Welcome to KAWC’s Educating Yuma, a new program that takes a closer look at the schools, people and issues shaping Yuma's future.

This episode explores Arizona’s long-troubled system for funding public school facilities — the buildings, repairs, and infrastructure students rely on every day.

A landmark 1994 lawsuit forced the state to overhaul how it paid for school construction and maintenance. But over time, funding fell behind. In 2017, a new lawsuit argued that Arizona was once again violating its own constitution by failing to adequately support school facilities. In August 2025, a judge agreed.

KAWC Education Solutions Reporter Sisko Stargazer has spent the past several months since following up with Yuma schools to find out how the current system has affected them.

NORWALK — The new West Rocks Middle School will have to wait a little longer to open after city officials decided to pause the project for a year to take advantage of extra savings.
An affordable housing bill signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in November would increase Norwalk's reimbursement rate for new construction from 60% to 65%, but the higher rate doesn't kick in until July 1, 2026. The deadline to submit school construction projects for state reimbursement is June 30 every year, meaning Norwalk officials would have to wait until the summer of 2027 to submit the West Rocks project to get the extra funding.

The state recently awarded the Watertown Schools a grant to run its farm-to-school program, including its Freight Farm. See details in the announcement from the Watertown Public Schools, below.

Watertown Public Schools has received more than $80,000 in state grant funding to continue its farm-to-school efforts, expanding learning opportunities for Watertown’s students while also increasing local food production.

Last week, Governor Maura Healey’s office announced $1.2 million in funding to expand educational food growth and farming efforts across Massachusetts. In total, 34 public school districts and early childhood centers received funding.

Three years ago, a group of educators went before the state charter school commission with a bold proposal. With the commission’s approval and state funds, they would build the first charter school in Hawaiʻi to specialize in artificial intelligence and data science, operating out of a small campus in Kalihi. 
The commission was ready to give the school permission to move forward, but Department of Education leaders were skeptical. Kalihi schools were already struggling with low student enrollment, they said, and nearby DOE campuses offered lessons in technology and engineering similar to the coursework Kūlia planned to offer. 
Kūlia Academy, which opened last fall despite opposition from the DOE, already has a lengthy waitlist. The school draws students from across the island and largely appeals to families because of its central location and unique focus on artificial intelligence, school director Andy Gokce said. 
“We are on a good trajectory,” Gokce said. 
While Hawaiʻi faces shrinking public school enrollment overall, demand for charter schools has continued to grow. Charters have seen nearly a 10% jump in enrollment since 2020 — the only sector of Hawaiʻi education to report continued growth since the pandemic. Even as the state considers closing some small public schools, charter schools are building campuses everywhere from urban Honolulu to the north shore of Kauaʻi.
 

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - As severe weather becomes more of a threat to Kentucky, public schools are taking the extra step to ensure that students are safe.

In 2019, Senate Bill 1 stated that any new K-12 facility had to incorporate a safe room. A safe room, according to FEMA, is built to withstand winds up to 250 mph and also provide electricity up to two hours after a severe weather event.

Chris McIntyre, the chief financial officer for Warren County Public Schools says these safe spaces bring more piece of mind during severe weather.

“This is another layer that helps protect our most valuable resources, our kids,” McIntyre said. ”The parents feel more secure when their kids are at school.”

The results are in and, by a wide margin, it seems Philadelphia residents want aging school structures throughout the city saved by being renovated or rebuilt, instead of seeing the facilities shuttered.

The School District of Philadelphia recently found this out through the results of a "Facilities Planning Process Emerging Themes Survey" that sought input from those with students in the district, as well as teachers, faculty and others with connections to school facilities, for input on how to manage the district's aging structures.

The survey found 81% of respondents felt it was important or very important that Pre-K through eighth grade programming strengthened through better use of space.

This included responses that called for old facilities to be updated, space used more efficiently, class sizes reduced, and wider access to programs for arts, music, physical education, home economics, foreign language, along with a wider range of extracurricular activities and clubs for all grades.

PITTSFIELD — A long-awaited new West Side elementary school is finally moving forward after state officials approved Pittsfield’s request to begin formal planning.

On Friday, the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to allow the city to enter a feasibility study, the next major step toward designing and constructing a new school that would replace both Silvio O. Conte Community School and Crosby Elementary School. 

The planned 700-student building would sit on the current Crosby site and would be the first new elementary school constructed in Pittsfield in 50 years. Both Crosby and Conte have been deemed outdated and functionally obsolete by city officials.

“This is an important step toward equity for our district,” said interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips, who wrote a letter of support to the board. “[Crosby is] our most dilapidated and worst conditioned building in a part of our city, which serves our students with the greatest need.”

