle a number of items on the district's deferred maintenance backlog, which is $25 million today and expected to grow to $68 million by 2027 if repairs are not made. The levy would establish a pool of funds for deferred maintenance projects and school safety needs, which at this time have no established funding source. Deferred maintenance includes air heating and cooling system upgrades, roof repairs, paving work, replacing hot water heaters, new carpeting, drinking fountains, alarm systems and security cameras.
"We are just struggling all around, not only with facilities but with staffing," Coeur d'Alene Superintendent Shon Hocker said Monday during the school board meeting.
He recommended the board immediately move forward with the facilities levy rather than wait because the district's maintenance and operations levy will be up for a vote in March.
"I don't think we should go to our community asking for both at the same time," he said. "I think that's a lot to bite off for any community member and I think we need to be more specific. I also think that, in good conscience to our community, we can address some of these safety and maintenance challenges in our community earlier rather than later."
 

In September of 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the allocation of $59 million to fund the Clean Green Schools Initiative. The program aims to advance clean energy efficiency solutions and clean energy to improve indoor air quality and reduce carbon emissions for schools designated as “high-need” by the New York State Education Department or schools located in disadvantaged communities. 

The initiative, to be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), offers a unique opportunity for designated underserved schools to improve their energy systems. In doing so, eligible schools will receive technical, financial, and human resource support to evaluate, plan for, and implement energy efficient solutions. In the long run, this will improve school environments and save money.

Program Breakdown:
The program is structured in two tracks – Track I for planning, Track II for installation.

The planning track provides funding for the evaluation, planning, and facilitation of energy reduction projects, clean energy projects, and indoor air quality projects. Schools may use Track I funding for professional services such as energy studies, on-site energy managers, and fiscal advisors. The services must be aimed at helping schools evaluate, plan and facilitate comprehensive energy reduction, decarbonization, environmental sustainability, and indoor air quality projects.  Track I funding may also be used towards planning a project associated with Track II. Participation in Track I is not a requirement for eligibility for Track II.

Joshcelynne Henderson fondly recalls her childhood school in New Jersey with its green lawns, shiny playground equipment, and bright classrooms.
The elementary school she went to in wealthy Somerset County is a world apart from the one her children attend in Newark. Students there struggle to focus on hot days in classrooms without air conditioning, they couldn’t use the water fountains this year due to lead concerns, and at recess they dart across bare asphalt that serves as both playground and parking lot.
“These schools are old,” she said.
Indeed, the average Newark school building was erected more than 90 years ago, district officials say — more than twice the national average — and many suffer from leaky roofs, outdated boilers, and dilapidated restrooms. Rundown buildings can dampen students’ enthusiasm for school and, in some cases, impair their learning. 
Now, Newark wants to modernize its aging schools — a dream which, in the past, has been dashed by inadequate funding.
The district is looking to construct 10 new school buildings and undertake major repairs at more than 60 existing schools, according to an ambitious five-year capital plan, which the state approved in March.
 

Much has been said about the need to improve indoor air quality in offices as people return to work, but what about schools and classrooms?
A recent study by the Center for Green Schools highlighted the urgent need to support school districts with the implementation of indoor air quality strategies to support mitigation of Covid, as well as future pandemics.
The study also warns that the widespread education of school system administrators and staff is needed to ensure greater awareness of the issue, not to mention the availability of federal relief funds.
Katherine Pruitt, national senior director of policy at the American Lung Association said Covid has “definitely generated a new wave of interest” in the importance of ventilation in schools.
She added the air children breathe in school is critical to their success in the classroom and their overall health, and that Indoor air quality also impacts student attendance, test scores and student and staff productivity.
Pruitt said recent announcements by the White House mean there is “more money on the table” for schools to improve indoor air quality, but it is often down to individual school districts as to how resources are spent.
“In most cases, our school decision makers are very sensitive to the desires of the local community and school facilities,” she told Forbes. “We're hoping now that with Covid, indoor air quality is moving up the priority list, but there are a lot of competing demands.”
 

DILLON COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman announced Monday the allocation of $15 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds to Dillon School District Three and Dillon School District Four to both renovate and replace antiquated existing school facilities with safe, modern facilities to accommodate current and future county enrollment trends.
In April 2022, the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) commissioned independent facility studies of schools in the state’s poorest counties to aid in decision making for capital funding appropriated by the General Assembly for disadvantaged schools.
The independent review of schools in Dillon Four concluded "the age and condition of the five elementary schools problematic toward long term educational use without significant modification and renovation."
The schools have an average age of 73-years-old with the oldest, East Elementary School, approaching one century of use.
With school facilities approaching 100 years of age, it is long overdue that the state provides financial support for counties like Dillon which cannot afford to build new facilities on its own,” said State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman. “With the influx of COVID-19 relief money and generous support of the General Assembly, we are pleased to be able to provide the additional funding that these districts need to provide safe, state of the art facilities that students, families, and educators need and deserve.
The facility assessment team recommended consolidating four elementary schools into one new, modern elementary school, to be built on property centralized within the county.
Dillon Four has funds that can partially support the funding for the new elementary school while $12 million in ESSER funds from the SCDE will allow for the full build out and ensure students have classrooms and a facility that are "safe and conducive to learning in the 21st Century," said a release from the department on Monday.
 

