As Delaware begins to grapple with how to change funding of public education to improve student support, another major funding hurdle is emerging: deferred maintenance that is piling up at schools statewide.
A first-of-its-kind statewide evaluation of school buildings completed this year by the Delaware Department of Education has identified more than 1,200 needed repairs, ranging from minor issues such as cosmetic deterioration to major needs like leaking roofs, outdated dehumidifiers, malfunctioning air conditioning, and more.
While Delaware’s 19 school districts tracked their own facility needs in the past, Senate Bill 270 directed the Department of Education to develop a statewide facilities evaluation tool in order to get a holistic view of the state’s schools.
Each district was required to submit its evaluation along with a board-approved repair and maintenance plan to the Delaware Department of Education in May. All districts compiled, except for the Colonial School District in New Castle, which in a letter to the state said that it “requires a significant amount of time and energy to complete.”
After analyzing the responses from each school district obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Spotlight Delaware found there were more than 1,200 repair notes — ranging in severity from minor to major — across the state.
 

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — People in Bonita Springs are coming together to protect one of the city’s oldest buildings. Bonita Springs Elementary School is at risk of being partially demolished as part of a planned renovation.
On Saturday, city council members, neighbors and members of the Bonita Springs Historical Society gathered at a town hall at the Bonita Springs Library to discuss ways to preserve the 100-year-old campus.
The Lee County School District’s renovation plans involve tearing down portions of the original structure, sparking a local movement to save at least part of the building as a historical symbol.
 

David Willms took drastic measures to enroll his daughter in Jessup Elementary School. Knowing that enrollment was competitive due to crowding, the Cheyenne attorney and father of three arrived outside of the school at around 2 a.m. the night before to get a spot at the front of the line. 
“And I was not the first person there,” he said. “I was the third person in line.”
Willms went to such lengths because he had attended Jessup as a child. It is a great school in a tight-knit neighborhood, he said, and it set him up for success. In fact, he and his wife moved into the neighborhood intentionally, he said. 
“It’s where we wanted our kids to go, and we were willing to do anything to make sure they went there,” he said. 
Fast-forward 12 years, and his three children have attended Jessup; his youngest is in first grade there. They’ve been able to walk or bike to school and had good experiences, Willms said. 
But now the 31,710-square-foot school building, constructed in 1961, is set to close in 2027. 
It’s one of eight elementary schools slated for closure under a controversial study seeking the “Most Cost-Effective Remedy” — or MCER — to address capacity and condition needs in Wyoming’s largest school district, Laramie County District 1. 
The MCER study presents a major overhaul of the district’s current building makeup by closing more than a quarter of the district’s elementary schools; expanding, replacing or constructing seven other buildings; and relying more on larger 5-6 grade schools. The work would take place through 2035.
 

CAMBRIDGE — Sandy Hill Elementary School teachers packed the Dorchester County Board of Education meeting Thursday to speak about the school’s learning environment and the need for change.

Karen McGowan, who has been a teacher at Sandy Hill for about 21 years, said their school is losing “excellent and dedicated” teachers. She said families are moving out of the district because they’re concerned about sending their kids to Sandy Hill.

“Our school is old and falling apart,” she said.

McGowan brought up plumbing issues in bathrooms, issues with the building’s room temperatures and the difficulties of having to teach and learn in open concept classrooms. Other teachers brought up mold problems and critters and bugs getting into the building.

Voters gave Southern California schools the go-ahead to spend billions of dollars to repair and upgrade campuses.
With the vast majority of ballots tallied, most local school funding measures met or exceeded the 55% of votes required to pass.
L.A. County voters approved 25 school district bond measures worth $14.8 billion. (Los Angeles Unified’s Measure US accounts for $9 billion alone.)  
Orange County voters approved nine school district bond measures worth $2 billion. 
Between the two counties, just one bond, Saugus Union School District’s Measure N, is on track to fail.
LAist reached out to the district for the comment, but officials there have not responded.
Sara Hinkley studies school facilities policy at UC Berkeley and said that since 2001 about 78% of local bond measures statewide have passed. Success rates are typically higher in presidential election years, though.
Voters also approved Proposition 2, which replenishes a pool of matching dollars to help districts pay for facilities projects.
How do local bonds work?
A bond is basically a loan that a school district takes out, and that property owners in that school district pay back through an increase in property taxes.
In California, there’s no dedicated stream of funding to support school facility repairs, renovations or construction. The majority of the money schools receive from the state every year supports students, staff salaries and other day-to-day expenses.
 

