Fifty-eight percent of Arkansas school superintendents said in a survey a lack of state funding is the top obstacle they face in financing school facilities in their district, according to a presentation to the Joint Education Committee.
Studies are inconclusive on whether academic facilities’ conditions impact student learning, but there is evidence that they can impact student health and student perception on safety, Jasmine Ray, a legislative analyst, said at a joint meeting of the House and Senate education committees. 
A temporary advisory committee created through Act 801 in 2017 reported the total estimated capital needs for public school academic facilities in the state was more than $604 million.
Arkansas’ public schools receive most of their funding for academic facilities through the state’s Academic Facilities Partnership Program. School districts and the state share the cost of facilities construction and major renovations through the program, Ray said.
Open enrollment public school charters are not eligible for the program due to not having a taxing authority, according to Ray.
The cost for public school facilities in Arkansas has risen over the years. In 2016, the Partnership Program allocated nearly $42 million annually for facilities funding, but it is estimated that allocation will be as high as $70 million for fiscal year 2023, Ray said. Arkansas’ capital outlay expenditures per student has grown over the last several years from more than $1,000 per student in 2015 to more than $1,500 per student in 2019, she said.

MEDWAY -- The town's public school department will receive $99,094 to support energy efficiency projects through a Department of Energy Resources (DOER) Green Communities Competitive Grant, officials recently announced.
The funds will be used at Medway Middle School, McGovern Elementary School and Burke-Memorial Elementary School to install ventilation controls in the cafeteria at each school.
Currently, the exhaust and supply fans in the cafeterias run at 100% power from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, regardless of cooking activity. The makeup air from outside must be heated or cooled to bring it back to a comfortable temperature in the cafeteria, which uses significant electricity and natural gas.
With the added controls, the schools will be able to vary the speeds and only use the exhaust and supply fans when cafeteria workers are cooking and need to ventilate the space.
The controls are projected to save approximately $7,000 annually in natural gas and electric costs, and remove 31 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
The three control systems cost $108,469 in total. The Green Communities grant will provide $99,094, Eversource Energy will provide $6,975 in utility incentives and the district will provide $2,400.
 

Columbus City Schools may get five new schools at a projected cost of $297 million in the next five years. 

The new campuses — two new high schools, one new middle school and two new elementary schools — would be the first of 19 news schools proposed in the district's facilities master plan.

"What I look forward to the most (with the master plan) is shaking things up in terms of how we've handled facilities in the past, and how we can be better, do better moving forward," Alex Trevino, the district's director of capital development, told The Dispatch.

Chicago-based Legat Architects and district officials outlined recommendations for the next segment of the master plan at a recent Neighborhood School Development Partnership (NSDP) committee meeting.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing the Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure to upgrade our public schools with modern, clean, energy efficient facilities and transportation—delivering health and learning benefits to children and school communities, saving school districts money, and creating good union jobs. The action plan activates the entire federal government in leveraging investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan to advance solutions including energy efficiency retrofits, electric school buses, and resilient design.

The science of learning and development has shown that students need school environments filled with safety, belonging, and health to learn and thrive. Yet many schools rely on outdated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that make classrooms less comfortable and may pose health risks to students and teachers exposed to contaminants or particles in the air that can trigger allergies or asthma attacks and potentially spread infectious diseases – including COVID-19. Dirty diesel buses pose additional health risks for students on board and the neighborhoods they travel through — and exhaust from idling buses can pollute the air around schools. Studies show that poor air quality inside classrooms takes a toll on student concentration and performance, and diesel exhaust exposure is linked to increased school absences. Reducing this pollution will provide better health and educational outcomes — particularly in low-income communities and communities of color that have long faced underinvestment and the burden of high pollution.