CEDAR RAPIDS — Harrison Elementary School Principal Trista Manternach is excited her school is one of the next buildings in the Cedar Rapids district to be modernized.
As Manternach walks through the building where she has been principal for six years, she points to exposed radiators in classrooms and the single-court gym that pose a burn risk.
At Harrison Elementary, students work at desks placed in the hallway when they need to work one-on-one with a teacher or in a small group. With students passing through the hallways to go to recess, special classes and lunch, it is often a distraction for students trying to learn, Manternach said.
The building also is not available for the community to use it after school hours because there are no restrooms available to the public, Manternach said.
These concerns will all be addressed when Harrison Elementary is either renovated or moved to a new building — the fourth elementary school to be constructed in the Cedar Rapids Community School District in about five years.
A facilities plan approved by the Cedar Rapids school board earlier this year will combine Harrison and Madison elementary school attendance zones by fall 2025. District officials are considering two options on how to do that: Renovate the existing Harrison building at 1310 11th St. NW, or build a new building on the grounds of Madison Elementary, 1341 Woodside Dr. NW.
 

The design for the new Simon Sanchez High School is 90% complete and a bill introduced Tuesday could help close the gap in funding needed to see the project to fruition.
Simon Sanchez High School students have been waiting nearly 10 years for the new facility, the planning and construction of which has been hit by multiple delays including procurement battles, the COVID-19 pandemic, and environmental issues. As time lapsed, the cost of construction has increased, which means the $65 million Guam Department of Education has committed for the new high school campus now falls short.
GDOE estimated the cost for the new Simon Sanchez High School would be about $138 million.
“Right now, we are in design stage. While we are working on estimates, the final decision on what will be constructed depends on how much money is available,” said Superintendent Jon Fernandez.
The design was supposed to have reached the 90% target on May 26, but Fernandez has said it was a moving target.
The unforeseen discovery of endangered snails on almost 2 acres of the property forced Taniguchi Ruth Makio Architects to make modifications to the design in order to work around the snails' habitat. The modification resulted in the loss of 16 classrooms.
“We have scaled down but not for cost issues alone. We cut back the number of classrooms to more closely align with projected amount of students at SSHS. Luckily, this reduction helped us resolve the impact of the snails by allowing us to shift the school to avoid the area,” Fernandez said.
 

Temperatures kept rising in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Finally, it was just too hot to keep students in classrooms without air conditioning. On Tuesday, both systems let students out early.
For Principal Richard M. Gordon IV, it was just another early-summer day in the halls of his West Philadelphia high school, where sweltering temperatures, high humidity and a lack of ventilation made classrooms so uncomfortable that students could barely sit still.
“Can I honestly say effective learning is happening in my building? I can’t,” said Gordon, the principal of Paul Robeson High School.
Climate change poses a growing threat to American schools. Regions where extreme heat was once rare — from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest — now periodically find their buildings unbearably hot as spring turns to summer and again when classes resume in August or September.
In much of the South, air conditioning has long been a necessity, and schools are typically outfitted with centralized systems, although rising temperatures may require upgrades.
But in places such as Philadelphia, air conditioning was a luxury decades ago, when most school buildings were constructed. Perhaps there was a hot day in mid-June or an uncomfortable swelter in early September. They were flukes.
 

Gone are the “it’s so hot that all Philly schools are closed” days. Going forward, Philadelphia School District officials aim to close only those buildings without air-conditioning when temperatures soar.

Chief Operating Officer Reginald McNeil said in an email sent to staff Friday that the district will begin paying special attention to conditions inside the 111 buildings that lack air-conditioning in all instructional spaces. (The district has 216 schools, but about 300 buildings in total.)

“If temperatures in instructional spaces are expected to hit 90℉ or higher, we then determine if a temporary shift to virtual learning or other action is necessary,” McNeil wrote. “Our goal going forward is to make that decision only for the schools that do not have sufficient air-conditioning systems to keep temperatures below 90℉ ... and to make the decision as early as possible, preferably the day before, to minimize last-minute disruption for our students, families and staff.”

The district has a stock of aging buildings, many of which don’t have adequate electrical systems to support central air-conditioning or window units in every room.