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones is pulling his proposal to close four elementary schools, saying he “no longer saw a pathway for this approach” for the 2025-26 school year.

“This decision was not made lightly and reflects the Board and my shared priority: the needs and well-being of our students, families, and community,” Jones wrote in a note to parents on Monday.

“While our Board recognized the vision for the proposed changes, and many in our community understood the need for stability behind them, this decision allows us to clarify the process, deepen our understanding of the potential impacts, and thoughtfully determine our next steps.”

A new resource hub will offer extensive information on all aspects of California school facilities. The National Center on School Infrastructure is housed at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

The center will provide guidance and serve as a clearinghouse of best practices for local, state and national organizations and government agencies. Areas will include master planning, funding, data systems and accountability, according to the website. It will explore topics like the relationship between well-built facilities and student health and learning. It will also build a faculties database.

Some Greater Latrobe School Board members want to move forward with seeking proposals for replacing the junior high roof.

Others first want to see an updated district facilities presentation from consultant SHP.

It remains to be seen what opportunities the public may have to hear that presentation after it was removed from the agenda for this week’s school board meeting. And a proposal to include the presentation in one of the panel’s upcoming meetings was defeated by a 6-3 vote.

Brad Toman was among five school directors who were in attendance when SHP staff appeared in person and remotely to conduct the presentation at a Nov. 6 facilities committee meeting. At Tuesday’s school board meeting, he moved in favor of having the presentation repeated at a board meeting, for the benefit of all nine members of the panel and the public.

“You’re completely missing all of the due diligence,” Toman told board members who opposed the motion. “Part of that presentation was where we look at the cost analysis of the roof versus other options. Look at the long-term ramification of maintaining a building that’s not the right size for the (student) population.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee K-12 schools will need almost $10 billion for repairs and renovations over the next five years, according to a new Tennessee Comptroller report.
The report, which covers K-12 capital infrastructure and investment in Tennessee compared to other states, found that while 52% of Tennessee schools are in “good” condition; 38% scored “excellent;” but 57% of Tennessee’s 95 counties “have a monetarily significant school infrastructure need” that should be prioritized.
J.C. Bowman, the CEO and executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, told News 2 he isn’t surprised by the large amount of money the Comptroller’s Office said the state needs for school repairs and upgrades.
‘Education Freedom Act of 2025’ already filed in Tennessee General Assembly
“I actually taught in a building that was condemned in Meigs County,” Bowman said. “It’s demoralizing.”
According to Bowman, poorly maintained and old, outdated school buildings negatively impact students’ ability to learn.
With no state income tax, Tennessee public schools are funded primarily through local sales and property taxes. Districts receive some money from the state based on the number of students enrolled, which is called the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) funding model. For the 2024-2025 school year, each student generates $7,075 for districts from TISA funding.
However, according to Bowman, the money can only stretch so far.
 

VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) - Families and teachers protested in Valencia on Saturday to demand action over schools damaged by the deadly floods that killed over 220 people in eastern Spain and affected thousands of children's education.
Holding posters demanding the resignation of Valencian leader Carlos Mazon, protesters marched through the Spanish city almost a month after the country's worst natural disaster in decades on Oct. 29.
Controversy over the regional government's handling of the floods still rages, and a teachers' union accused it of leaving the clean-up to teachers and pupils.
Five people remain missing in the Valencia region after torrential rains and flooding drowned people in cars and underground car parks, and collapsed homes.
Thirty schools were still closed, the regional teachers' union STEPV said, leaving 13,000 children with nowhere to learn.
About 5,000 people attended the demonstration, the Spanish government said.
"We feel abandoned because, teachers, parents and volunteers have had to clean up the schools. We have seen cleaners in some schools but not enough," STEPV spokesperson Marc Candela told Reuters.
 

CONCORD — New details shed light on the dismal results of a nearly $50 million energy-savings project aimed at lowering utility bills and improving classroom climates within the Mt. Diablo Unified School District.

MDUSD is currently consuming more electricity, experiencing a surge of maintenance requests based on teacher complaints, and seeing only a fraction of the cost savings promised by Schneider Electric — the contractor who spearheaded the design and installation of new ceiling tiles, light fixtures, HVAC equipment and thermostat controls districtwide.

But the Texas-multinational company rejected accusations of fraud, overcharging and false claims — claiming their modernization work is not at fault for any underwhelming meter metrics.