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — The West Virginia School Building Authority (SBA) granted the wishes of 12 county projects during its final meeting of the year Monday morning, several of which are local to north central West Virginia.

Topping the list is the approval of $3.5 million in awarded funds to Barbour County Schools for its recently approved consolidation project, which will close three middle schools and transfer the students to Philip Barbour High School’s campus. That plan also outlines the renovation of the Belington Middle School building in order to house Pre-K through 5th-grade students.

The City of Evanston, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 and District 202 are closing in on establishing a Joint Working Group on Public Facilities and Resource Sharing that would identify collaboration opportunities between the groups and conduct long-term resource planning. 

Two of the three members of the city council who sit on the City-Schools Liaison Committee — Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th Ward) and Juan Geracaris (9th Ward) — support the working group. Krissie Harris (2nd Ward) is the lone holdout, and said she wants to consider the proposal further. Mayor Daniel Biss — who would not sit on the committee — has also expressed support for the initiative.

Members of the District 65 school board who sit on the City-Schools Liaison Committee did not respond to questions asking whether they supported the measure prior to publication.

Down a narrow staircase at Presque Isle High School, a cast iron steam boiler towers over visitors in the same place it has sat for the last six decades.
Eleven presidents and tens of thousands of students ago, the boiler — and the high school — were new. They’re not anymore. But replacing the boiler system would cost millions, MSAD 1 Superintendent Ben Greenlaw said. That’s just part of the $40-$50 million in infrastructure investments he estimates the 200,000 square-foot building will need over the next 20 years.
It might be that long before the funding needed to build a new high school is greenlit through the Maine Department of Education’s Major Capital School Construction Program. Greenlaw, aware of the budget crises that have gripped nearby districts in recent years, doesn’t believe MSAD 1 can wait that long.
So earlier this year, he probed an option that has seemed more and more inevitable to education leaders across the state: consolidation. Now Presque Isle High School — Maine’s largest high school north of Old Town — is exploring combining with nearby Caribou and Fort Fairfield high schools to form a single regional high school and tech center.

Construction began at a Brooklyn elementary school four years ago to make its building more accessible for students with disabilities.

A new entrance ramp was among the projects at Red Hook’s P.S. 15, where more than 62% of the students have disabilities.

But the seemingly straightforward construction project has not yet been completed, said Katina Rogers, a Brooklyn mom and president of the local parent education council advising on District 15’s needs.

Parents were frustrated that the city paid $11 million for the project, which included window replacements and exterior work, despite the work remaining unfinished — and building conditions were worse than when the project started, they said.

“For that to be happening in an underserved community, it’s really a problem,” Rogers said.

Constructed nearly seven decades ago in 1958, O’Fallon Township High School’s Smiley Campus is experiencing growing pains that district leadership say demand action. The school community gathered Monday evening at the Smiley Campus, which houses grades 10-12. The newer Milburn Campus hosts only freshmen. Superintendent Beth Shackelford presented key concerns and potential solutions, all of which were informed by previous community input and conversations with architects.
Community members gave feedback and floated some ideas of their own. “The way we educate students today in 2025 is not the way that we educated students in 1958,” Shackelford told the group. “Yet, to some extent, we are operating in a facility (that) was structured for that 1958 student.”
 

Four separate elementary schools in Martinsville, all built before the 1960s, will soon be closed for good as the school district consolidates into a single, new elementary school building.
The Metropolitan School District of Martinsville Board of Trustees will soon approve the consolidation plans which will shutter Centerton Elementary, Green Township Elementary, Poston Road Elementary and Smith Fine Arts Academy at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.
A new elementary school, yet to be officially named, will then open at the start of the 2027 school year.
“As a Board, it is our responsibility to plan not just for today’s students, but for generations to come,” said Heather Staggs, president of the MSD of Martinsville School Board. “This project reflects that long-term initiative and commitment to ensure the District remains a place where education thrives.”

Three tornado-damaged schools in the St. Louis Public Schools district will reopen in January.

The Board of Education voted unanimously to reopen Washington Montessori Elementary, Yeatman-Liddell Middle and Beaumont High schools. Beaumont is home to some of the district’s career and technical programs.

The schools are set to reopen by Jan. 5.

The board also voted to approve the reopening of Hickey Elementary School, which is set to be ready in time for the 2026-27 school year.

The May 16 tornado temporarily closed seven schools and damaged a dozen in total.

School board President Karen Collins-Adams applauded the board and the district’s leadership for working together to reopen the buildings.

“We were able to create change and show the community that we care so deeply about where our students are going to school,” Collins-Adams said.