The Biden administration is offering new grant funding and other resources to help school districts plan sorely-needed investments in the nation’s dilapidated school buildings and buses—though the offerings fall well short of schools’ needs.
The announcement comes just one week after the administration’s latest federal budget proposal, which does not include a previously proposed investment of $100 billion in grants and bonds for K-12 school infrastructure. Congress last year considered a similar investment as part of a broader infrastructure spending package, but lawmakers eventually excised public schools from their priority list as well.
This week the federal government announced new funding that amounts to half of 1 percent of those proposals.
A Department of Energy grant program will funnel $500 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress last November for school districts to spend on priorities, including:
comprehensive energy efficiency audits and building retrofits,
HVAC and lighting upgrades,
clean energy installation, and
training for staff to maintain these improvements long-term.
Rural and high-poverty schools will get priority consideration from the agency.
America spends $110 billion a year on school infrastructure, but that hefty sum falls $85 billion short of the necessary benchmark to fully modernize school buildings nationwide, according to a 2021 report from a coalition of school infrastructure advocates.
Leaky roofs, moldy ceilings, flooded classrooms, suffocating heat, and overcrowded hallways are a fixture of the scenery for millions of America’s K-12 students, particularly in rural and low-income areas. Many school buildings that haven’t been renovated for decades can’t easily be upgraded because they weren’t built for modern equipment.
 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, as part the new Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a Request for Information (RFI) for a $500 million grant program from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for K-12 public school energy upgrades. The program will help deliver cleaner and healthier classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, playgrounds, and gyms where over three million teachers teach and 50 million students learn, eat, and build friendships every day. Energy upgrades to America’s public schools, including leveraging renewable power sources and electric school buses, will bring the nation closer to President Biden’s goal to build a net-zero economy by 2050. 

“Children should be able to learn and grow in environments that are not plagued with poor insulation and ventilation, leaky roofs, or poor heating and cooling,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “President Biden fought for these funds to give schools and their communities the resources they need to improve student and teacher health and cut energy costs, allowing districts to focus more resources on student learning.” 

A Cumberland County Board of Education committee voted on Thursday to ask the county for more than $470 million to replace and renovate schools over the next five years.
The board’s auxiliary services committee unanimously approved a resolution that says the board “has determined and found that both renovations to and replacements of existing school facilities are needed to meet the needs of our current and future student population.”
The resolution will go to the full board for consideration at its meeting April 12.
Joe Desormeaux, associate superintendent of auxiliary services, told the committee that if the board approves the resolution, it will be sent to county commissioners. He said school officials have discussed the issue with county officials.
Desormeaux said he thinks county officials understand the challenges facing the school system.
“It’s unclear what they will do,” he said.
The resolution says the county has options to provide funding for the construction cost, including issuing bonds or choosing to provide some funds on a “pay as you go” basis. It calls on commissioners “to take all necessary steps, by the issuance of bonds or otherwise, to provide funds for the school system’s capital building needs.”
The anticipated $470.4 million in school construction costs assumes that the school system will get a $50 million grant to help pay for a new E.E. Smith High School. The facility is expected to cost about $95 million.
 

HOUMA, La.— “Honestly, I don’t understand why they would want to shut schools down. It’s confusing,” the second deputy-chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac tribe said, as she sat in the RV she calls home for the time being, with her children joyfully playing around her. (The deputy chief asked her name not be used in the article because she prefers to stay out of the media.)

The Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw is one among 11 state-recognized tribes, such as the Pointe-au-Chien and the United Houma Nation, that call the Louisiana Gulf Coast home. These communities have lived through years of segregation, colonization, hurricanes, land loss and educational discrimination.

Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in late August 2021, has compounded these problems in a way the tribes are still trying to come back from. Education has been adversely impacted over the past year, with many schools destroyed and some shut down — such as in the cases of Grand Caillou Elementary and Upper Little Caillou Elementary schools. The hurricane also exacerbated issues that led to the permanent closure of Pointe-Aux-Chenes Elementary School.

The Terrebonne Parish School Board voted 6-3 in April 2021 to shut down Pointe-Aux-Chenes Elementary School, due to a cited lack of enrollment, and the school was officially shut down in June.

