Granville’s four existing school buildings have very little room left to accommodate a significant influx of new students.
Such a sudden growth in enrollment would also trigger need of a new middle school.
See also: Proposed River Road housing development would add 322 Newark homes in Granville schools
Our view: Granville schools and Newark should find mutually beneficial housing plan
On Jan. 11, Granville Schools Superintendent Jeff Brown discussed building capacity with school board members.
The discussion was triggered by recent reports of a potential housing development pitched to Newark elected officials.
“Many of the community members are aware that there was a proposal for a development that was submitted to Newark City Council and Newark City Planning Commission on River Road,” Brown told school board members during the year’s first board of education meeting.
Brown’s aim at the meeting, he said, was to give “the facts” related to any “large scale development on Granville Schools,” from the standpoint of both fiscal, and facilities impacts.
Granville Elementary, Brown said, has the capacity of holding 715 students. Brown said, enrollment sees 684 students “attending that building right now.”
Granville Intermediate can hold 600 students; current enrollment there totals 591 students.
 

PALATKA, Fla. – The Putnam County School District last week proposed an aggressive plan to “revitalize” school facilities in the county.
School officials propose closing down five schools -- two of them more than 75 years old -- in Putnam County at the end of the current school year and build nine new schools over the next 10 years. There are 18 total schools in the district.
“By rightsizing the district and eliminating excessive buildings, PCSD would qualify for special facilities funding from the state to construct new state-of-the-art facilities,” the district said in a press release.
The proposal would require a bond referendum that would have to be approved by the school board.
The goal is to consolidate and build safer and more energy-efficient schools.
The proposal got mixed reactions on social media. Some said the plan would allow the district to replace older buildings in the county and prepare for growth. Others said closing the schools and consolidating would lead to issues.
 

Dickey has been teaching science at Centennial Middle School for more than 15 years. She lives in Portland.
I am a middle school teacher at an Oregon public school and the parent of two children. I am well aware of the needs of my students and my own kids to be back in school. But I also know that many of the people calling for a return to in-person instruction despite the COVID-19 pandemic have a minimal understanding of the working conditions in our public schools.
I want to ask the authors of all of these letters to the editor and op-eds pushing for school reopening: Are your bathrooms cleaned every night at your place of work? I know that at my school, when students were attending, they were not. Restrooms, both those used by staff and students, often went days without cleaning.
Another question I’d ask: Are your floors adequately cleaned every evening? Last year, the floors at my school went multiple weeks without getting swept, and they were never mopped or disinfected. It’s probably a different scenario for those who work in medical buildings like the authors of the Jan. 3 op-ed, “Put children’s needs first by reopening schools.” They likely don’t have to wonder if their surfaces and counters are cleaned and disinfected.  But in my 18 years of teaching, not once have my counters been cleaned unless I did it myself after hours. Do you have a central HVAC system? My school, built in the 1950s, has few windows that open, no air conditioning and poor air circulation. Classrooms frequently reach 90 degrees. Pigeons like to roost in the few air ducts we have on the roof.
 