Chief of Operations Square Watson said his team will begin moving classroom furniture and supplies back to their original schools on Dec. 22 while students are on winter break.

Spring ISD's Board of Trustees approved the closure of two schools Tuesday as part of the district's broader "optimization plan" following a $13 million deficit.

According to the district, Link Elementary and Dueitt Middle School, both located north of Houston, will be closed for the 2026-27 school year. The decision is part of the "District Optimization Plan," which was developed in response to a $13 million budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year, declining enrollment and some school buildings operating at approximately 60% capacity, the district said via a release. The closures are expected to save just over $4 million in a single year.

Spring ISD Board President Justine Durant said via a statement that the decision to close the two campuses was not taken lightly.

"Closing Link and Dueitt is truly a heartbreaking decision," Durant said. "With campuses operating at nearly 60% capacity and reductions in federal funding, we are facing realities that require hard choices. We will not be fiscally responsible if we do not address these challenges now, even when the decisions are difficult."

One of DeKalb’s oldest high school facilities has been approved for a multi-million dollar modernization.

In a 5-2 vote, the DeKalb County Board of Education approved plans to revamp Druid Hills High School, which has portions of its building dating back 98 years, according to a board of education report.

Druid Hills, built in 1919, requires improvements that would address its aging infrastructure, improve safety, upgrade learning facilities, and ensure compliance with current educational, accessibility, and building standards. The 29 classrooms will remain at the Haygood Drive property, and additional instructional units will be added to the site to house capacity for 1,600 students.

Eureka City Schools has successfully refinanced $8.6 million in general obligation bonds, resulting in over $1.5 million in savings for district property owners.

According to the district, they took advantage of favorable interest rates to refinance a portion of its Election of 2014, Series 2015 Bonds. Initially approved by more than 57% of district voters in November 2014, the bonds aimed to enhance student achievement by upgrading career-technical and job-training classrooms, improving technology and constructing new classrooms and science labs. The Series 2015 Bonds had interest rates between 3.5% and 5.0%, while the new refunding bonds carry a reduced interest rate of 3.48%.

BRUNSWICK — During a brisk November recess, four giggling fourth graders sat atop a slide embedded in a shrub-covered hillside. They inched down as one, arms and legs intertwined, to elude monsters lurking among the nearby boulders.
“There’s the monster!” said Monroe Forgues, pointing at a stand of tall native grasses. The girls shrieked. “Oh no! I’m slipping,” line leader Abrielle Mackenzie-Hinkley said. “Stick together,” Royalty Steed urged her friends. “It can’t get us if we stick together!”
The foursome bested their imaginary foe, repeatedly, racing each other up and down the hillside at the center of Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School’s new nature-based playground. Built in 2024, the yard features native plants, rock and stump-lined paths and a nearby tunnel. Next to it is a greenhouse and garden.
“The kids just love it, especially the open-ended nature of it,” Principal Heather Blanchard said. “Do we have more skinned knees? Give out more Band-Aids? Probably. But it’s also the perfect low-stakes setting for our students to get dirty, take chances and test their limits.”
The school is one of at least three dozen in Maine, from South Portland to Skowhegan, that have embraced outdoor play and learning areas that use natural elements like boulders, logs, plants and water to encourage exploration, problem solving and an affinity for the environment.
 

Mayor Muriel Bowser, DC Public Schools Chancellor Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee, and community leaders recently celebrated the completion of a $63 million renovation of Dorothy I. Height Elementary School in Ward 4. The 86,000-square-foot facility serves students’ academic needs and honors civil rights leader Dorothy Height.
The renovated school, which opened for the 2024–2025 school year, now serves nearly 400 students and features new playgrounds, a rooftop activity area, an all-electric kitchen, and a modern cafeteria. Mayor Bowser's office reported that the project has received multiple industry awards for its innovative design and construction.
 

In the summer of 2021, Duval Pre-K through 8 school in Lincoln County closed its doors due to issues with settling ground and flooding, making the school unsafe.

As a result of the closure, students were moved into temporary classrooms, other schools and the central office of Lincoln County Schools.

"I'm sure the students are excited because as it stands right now they are in the internal side of the building," Lincoln County Schools Superintendent Frank Barnett said. "There are no exterior windows, no natural light coming in the classrooms. They are about a little over half the size of what they will be in the new facility. This used to be a career center so a lot of the classrooms are actually like automotive bays, welding shops, things of that nature with just concrete floors."

Now, four years after the closure, a new school is being built in place of the old one.

Barnett said he's excited for the students and faculty to finally have a school to call their own once construction wraps up.