In September, MDUSD consumed roughly 15 million kilowatt hours (kWH) of electricity — an 80%-100% spike compared to rates in July 2019 — before Schneider was brought in, according to the company’s own data.

Schneider Electric’s Measure J-funded project previously promised that MDUSD’s cumulative savings would hit $1.8 million, 80% of their annual utility expenditures, one year after the first phase of the project was complete.

The district, however, has only seen an initial 7% in energy savings, according to Schneider’s own numbers presented to the Citizen’s Bond Oversight Committee, the volunteer body appointed to hold the district accountable for responsible spending of Measure J, the $150 million bond that voters approved in 2018 for campus infrastructure improvements and energy system efficiency upgrades.

A Central New York school is waiting for renovations to its building. The New York State Education Department has set aside much of the funding needed to make those changes at Onondaga Nation School, but that work takes time.

Onondaga Nation School is one of three indigenous schools run by New York state. Onondaga Nation School was built in the 1930s, and it's been about 30 years since the building has had a major renovation. While recent changes have been made, officials say there's still a lot left to do.

Locking doors and a security desk are essentials that Onondaga Nation School didn’t have earlier this year, leaving the building vulnerable. Those repairs have since been made.

“So that is one of the challenges that we do face is, state projects tend to move at a different pace than other school construction projects. And certainly, that can cause a sense of frustration both for the school district, and for our staff, and for our students here at the facility when they are having to wait sometimes ten or more years for improvements to be made,” said Jeremy Belfield, the superintendent of Lafayette School District.

Tennessee needs to spend about $9.8 billion on repairs, upgrades, or construction to keep its K-12 public school buildings safe and conducive to learning, according to a new state report.

That’s an average of about $6,557 per student over five years, to complement the minimum of $7,075 that Tennessee spends annually per pupil to cover the cost of their education.

And while Tennessee’s nearly 1,700 traditional school campuses are generally in good or excellent condition, the report says more than half of the state’s 95 counties need to prioritize at least one costly capital project for their students, whether it’s building a new school, adding classroom space to an existing campus, or making upgrades across a district — things like new roofs, plumbing, and heating and cooling systems.

The findings, published Wednesday by the education research arm of the state comptroller’s office, aren’t surprising. They’re consistent with previous assessments of the state’s public infrastructure needs, including the most recent inventory conducted in 2022, which ranked education behind transportation and utilities as Tennessee’s costliest needs.

SAN FRANCISCO -- When the superintendent in San Francisco Unified proposed closing schools recently, parents launched a prolonged -- and successful -- protest. The uproar may have died down for now, but the issue is likely to erupt at school boards across the state -- and some say that's a good thing.

Declining enrollment, the end of pandemic relief grants and state budget uncertainty have combined to put hundreds of California school districts in precarious financial straits. Closing schools is never a popular option, but for some districts it may be the only way to avoid the state seizing control of operations. When the state takes over a district, the school board loses power and a state-appointed administrator makes cuts until the budget is balanced. A takeover could last a decade.

"This is the big thing that we're going to be dealing with in California education over the next few years. The declines in enrollment that we have seen so far pale in comparison to the declines the state is projecting," said Carrie Hahnel, a senior fellow at Policy Analysis for California Education. "In some areas, the declines will be severe. And I don't see how we manage those kinds of reductions without closing schools."

The number of students enrolled in California's K-12 public schools has dropped by 461,000 students -- or 7% -- over the past two decades. Lower birth rates, declines in immigration and an outflow of families from California have all contributed. Enrollment is expected to drop even further over the next decade, according to the state Department of Finance, to just over 5 million students -- a decline of nearly 20% since the peak in the early 2000s.

Schools across California don’t meet state standards for cleanliness and maintenance, according to a new report from the state auditor, jeopardizing both students’ health and safety and their chances of succeeding academically.  

The report, published on Tuesday, details California State Auditor Grant Parks’ assessment of 18 public schools in six school districts across the state, ranging from large urban districts like Los Angeles Unified School District, to small rural ones like Calaveras Unified School District.

Even with their differences in student population size and average income of the counties they’re located in, a disturbing pattern of improperly stored hazardous cleaning supplies, leaky roofs, structural deterioration and fire safety issues emerged in classrooms across the state.    

“Of the 983 rooms we reviewed across the 18 schools, 359 had hazardous materials stored in an unsecured manner. The hazardous materials we identified included chemicals such as cleaning supplies,” Parks wrote in the report. “We also observed insect poisons.”