McNeil said the district has begun “working with urgency over the past five years” to upgrade electrical systems and add air-conditioning.

Even as Republican state leaders stressed “hardening” schools and increasing security measures as a response to the state’s deadliest shooting last week in Uvalde, educators stressed the community aspect to their campuses.
They are gathering places where families celebrate their students’ awards each quarter, watch children pack the auditorium at choir concerts and fill the hallways for meet-the-teacher nights.
Voters trickle into gymnasiums on Election Day to cast their ballots, and families in need can bring home meals from school-based food pantries.
“We live in a free and open society, and we want to value and cherish that,” said Ferris superintendent James Hartman. “I don’t think anyone in public education wants to create a ‘Fort Knox’ of schools. It’s just not realistic, and just doesn’t fit in what we want American society to be.”
Similar security-focused rhetoric arose after the deadly Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018 but the state still provides little money for such improvements. Local taxpayers shoulder the bulk of the financial burden through bonds, which the state has made more challenging to pass in recent years.
But school superintendents say costs and logistics — such as aging campuses, the sprawling footprint of buildings and sheer number of students flowing through — make hardening a challenging solution to implement.
 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has allocated a total of $150 million — of which it is obligating nearly $35 million in a first phase — to modify the structures of some 55 public schools to make them more earthquake-resistant and meet updated building codes.

The “seismic retrofit” — defined as “the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes” — seeks to improve those structures that were not damaged by the 2019 and 2020 earthquakes.

FEMA confirmed that the initial obligation has been allocated to the Puerto Rico Public Buildings Administration through its Hazard Mitigation Grants Program (HMGP).

Specifically, the HMGP project proposes to evaluate, design, and reinforce those buildings to reduce the risks to future seismic events and mitigate loss of life and damage to critical infrastructure.

The funds for the first phase of the project will be used to evaluate and determine if the properties are historic, if they are in a flood zone, among other considerations.

Work will also be done to develop designs, specifications, and the corresponding estimate for each facility to carry out the refurbishment work. During the second stage, funds will be allocated to cover the costs of auctions, permits and construction.

The total estimate for the two phases of the project hovers at around $150 million, the federal agency noted.

The rickety outdoor stairs leading to the second floor of Hilo Intermediate School are loosely blocked off by yellow caution tape. Wood chipped off the building’s exterior earlier this year, threatening nearby students.
Problems at the nearly century-old Big Island school are on a long list of statewide repair projects that are part of a growing backlog as the Department of Education’s facilities maintenance team struggles to keep aging buildings safely in operation.
Aaron Kubo, a social studies teacher at the school, also said tile pieces have fallen from the ceiling indoors in past years.
“With these repairs, if they’re not addressed somebody is going to get hurt,” Kubo said. “Safety should be on the forefront of our minds and taking care of those who are our future should be a priority.”
The DOE’s facilities maintenance branch is responsible for 4,425 buildings statewide, which is more than 20 million square feet of space, according to the department’s figures. It’s kept busy as some 20% of Hawaii’s 257 public schools are more than 100 years old and the average age of school buildings in the islands is 72.
The department has long been criticized for its hefty repair and maintenance backlogs, and data shows not much has changed.
A backlog of more than 4,600 repair projects with an estimated cost of $1.4 billion is a sharp increase from 3,800 backlogged projects in 2018.
 

Inflated building costs are causing school construction projects across West Virginia to go back to the drawing board.

In April of last year, seven West Virginia counties (Mercer, Jefferson, Roane, Greenbrier, Mineral, Ohio and Summers) divided up $75 million in state funding to either replace, renovate or relocate outdated school buildings.

But with rising construction costs, the state School Building Authority (SBA) estimates a 25 percent increase to fund those projects, maybe more.

SBA Director of Special Projects Sue Chapman said the authority is working to refinance bonds and get an additional $29.5 million to supplement project costs.

She said each school district will also have to pare down on their original construction plans.

Schools that are net zero energy ready are coming to Miami-Dade as local firm Zyscovich Architects has designed two middle schools in the county that would use technologies to lower energy consumption and costs.

Zero energy schools are “extremely energy-efficient buildings that produce as much energy as it uses over the course of a year,” a document from the US Department of Energy details. Net zero energy ready schools are designed and built so that on-site renewable energy can be installed later on with minimal disruption.

These buildings can cost 5% to 13% more than conventional schools, but in the long term savings could help cover other operational costs of equal importance. For instance, by annually saving on energy, school officials could redirect those operating costs to fund teacher salaries, a priority for state and local authorities.

“Many US school districts struggle for funding and improving a school building’s energy efficiency can free up operational funds that may then be available for educational and other purposes,” says the department’s document.