“They just closed our school last year. They claimed that there weren’t enough students there,” said Theresa Dardar, a tribal member of the Pointe-Au-Chien.

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi Senate took final action on legislation Friday, April 1 to ensure teachers receive classroom supply cards before school begins each year and creating a revolving loan fund for public school buildings. Senate Bills 2422 and 2430, respectively, next head to the Governor for consideration.

“Teachers have shared with me and our senators that they receive classroom supply money late in the semester, which hinders their ability to plan and purchase what they need for instruction before school begins,” Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann said. “We included deadlines in this bill to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Authored by Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, Senate Bill 2422 provides classroom supply fund cards must be issued to teachers, including full and part-time gifted and special education teachers, no later than August 1 each year.  The legislation provides the cards will not expire before April 1, which will allow teachers to use the cards throughout the school year.

The state Department of Education plans to open the new Kihei high school through a “temporary hybrid model” that will allow incoming freshmen to use space at Lokelani Intermediate this fall before transitioning to the high school’s new campus in January 2023.
Halle Maxwell, principal of the future high school, made the announcement this week.
“While construction of the two classroom buildings, administration building, cafeteria and library building, and locker rooms is proceeding at a brisk pace, due to some unavoidable construction and material delays, we have been informed that completion of these new facilities will be delayed until January 2023,” Maxwell said in a letter on Monday. “This means that the physical campus will not be open for the fall semester as originally planned. We will be opening the new high school with a modified opening to best accommodate our incoming freshman class from Lokelani Intermediate.”
Current eighth-graders at Lokelani are being given the option of attending Maui High School or the new Kihei high school “under a temporary hybrid model” in which Lokelani would house students for the first semester from August to December.
“Due to limited space, we will need to implement a learning model that will allow students to have in-person instruction and virtual instruction,” Maxwell said. “This will not be a distance learning program or a solely virtual program. This is only due to a lack of classroom space. In January 2023, all students will receive in-person instruction on the new high school campus.”
 

OAKLAND, Calif. - Until Thursday, Markham Elementary was the only elementary school in Oakland without a playground.
The situation for those students changed thanks to the support of the Warriors Community Foundation, in partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric, Trust for Public Land, Oakland Unified School District, Project Backboard, Green Schoolyards America, and Growing Together.
Over five years, the groups were part of a project to remove 21,000 square feet of asphalt to install a playground and greener workspace for the students at the school.
Dubbed the Living Schoolyard, 84 trees were added to provide shade, an outdoor classroom space, a turf play field that will also capture stormwater runoff, and a garden.
"They grow tomatoes, grown watermelons, and all kind of stuff in there. I like the plant on the outside just to kind of health with the environment," said Artesha Rose, whose daughter is in fourth grade at Markham Elementary.
 

Atlanta, GA — In February, the DeKalb Board of Education removed a “modernization” of Druid Hills High School from a list of proposed school repair and renovation projects to be sent to the Georgia Department of Education.
Parents say the school is falling apart and in need of repair.
A month later, on March 30, the school reported that a sewage backup is causing disruptions at Druid Hills High.
“This afternoon we experienced a sewage backup on their ground floor in the main building,” Principal Mark Joyner said in an email to parents. “Plumbers from Operations quickly arrived on site and worked to find the source. While this was occurring, all students and classes that were on that floor were relocated to the cafeteria and theater. Plumbers were eventually able to clear the clog, but the lower floor does have a the residual odor from the backup. Custodians are working to neutralize the odor, and if necessary, the school will relocate lower floor classes again to the cafeteria and theater.”
A school district spokesperson said they will be issuing a statement about the situation today, March 31.
Community members who contacted Decaturish today said the situation is still disrupting learning at the school. Classes can’t meet in the lower floor of the main building. Another community member forwarded along a message posted by a teacher describing the situation.
 

