A state panel Monday approved $30 million in distributions from a school facilities loan fund, which lawmakers this year made easier to access after it sat largely dormant for nearly two decades. 

Five districts likely will receive loans from the Public School Facilities Cooperative Fund. But two of these districts will first have to ask voters for bonds before they receive the money, thanks to a provision in House Bill 338 that added an extra hurdle to qualifying. 

The Legislature this year unanimously approved HB 338, which was designed to remove barriers that had deterred districts from applying for the program since it was created in 2006. Previously, districts had to submit to state supervision for the duration of a construction project. Now that’s only required for projects exceeding $5 million. 

The bill also increased the fund from $25.5 million to $50.5 million. 

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) paused previously approved construction at two Silver Spring schools because of “rising project costs” beyond what the district had budgeted – a result of improper planning in years past, according to June community letters and MCPS staff.  

In June, MCPS paused plans for additions to Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) and Highland View Elementary School after the district didn’t take into account infrastructure challenges when originally planning the projects, MCPS Chief Operations Officer Adnan Mamoon said during a June 24 school board meeting.  

That means plans for additional space at SSIMS are on hold even as work continues on a new gym addition while construction of an addition set to begin this coming winter at Highland View is not moving forward. 

The changes are the latest setbacks for the schools, which have experienced several construction delays over the years. SSIMS Parent Teacher Student Association President Megan DiNicola said the pause, and other issues SSIMS and surrounding schools have been facing, raises questions about how MCPS addresses building concerns at differing schools in the county.  

 The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) has released the seventh edition of its Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools, which offer “the most comprehensive information available on nationwide leading practices specifically for securing school facilities, from subject matter experts across the education, public safety and industry sectors,” according to the alliance announcement.

The seventh-edition release – including updates to the Safety and Security Guidelines and the School Safety and Security Checklist – improves on previous versions of the PASS guidance to make it more comprehensive, easier to use and more reflective of K-12 schools’ evolving security needs and challenges.

AHWATUKEE, AZ — An Ahwatukee elementary school is closed through at least fall break.
District leaders announced Sunday that Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School near Loop 202 and Desert Foothills Parkway would close for roof construction on the building.
Students will learn remotely starting Monday through the rest of the week. The building closure will last through at least fall break.
Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School was closed Sunday because of roof construction
On Tuesday, frustrated parents let their voices be heard at the Kyrene school board meeting after Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School was closed Sunday because of roof construction.
Frustrated parents speak out at Kyrene board meeting after sudden school closure
Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School closed suddenly for roof construction
Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School closed suddenly for roof construction
Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School
By: abc15.com staff
Posted 9:50 PM, Aug 03, 2025 and last updated 1:00 AM, Aug 06, 2025
AHWATUKEE, AZ — An Ahwatukee elementary school is closed through at least fall break.
District leaders announced Sunday that Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School near Loop 202 and Desert Foothills Parkway would close for roof construction on the building.
Students will learn remotely starting Monday through the rest of the week. The building closure will last through at least fall break.


















The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard
Kyrene School District leaders announced Monday that most students at the school will begin attending class at the Cerritos/Altadeña campus starting August 11.
The only exception would be preschoolers. They will be relocated to Kyrene de la Esperanza.
On Tuesday, frustrated parents let their voices be heard at the Kyrene school board meeting.
“This is not theoretical, this is not hypothetical, this is real exposure,” said Courtney, a mother of a student.
“These are chemicals with serious health warnings including neurological damage, respiratory distress, organ toxicity, dizziness, nausea, nose bleeds and more,” said Ryan, another parent.
District leaders responded to those parents, saying they are putting safety first.
 

On the heels of the new school year, the Guam Department of Education is busy getting the 37 public school facilities ready for the return of roughly 24,000 students on Thursday and according to the department’s spokesperson, they’re making progress in ensuring students return to a safe and secure environment.
GDOE spokesperson Damen Michael Borja on Friday told the Guam Daily Post that the department just completed the roof coating refurbishment project that spanned across the four districts – Haya, Kattan, Lagu and Luchan.
The twelve schools were identified as Oceanview Middle School, Marcial Sablan Elementary, George Washington High School, Agueda Johnston Middle School, Ordot-Chalan Pago Elementary, J.Q. San Miguel Elem., Finegayan Elem., D.L. Perez Elem., Benavente Middle School, Tamuning Elem., CL Tiatano Elem., and Jose Rios Middle School.
Currently GDOE is working on “fixing” doors across all 37 school campuses.
“Which is allowing us to install more secured and accessible doors,” Borja said.
After a brief pause on American Rescue Plan Act funded projects to include the refurbishment contract, the reinstatement of the liquidation period was followed by an approval of $9.9 million in reimbursements to GDOE in July, allowing the much-needed work to continue.
The funding be used for vendors involved in the improvement and modernization of school facilities, according to Post files.
 

When Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon toured the public school in Sleetmute last fall, he called the building “the poster child” for what’s wrong with the way the state pays to build and maintain schools. The tiny community 240 miles west of Anchorage had begged Alaska’s education department for nearly two decades for money to repair a leaky roof that over time had left part of the school on the verge of collapse.

Seated at a cafeteria table after the tour, Edgmon, a veteran independent lawmaker, told a Yup’ik elder he planned to “start raising a little bit of Cain” when he returned to the Capitol in Juneau for the 2025 legislative session.

Other lawmakers said similar things after an investigation by KYUK Public Media, ProPublica and NPR earlier this year found that the state has largely ignored hundreds of requests from rural school districts to fix deteriorating buildings, including the Sleetmute school. Because of the funding failures, students and teachers in some of Alaska’s most remote villages face serious health and safety risks, the news organizations found.

NEW CANAAN — The town's elementary schools are projected to be over capacity by 2028, which is why district officials are considering adding a new school building.
The so-called North School would join a roster of three existing elementary buildings — East, West and South Schools — if it were to be built.
The cost, according to a presentation from MP Planning and the SLAM Collaborative to New Canaan's Board of Education on July 14, would be between $98 million and $109 million, with the town share ranging from $90 million to $100 million if the state agreed to pay for a portion of the work.
If built, the new school would be located near Smith Ridge Road on the Clark Property, the only undeveloped town-owned site that would be large enough for an elementary school, said Pat Gallagher, principal at MP Planning.
That is also a part of town that does not currently have an elementary school.
But the site presents challenges. For example, it does not have any public utilities, so wells and a septic system would have to be built.
 

The Cardinal School District already has plans for the use of the proceeds realized from their recent sale of the Jordak Elementary Building to Ohman Family Living. According to Superintendent Jack Cunningham, the District is incorporating the $2.2 million proceeds into the five-year capital expense plan.

“We have projects that we want but the sale of that building marks a strategic step forward for us and that allows us to reinvest in our remaining schools and enhance our educational opportunities which also better serve the needs of our students and our communities moving forward,” Cunningham told The Weekly Villager on July 22.

As The Villager previously reported, the District sold the former Jordak Elementary School Building to Ohman Family Living on June 7 for $2.2 million. Cunningham said that the proceeds from the sale can be immediately used for maintenance fees but cannot be applied to any operational costs.

As California faces increasingly destructive wildfires, schools should develop more preventative safety measures, experts say.
Roughly 6% of California public school students attend a campus located in high or very high Fire Hazard Severity Zones, an EdSource analysis of data from Cal Fire and the Office of the State Fire Marshal found.
Of the 10,591 public schools across the state, 910 — or 8.6% — are located in or close to a Fire Hazard Severity Zone, a classification that reflects general wildfire behavior in the region, and is different from fire risk, which gauges the likelihood of a fire sparking under a specific set of conditions.
And of those campuses that sit in High Fire Hazard Severity Zones — which are often home to dry vegetation, steep slopes and dry, windy weather — 66.8% reside in zones that are considered either high or very high.
Most are located in either Southern California or near the Bay Area. Many, however, are dotted along the Central Coast and lie in the state’s Central Valley.
 

The Duval County Public Schools’ (DCPS) Master Facilities Plan returned to the school board last month, under a new name, for board approval of years one through five.

Duval Reimagine: Investing in Impact is a comprehensive initiative designed to address key challenges within the school district based on four focus areas: enrollment and capacity, educational adequacy, facility condition and financial alignment. Those key challenges include an unbalanced facility utilization, increasing deferred maintenance, fluctuating enrollment and fragmented feeder patterns and program access.

“This Master Facilities Plan has a different name, but it’s the same thing,” said DCPS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier. “It’s about giving you more information and being more transparent.”

The 81-page initiative was approved at the July 1 board meeting, with Bernier noting its focus is not school closures or rezonings; rather, it is the return of the Master Facilities Plan for board approval for years one through five.

“It’s what we promised we’d bring back every single year that we would constantly work to revamp years one through five and make sure that we always knew what we were doing over the next five years,” Bernier said.

