Every energy infrastructure conversation I’ve been part of starts the same way: a boiler is failing, a chiller is past its useful life, or a new building is on the drawing board and someone has to decide how it gets heated and cooled. That’s the right starting point.

The problem shows up later when the discussion jumps straight from “we need a new system” to “what’s the cheapest bid?”, skipping the question that actually determines value: what will this cost the institution over the life of the equipment, and what could we do now to reduce that cost before a single contract is signed?

FOX 2 - Voters in Dearborn and a portion of Dearborn Heights will cast their ballot on what the school district is calling a $1.5 billion dollar "transformational bond" which would span 20 years.

(The Center Square) – A proposal to add energy requirements to Virginia’s school construction sales tax provisions drew questions Monday about upfront costs and potential savings for taxpayers.

Energy Commission of Virginia staff presented the recommendation to a commission subcommittee reviewing energy use and backup power in public schools.

Staff recommended incorporating on-site renewable energy generation, energy storage and features that help schools operate during outages into provisions governing the additional local sales tax for school construction and renovation.

Localities can ask voters to approve an additional sales tax of up to 1% for school construction and renovation. Participating cities and counties will put that question before voters Nov. 3.

As enrollment rises or falls across the nation’s largest school systems, as reflected in this year’s AS&U 100 ranking of the largest school districts, one question becomes increasingly important for district leaders: Are students attending schools that are appropriately sized for the populations they serve?

Capacity utilization provides one way to answer that question because it allows districts to compare the number of students enrolled in a school with the building’s calculated capacity and can help identify campuses that are overcrowded, underused, or likely to become either as enrollment changes.

Is anyone against keeping schoolchildren healthy? Surely not, yet the challenges for maintenance and engineering managers seeking to ensure that K-12 facilities consistently provide healthy environments to students and teachers remain stubbornly persistent.  

Five organizations recently came together to co-host the Healthy Schools for Healthy Kids Summit in Washington, D.C., to detail the reasons healthy school facilities are so important, factors that have created barriers to upgrading these buildings and campuses and the way these groups and their allies can work together. The meeting brought together advocates, elected officials, health experts, facility managers, academics, students and others to address these issues.   

Drive by almost any aging school building in Virginia and you’ll find the same story: roofs held together by duct tape, window-unit air conditioners bolted to brick a century in the ground, boiler systems cobbled together by grounds crews who deserve veterans’ medals for serving their time.

This isn’t the case for a few districts enduring bad luck. Nearly 60 percent of the state’s public school facilities are at least half a century old, according to Virginia’s 2021 needs assessment. Taken together, that makes systemic deferred maintenance less of an outlier than the status quo.

Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. has signed the fiscal year 2027 budget bills, authorizing $739.2 million from the General Fund for government operations while approving separate funding for hospitals, the University of the Virgin Islands and other agencies.

The spending package, passed by the 36th Legislature, funds government operations, health care, education, infrastructure and other public services across the territory for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, according to a Government House press release.

In Santa Barbara, California, an unused former school property on the Eastside could be put to use in a way that helps others — by turning it into affordable housing for teachers and school employees.

Supporters are getting closer to turning the site into 30 deed-restricted homes for district workers, a proposal aimed at easing the burden of living costs that keep many school employees far from the campuses where they work.

As K–12 school systems contend with aging HVAC infrastructure and limited capital budgets, improving indoor air quality (IAQ) does not always require major equipment upgrades. Lori Arzaga, director of environmental health and safety service at Clark County School District, whose research examined CO2 levels and ventilation across school classrooms, says facility managers can start by making ventilation conditions visible through real-time CO2 monitoring.  

From identifying problem spaces to making low-cost operational adjustments, Olson-Arzaga's session “Improving Air Quality in K–12 Schools for Compliance and Performance” will cover this and more at NFMT West in Las Vegas from November 3 to 4. 

For Tampa Bay, the 2024 hurricane season changed the meaning of “business as usual.”

Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton arrived within weeks of each other, damaging tens of thousands of homes, closing schools and disrupting businesses. Buildings designed for ordinary operations became evacuation shelters, recovery centers and anchors of stability.

Civil Beat recently published an article, “HawaiÊ»i Spent Millions On More Preschool Seats. Now There Are Fewer,” that examines the state’s investment in preschool expansion and raises important questions about the future of our early childhood system. We should pay attention when programs close, providers struggle to recruit and retain educators and families are unable to find care that is affordable, accessible and meets their needs.

Comparing the total number of preschool seats today with the number that existed six years ago does not tell the whole story of HawaiÊ»i’s progress.