WESTBURY, NY, US, March 31, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Westbury Union Free School District, with project partner Energia, announces the start of construction for their district-wide Energy Performance Contract. The district will generate guaranteed energy savings of at least $395,000 annually, which in conjunction with State Building Aid, and ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds, will be used to fund over $12 million in capital improvements to district facilities at no out-of-pocket cost to taxpayers.

"I believe every child deserves a World-class education experience while enrolled at Westbury Union Free School District, and we know classroom environment can have a big impact on student learning,” said Dr. Tahira A. DuPree Chase, Superintendent of Schools. “By engaging in an Energy Performance Contact, with our partners Energia, we will be able to upgrade our facilities, resulting in more comfortable classrooms - all at no additional cost to taxpayers. Additionally, we are adding solar sustainable energy, reducing our carbon footprint, and furthering our positive impact in the world."

A tornado injured at least seven people and destroyed an elementary school building when it touched down in an Arkansas town Wednesday morning, as a strong spring storm makes its way over the region. Widespread damaging wind gusts, several intense tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are forecast for parts of the Mid-South into the central Gulf Coast through the evening, according to the National Weather Service. 
Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said a tornado touched down in the town around 4 a.m. local time Wednesday. Seven people were hospitalized with injuries. As of Wednesday afternoon, one person remains in critical condition, one is in stable condition and five others were treated for their injuries and released, the Springdale Police Department said. All other residents are accounted for, and no deaths have been reported at this time.
Later Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed the tornado in Springdale and rated it at least an EF-2, which is considered strong with estimated winds of up to 157 miles per hour. 
 

Charles County public school system is in line to see an increase in the state share in costs for future school construction.
During Monday’s board of education work session, Michael Heim, assistant superintendent of supporting services, and Steve Andritz, director of planning and construction, briefed board members on funding for school construction.
The county is projected to see $22.89 million in funding from the state’s Capital Improvement Program for fiscal 2023.
A grant will provides funding for new school construction and renovation as well as major maintenance programs for existing facilities.
Costs of new school construction and certain renovation or addition projects are split between the state and local governments based on county wealth, but as Heim explained, those funds only cover actual building and improvements
“That [state funding] does not include buying land, design cost or any of the technology, fixtures, etc.,” he said.
Charles County also saw a rise in its state share, which is based on county wealth, from 61% to 65%.
A new grant allowing the Maryland Stadium Authority to issue bonds for school construction projects is also set to provide more money for constructing educational facilities in the state.
The Built to Learn Act, which passed the Maryland General Assembly in 2020, came online with the passage of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future last year.
The law allows the stadium authority to issue revenue bonds to fund new construction projects which would be managed by the authority.
Charles County is expected to receive about $25.35 million in assisting three school addition/renovation projects.
 

St. Johns County recently announced its plans to build 19 new elementary, middle, and high schools and expand two other schools over the next two decades. In just the next five years, the county will build at least four new schools.
This was approved by a unanimous vote of the St. Johns County School Board.
This announcement is a positive move for both the school district and Beacon Lake families. Many families choose the single-family homes and townhomes at Beacon Lake because of the amenities and convenient location, which includes access to St. Johns County’s top-rated public schools.
Beacon Lake residents can look forward to a new high school opening right across the street– Beachside High School. The high school is set to open for the 2022-2023 school year. It has five buildings: Administration/Media Center, Auditorium, Gymnasium, Cafeteria, and a Classroom building. Classrooms will exist in all buildings except the Cafeteria. For a virtual tour, please visit https://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/newschools/.
A couple of the district’s current schools will be expanded to increase student capacity, and new schools will help to accommodate new families moving to the area.
 

Castellanos Elementary sits just two blocks from the vehicle-clogged 10 Freeway in a part of the Pico-Union neighborhood with few parks and a lot of auto repair shops.

It’s one of L.A. Unified School District’s newer campuses, built 12 years ago. But the dual-language charter school’s more than 450 students, almost all Latino, have hardly any green space — just a 100-foot-wide play area of scraggly grass and dirt without a working sprinkler system. The gated, fenced and walled-off campus is mostly paved over with asphalt that absorbs the sun’s rays and radiates heat throughout the day.