In its introduction, the Duval Reimagine initiative is described as “reflecting a responsible, transparent and forward-looking strategy for how we invest taxpayer resources and shape the future of education in Duval County.”

Help is on the way for a few of Maine’s aging school buildings.
The Maine Department of Education recently released its list of priority schools in need of major upgrades.
The top names on the list are likely to get state money for a new or improved school.
The superintendent in Old Orchard Beach says there are parts of Loranger Memorial School that are closed off to students and says there are major issues that are likely a costly fix.
“The building’s almost 100 years old,” Old Orchard Beach Superintendent John Suttie said.
Suttie has been asking the state for a new school since 2017, hoping to fix a weak HVAC system, bad ventilation and outdated halls and classrooms.
Back then, Loranger Memorial School ranked 12th on the state’s list, and the school was one slot away from getting funding for a makeover.
“Like with any community, construction costs are extremely high, and it’s overwhelming for local taxpayers to foot the bill,” Suttie said.
 

WALDRON, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — As the school year nears, Waldron’s Middle and Elementary schools are still under renovation after being impacted by storm damage earlier this year.

A hailstorm on April 5 damaged the exterior and interior of both schools, as well as a couple of smaller buildings in the district.

“It was an overnight storm. And so, we didn’t actually get to see the damage until the next morning,” said Waldron Superintendent Daniel Fielding, “It was kind of a shock to us, just how much damage there was.”

According to Fielding, the hail made “hundreds of thousands of golf ball divots” on the membrane roof. The hail was followed by a couple of inches of rain that spread throughout both schools due to the damage.

Lewistown, Missouri (KHQA) — The Lewis County C-1 School District in Missouri celebrated the start of construction for a FEMA project at Highland Elementary School on July 30.

This project is more than 12 years in the making. The superintendent says it has been the number one thing the community has asked of him.

This is more than just a win for safety. It's also a double win for the school because the building will be used regularly as the school's gymnasium. Previously, physical education classes were taking place in the cafeteria.

"It will be connected to the original building and provide a safe haven for our teachers and our students during school hours and activities and then surrounding community members when we're outside of those hours," said Lewis County C-1 School District Superintendent John French.

And now that they've finally been approved by the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program under DR-4490, 90% of the project's eligible expenses are being paid for by FEMA.

"Missouri is one of only 16 states that have enhanced mitigation status with FEMA, meaning our state is known for having a robust hazard mitigation program that goes above and beyond the minimum requirements. Currently there is no hazard mitigation funding available from what has already been approved, but we encourage local communities to continue coordinating with our agency as they have in the past, in the event that more funding is made available in the future," the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency stated in an email to KHQA.

City Hall, NY – Today, Council Members Gale Brewer and Kevin Riley celebrated their legislation that expands public access to school playgrounds and basketball courts automatically becoming law, after inaction by the mayor within 30 days of their passage. Introduction 566-B, sponsored by Council Member Gale Brewer, will increase public access to school playgrounds on weekends and during after school hours, prioritizing environmental justice neighborhoods. Introduction 643-A, sponsored by Council Member Kevin Riley, will require the City to post information online on how basketball leagues can access Department of Education (DOE) indoor basketball courts when the weather does not allow for the use of outdoor courts and conduct a study to improve overall access to indoor basketball courts.  

Together, the two new laws will expand New Yorkers’ access to recreational facilities under the control of city public schools. There are currently 945 school buildings across the city with an outdoor school yard, but just 288 of them—about 30 percent—are open to the public outside of school hours. Additionally, the vast majority of basketball courts in the city are outdoors and access to them is limited during bad weather and in the coldest months. 

Counties in Montana will receive $46.5 million in federal payments this year to cover a lack of property tax revenue coming from federal lands.

The payments are part of more than $644.8 million that will be distributed to 1,900 state and local governments this year. According to the Association of Montana Counties, this is the largest state payment in the PILT program’s history, a 7.5% increase over 2024.

The Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, funds are directed toward counties where large tracts of land are administered by federal government agencies and thereby cannot be taxed. Payments are calculated based on population and acreage of federally owned acreage, as well as additional revenue sharing payments allocated to the municipality. The money helps local governments construct public schools and roads. It also helps fund police, firefighting, and search-and-rescue operations.