Over the past several years, Hawaiʻi has made significant progress in strengthening support for ʻohana. Thousands of Hawaiʻi families now have greater access to affordable early learning opportunities.

Burncoat High School in Worcester has long been due for serious work, and the possible price tags are coming into focus.

Preliminary estimates in front of city councilors range from $150 million to $710 million, depending on how much work the city takes on.

Here's what to know

Several paths are under review, The Worcester Guardian reported. The lowest-cost option is basic work on the building, with an estimate of $150 million to $165 million.

Chapter 310 of the Laws of 2026 amended Education Law § 3602(6)(i)(5)(i)(C) to extend the maximum term for guaranteed recovery of Energy Performance Contract (EPC) costs from 18 years to 25 years. The amendment was signed into law on September 28, 2026, and took effect immediately. The amended provision states “C. The energy performance contractor shall guarantee recovery of contract costs from energy savings realized by the school district during the term of the energy performance contract, which shall not exceed twenty-five years.”

Students, teachers and administrators decried neglected conditions in New Haven schools in front of a crowd of over 60 people in City Hall Tuesday night.

Speakers called for increased school funding and transparency and slammed the city’s Board of Education, which they said has not addressed dangerous conditions, including broken HVAC systems, poor air quality and mold. Alders at the meeting floated the possibility of shutting down schools while maintenance work was done. The city’s schools have long faced a deferred maintenance crisis.

“We’ve reached a breaking point,” Leslie Blatteau ’97 GRD ’07, the president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said in a speech to the board.

(TNS) — As moldy classrooms, leaks, aging infrastructure and extreme temperatures remain an issue in schools statewide, education leaders warn that many Connecticut schools are falling short when it comes to addressing poor indoor air quality and meeting annual inspection requirements.

State legislators, public health experts and education advocates called on Connecticut schools to prioritize clean air and stay on top of their heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems during a Monday press conference at the Capitol.

In June 2025, Portland Public Schools officials entered into a relatively small, $149,500 services contract with a Texas-based construction firm called Procedeo, at the time a newcomer to Portland. The firm was there to find ways to make the planned $466 million modernization of Jefferson High School cheaper and faster, and the school district initially waved Procedeo through with a contract just under the threshold that would have required approval by the Portland School Board.

Procedeo would soon have its moment in the spotlight. By December 2025, the School Board, on a 5–2 vote, extended both the scope and size of the construction firm’s work for the district dramatically.

Imagine your school district approves a $20 million classroom addition. The project is completed on time and on budget, the ribbon is cut, and the community celebrates what appears to be another successful investment. Five years later, enrollment begins to shift. New educational programs require different types of learning environments. Security standards evolve, technology advances and another school in the district suddenly has available capacity while the expanded school has less demand than anticipated. Infrastructure improvements that once seemed sufficient are no longer enough to support the district’s next phase of growth.

None of those decisions were necessarily mistakes. The problem was that each project addressed a specific need without considering how it would affect the district’s broader strategy. That is increasingly the challenge facing school districts across New Jersey as they balance aging facilities, changing educational priorities, advancing technology and significant capital investments.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WTRF) — A Lincoln County student has filed a petition with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals arguing that the state’s public school funding system violates the West Virginia Constitution.

The petition, filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, asks the court to order state lawmakers to correct the school funding formula. It follows a notice of intent to sue that ACLU-WV sent to state officials on Aug. 17.

The case follows a decades-long legal battle over school funding in West Virginia. In 1975, Lincoln County families brought Pauley v. Kelly, which led to the state Supreme Court establishing that a “thorough and efficient” education is a fundamental constitutional right.

LANSING – Thirty-one school districts in Michigan will get financial help to address failing roofs, heating and cooling systems, and other essential repairs. 

But the vast majority of public school infrastructure remains underfunded, leaving many districts to shoulder the cost of repairs on their own. 

The Michigan Department of Education announced $224 million in competitive infrastructure grants across the state this year. 

According to the department, districts submitted nearly $1.8 billion in grant requests while available funding paid for less than a fifth of that amount.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District received the largest grant at nearly $32.8 million for heating, ventilation and air conditioning and roof projects at 17 schools. 

Europeans spend up to 90% of their lives indoors, according to official estimates. Yet while outdoor air pollution has become a familiar public concern, the air inside our homes, schools and workplaces has largely gone unnoticed.

That is changing. Researchers across Europe are investigating what is really in indoor air, how it affects our health and what can be done about it.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have heard more about indoor air quality because people have become aware that aerosols could transport viruses,” said Jose Fermoso, a chemical engineer at Spanish research centre CARTIF and coordinator of K-HEALTHinAIR, one of seven EU-funded projects working together to investigate indoor air quality.