Four schools — in Calaveras Unified, Chico Unified, Palo Verde Unified, and LA Unified school districts — had barbeques and propane tanks inside of classrooms, Parks found.

Ultimately, the problem comes down to money and oversight.   

D.C. Public Schools is inviting community members to give their input on a new middle school in the Shaw neighborhood.

In March 2022, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced funding for DCPS to open a new middle school at 800 Euclid St. NW, the former Banneker High School building, in August 2028.

The new middle school, sometimes temporarily referred to as Euclid Middle School, will serve grades six to eight. Cleveland, Garrison and Seaton elementary schools will feed Euclid, according to letters shared over the summer to families at affected schools.

Currently, the three elementary schools feed into Cardozo Education Campus, which serves both middle and high school students. Cardozo will convert into a traditional high school by the 2027-2028 school year and will not enroll a sixth grade class next school to begin phasing out middle school grade levels.

ASHLAND — Most of the American Rescue Plan Act money that went to schools in Ashland County addressed capital outlay expenses. 
Of the $13.1 million received at six public schools throughout the county, $5 million — or 38% — went to this category. Capital outlay included expenses related to building new classrooms, renovations and upgrades to equipment, infrastructure and property.
The big spender here was Ashland City Schools. It’s no surprise — school districts received ARPA money based on enrollment. Ashland City Schools is the largest school district in the county, based on enrollment data. 
But another factor is the reality that capital spending between 2021 and 2024 was tightly connected to the inflated prices of construction goods. 
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Producer Price Index table released in May showed double-digit percentage increases to everything from copper wire to gypsum and lumber since 2020.
 

Eight El Paso Independent School District elementary schools will be shut down starting next school year after the Board of Trustees on Tuesday voted in favor of the closures.
Carlos Rivera, Lamar, Newman, Putnam, Rusk, and Zavala elementaries will close their doors next school year, with Stanton and Travis elementaries closing in the 2026-27 school year under the approved plan.
The 4-3 vote sparked outrage from the crowd of parents, teachers and others who had largely spoken against the closures. They began shouting “Shame on you, shame on you” after the vote. 
Trustees Israel Irrobali, Daniel Call, Isabel Hernandez and Valerie Ganelon Beals voted in favor of the closures, with Leah Hanany, Jack Loveridge and Alex Cuellar voting against.
The latest proposal called for Carlos Rivera, Lamar, Newman, Putnam, Rusk, and Zavala elementaries to shut down next school year; and Stanton and Travis elementaries to close by the 2026-27 school year.
“This plan presents recommendations to avoid measures that would negatively impact students, such as increasing class sizes, laying off teachers or reducing instructional programs that are vital to a well-rounded education,” Superintendent Diana Sayavedra said during the meeting before the vote. “This work is not easy, but I’m confident that the decisions that are made today will create a path forward for our school district.”
 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With nearly 30 counties requesting specific amounts of the remaining $54 million the School Building Authority has to give this year, and about five of them needing to build a brand new school, SBA Executive Director Andy Neptune says they will have a lot to sort through.

The SBA is hearing presentations from a total of 28 county school districts from across the state at its headquarters in Charleston for the next two days, giving each the opportunity to present on why they need the funding for schools in their districts and what their specific project plans are.

Neptune said the challenge, though, is that the $54 million the SBA has to give before the end of the year is less than 25% of the total dollars the counties are seeking, as it’s a little over $250 million in requests.

Kanawha County Schools, one of the few looking to build a brand new school in their county, was the first to present to the SBA Monday morning.

ATLANTA — Three years after the federal government set aside money for Georgia schools and childcare centers to test their water for lead, a majority still haven't.
11Alive News Investigates analyzed the data and found as of November 2024, just 15% of Georgia's schools have completed water testing through the grant funded program. Only 3% of childcare centers have.
Scientists and medical professionals have emphasized that exposure to lead, especially in childhood, can have lifelong impacts.
Jennette Gayer is the state director of Environment Georgia, a bipartisan nonprofit environmental advocacy group that has been tracking how much lead is in Georgia's pipes. 
"It's a potent neurotoxin for children, which means it makes it harder to learn," Gayer said. "It has impacts on IQ levels, it has impacts on behavioral levels. And we know there's lead in schools.”
In 2021, a federal grant-funded program called Clean Water for Georgia Kids was established. The program is run by the Georgia Department of Education and RTI International, an EPA-accredited lead testing lab.