Atop a hill on Spring Run Drive overlooking more than a dozen yellow excavators, loaders and dump trucks, several shovels on Tuesday were planted in dirt, side by side, in anticipation.
Six elementary-aged student ambassadors took hold of the shovels and broke ceremonial ground on the construction of the Yellow Springs Elementary replacement school.
The replacement school is expected to open in August 2026.
Yellow Springs Elementary Principal Hannah Feldman said in an interview on Tuesday that the replacement school is necessary because of the existing school’s age and condition, as well as its overcrowding.
The existing elementary school was built on Yellow Springs Road in 1957. It has not undergone any major renovations since 1974, according to Frederick County Public Schools.
Additionally, the current Yellow Springs Elementary was projected to be operating at 144% capacity in 2025, according to the FCPS Educational Facilities Master Plan.
The new building will have a state-rated capacity of 745 students, which is nearly a 300-student increase from the current school’s capacity of 453.
 

As a new school year dawns, North Carolina’s charter sector is poised for robust, continued enrollment growth. Yet experts point to increasingly high hurdles for new charter schools, with facility acquisition and increased competition for students topping the list. Established, rather than new, charter schools are the primary drivers of enrollment growth now, as obstacles to opening and other K-12 changes reshape the sector.

“The challenges of getting open are vast,” said Ashley Baquero, the executive director at the state’s Office of Charter Schools (OCS). She is seeing more delays from schools in the charter pipeline, as they struggle to find and finance facilities and hit enrollment targets.

Meanwhile, established charter schools with facilities, funding, and reputational capital continue to expand.

“The data has shown that the schools that have been around a little bit longer tend to be the ones that are growing — where a lot of the new enrollments are coming in,” said Bruce Friend, chair of the state’s Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB). 

During the 2024-25 school year, state charter enrollment increased to 153,480 students, according to the new annual charter schools report from OCS. This figure represents a 6.1% annual enrollment uptick and an overall increase of 8,845 students since 2023-24.

WOODSTOCK, Vt. —
Members of the Mountain Views Supervisory Union have formed a working group to push their plans for a new Woodstock Union Middle and Highschool.
It comes after the large education reform law was passed at the end of the last legislative session. The law will change school districts, and those new districts will be funded directly by the state.
However, members of Mountain Views said they need to work with the state to get more clarity of the law, they said language such as a “Hub” school are not defined clearly.
The new school, which will cost more than $100 million, also needs to eventually go to bond. "There is so much gray area in there regarding bonding and how the process is involved," Superintendent Sherry Sousa said. "What we need to hear now from the agency of education is what they will accept based on all the time and financial investments of our communities on moving forward."
 

After working late into the night Monday, senators returned to session Tuesday to continue the debate on Bill 70-38 by Sen. Joe S. San Agustin, which would authorize the Guam Department of Education to lease property within its jurisdiction.

The measure states that by allowing GDOE to lease properties in strategic locations, "it can ensure that underutilized or vacant spaces are repurposed to meet the needs of the students and the department."

Additionally, the revenue generated by utilizing surplus or underused spaces could be reinvested into maintaining or improving existing facilities and educational programs, the bill stated.

In a June 7 Public Hearing on the Bill, GDOE Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson said, "Currently, we have three campuses that are surplus to our classroom space needs, and there is interest in leasing them for other government operations and charter-school activities." 

A glance at the agenda for Oakland’s first school board meeting last August reveals nothing out of the ordinary — the introduction of new student board members and parent advisory committees, an update from then Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell on enrollment numbers, a discussion of school year work plans. 
But when the meeting opened up to public comment, it suddenly became clear that a scandal was unfolding.  
The comments began with educators, parents, and advocates speaking about charter schools and a plan to redevelop the district’s old headquarters. Then, about 30 minutes in, a contingent of staff and families from Frick United Academy of Language, an East Oakland middle school, approached the microphone. First was Catherine Cotter, the school’s counselor.
“The other day, we got a report that the children at the school could no longer drink the water at our school,” she said. “As a school counselor, I have to raise up any inequities that I see; that’s my job. We are demanding safe drinking water for our students immediately, transparency about what’s happening, and why we were not told this until the other day.”
Then a Frick teacher, Ella Every-Wortman, stepped up to the lectern and raised the temperature, excoriating the board for “endangering” the school community.
“Students and staff were drinking water, water that was known to be contaminated in April until August, including throughout summer school,” they said. “This delay on the part of OUSD is negligent, it’s carelessness, and it will impact the health of our children for years to come.”
The day before, staff and families at Frick had received a message from the district that some water fixtures on campus were undergoing repairs because of lead contamination. Frick’s principal also received the actual lab report, which she shared with teachers and staff. It was dated April 16 — four months earlier.