There are few trees to shade the blacktop, so students often gather in the shadows of the school’s two-story buildings to stay cool. Children are constantly getting scrapes from the asphalt, said school operations manager Carla Rivera, and on hotter days they sometimes have to be kept inside.

The experience is sadly typical of schools across Los Angeles, where too many children are forced to learn and play in paved-over, fenced-in and often treeless campuses that draw apt comparisons to prison yards or parking lots. These conditions are detrimental to learning, health and well-being, and especially harmful because they are so common in the same low-income communities of color that already suffer from a lack of tree canopy, park space and higher exposure to heat and pollution.

About half of Montana schools that had tested their water by mid-February under a new state rule had high levels of lead, according to state data. But the full picture isn’t clear because fewer than half of the state’s school buildings had provided water samples six weeks after the deadline.
For many schools with high lead levels, finding the money to fix the problem will be a challenge. The options aren’t great. They can compete for a dwindling pool of state money, seek federal aid passed last year, or add the repairs to their long lists of capital improvement projects and pay for the work themselves.
“We prioritized emergency needs and then will follow up with the next-most-serious thing,” said Brian Patrick, Great Falls Public Schools’ director of business services and operations. “Obviously, this is something we want to get addressed right away. We want safe water for our kids.”
Lead, a toxic metal long known to cause lasting organ and nervous system damage, can make its way into drinking water through pipes and fixtures. Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can slow development and cause learning, speech, and behavioral problems. Although federal rules require that community water sources be tested for lead, schools have largely been free from that oversight and can decline to be tested.
 

A recently completed solar project in Livermore Falls is the first in Maine to provide most (96%) of its solar energy to public schools in the state.

The 14,040-panel array is expected to produce roughly 6,478,200 kilowatt hours of clean energy annually, offsetting more than 6,348,000 pounds of carbon pollution from regional fossil fuel power plants each year, according to a March 22 news release from ReVision Energy.

ReVision partnered with Aligned Climate Capital, an investment firm focused exclusively on clean solar energy and other sustainable assets, to bring the project to Western Maine.

Mt. Blue Regional School District (RSU 9), Spruce Mountain School District (RSU 73), Camden Rockport School District (SAD 28), Camden Hills Regional High School (Five Town CSD), and Hope Elementary School (Union 69) have all taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint by participating as ‘off-takers’ from the array under what is called a power purchase agreement, the release said.

Ninety-six percent of the clean energy produced by the array will go to toward offsetting the schools’ energy needs, with the remaining four percent going to Farmington Water District. Solar power generated by the array will offset the electric bills of the off-takers through Maine’s Net Energy Billing program.

Living in harmony with the land and sea has been a pillar of Hawaiian culture for centuries. But you wouldn’t think it if you’d visited one of Hawaii’s 270 public schools. Stark lighting, stiflingly hot classrooms, and loud air conditioners are the norm, much like in the rest of the country.

Many of Hawaii’s public schools were built decades ago with insufficient funds and a lack of good natural ventilation for the tropical climate. As a result, the Hawaii Department of Education is the third largest electricity consumer in the state.

But in other areas, Hawaii has been a leader when it comes to going green. In 2015, it was the first state to set a deadline to run completely off renewable energy by 2040, and it’s still on track to achieve that goal. Now, Hawaii’s public schools are starting to be redesigned so that they align with the surrounding climate.

Future-proofing, or passive design, is an ancient technique that leverages natural elements to build comfortable structures. Today, passive design focuses on creating tight, energy-efficient building “envelopes” that work with the local climate and rely less on air conditioning or electric heating. This doesn’t just reduce energy usage, but it also lowers utility costs. Hawaii has a fairly stable climate—Honolulu rarely drops below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes it an ideal place to implement climate-responsive designs that other schools across the country can learn from.