Upgrading ventilation systems is a key way schools can reduce the spread of the coronavirus when campuses reopen, but some districts in California are finding the cost of those upgrades to be insurmountable.
Some districts have recently been able to upgrade their HVAC systems using local bond money. Some hope that the Legislature will place a multi-billion bond on the 2022 state ballot to provide new money for school facilities. Others are hoping President-elect Joe Biden will push through infrastructure legislation that includes money for schools. But few funding streams are guaranteed, and they may not be sufficient to cover the regular inspections and stringent filter replacements that HVAC systems require.
Because the coronavirus is primarily spread through air droplets, teachers unions and state authorities are urging schools to improve their indoor air quality by installing modern air filters or air purifiers, or replacing their outdated heating, cooling and air ventilation (HVAC) systems entirely. But the costs can exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the region, the condition of the existing buildings and the size of the school.
“After roofing, it can be the most expensive project for a school,” said Joe Dixon, retired facilities chief for Santa Ana Unified and a consultant who helps school districts with facilities projects. “But ventilation is important. It keeps kids’ minds fresh, it keeps them healthy. It’s a big issue for any district.”
The state does not keep records of the ventilation systems in California’s 10,000 public schools or which schools might need additional support in funding their HVAC.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $2 billion plan to reopen schools, beginning as soon as February for younger students and gradually phasing in older grades. His plan, which is optional for schools but includes incentives to participate, calls for widespread testing, contact tracing, masks and other safety measures, including ventilation upgrades.
While ventilation improvements are not required under Newsom’s plan, research shows that well-ventilated, clean air can lessen the spread of the coronavirus as well as other contaminants, including wildfire smoke, dust and air pollution. Clean air can also improve students’ academic achievement, reduce absenteeism and boost health overall for students and staff, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - With $15 million left over from the April 2019 bond issue, the Springfield Public School district has decided to go ahead and add new storm shelter/gyms to four elementary schools. The shelters are expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
Horace Mann, Mark Twain, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Eugene Field elementary schools will be getting the storm shelters, which are currently found in only nine of the 53 schools in the district.
“It’s been more than a wish. It’s really been a need,” said Janell Bagwell, the current principal at Field elementary and former principal at Twain.
How much of a need? Well, at Field elementary for instance, the 410 students can’t be placed in the hallways when severe weather strikes because there’s glass in the doors and windows that line the ceiling.
“So our designated areas are our bathrooms that we basically cram as many people as we can into one space ,” Bagwell explained.
The new gyms will also provide some much needed space for other activities.
“This is our ‘cafagymatorium’,” Bagwell said with a smile as she pointed to a part of the school that has a stage area facing a large floor space that includes basketball goals and long folded tables against the walls. “We use it for P.E., breakfast, lunch, any assemblies. But actually it’s not really big enough to hold our entire student body. It’s really, really tight.”
“It really makes a huge difference for our buildings when we have to plan around curriculum,” added Stephen Hall, the SPS Chief Communications Officer. “In addition to expanding the space for programs and activities we’re also pleased to be able to offer that storm shelter space for the community so in the event there is a storm, that will help keep our staff and students safe but it’s also a space that the community can be safe.”
 

With 1 in 3 students testing positive for the coronavirus in some Los Angeles neighborhoods, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to reopen campuses is clashing with the reality of a raging pandemic as many school districts opt for January shutdowns and superintendents call for clearer guidance on when it will be safe to unlock their campus doors.

The swift-moving developments come one week after Newsom announced financial help — totaling $2 billion — that would go to elementary schools that reopen as early as next month and later to schools serving older students. Newsom cited the widely acknowledged harms of learning loss and social isolation — especially for Black and Latino students from low-income families — after in-person instruction shut down nearly 10 months ago across the state.

Superintendents from seven of the state’s largest school districts on Wednesday called on Newsom to set a clear and mandated state standard for reopening campuses. They also faulted Newsom’s plan for seeming to rely on funds that would otherwise go toward important existing education programs.

“Our schools stand ready to resume in-person instruction as soon as health conditions are safe and appropriate. But we cannot do it alone,” superintendents from Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno and Sacramento wrote in the letter. “Despite heroic efforts by students, teachers and families, it will take a coordinated effort by all in state and local government to reopen classrooms.”

CHICAGO — Despite a work order requiring public school teachers to return in person this week, Kirstin Roberts did not go into the Brentano Elementary Math and Science Academy, on the city’s northwest side, where she teaches preschool.

Instead, she cleared several inches of snow from the school’s courtyard, set up her laptop and taught her students remotely outside as temperatures dipped well into the 30s on Monday.

“I feel safer sitting outside and working than I do inside the building,” Roberts, 53, said, who along with several other teachers sat in the cold in protest of the order.

Chicago Public Schools phased in its reopening plan on Monday by requiring some teachers to return to schools to prepare for in-person instruction, but Roberts said conditions were not appropriate to reopen. She is now teaching from home despite receiving an email from the district that she is not complying with employee attendance expectations.

“Community spread is still so high in Chicago, and so many people are sick and dying. I don’t know how to keep myself safe in an old building with so many people," she said. “I don’t understand why we have to risk our lives when we’re so close to a vaccine.”

Since the beginning of this pandemic, experts and educators have feared that open schools would spread the coronavirus further, which is why so many classrooms remain closed. But a new, nationwide study suggests reopening schools may be safer than previously thought, at least in communities where the virus is not already spreading out of control.

The study comes from REACH, the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, at Tulane University. Up to this point, researchers studying the public health effects of school reopening have focused largely on positivity rates. As in, did the rate of positive coronavirus tests among kids or communities increase after schools reopened?

The REACH researchers worried that testing in the U.S., especially among children, is still too varied and unpredictable. Instead, Susan Hassig, a Tulane epidemiologist who worked on the study, says they focused on hospitalization rates as a more reliable indicator of virus spread. It's easy to imagine infections going undetected in communities with spotty testing, Hassig says, but "if you get infected with coronavirus and you become substantially ill, you're going to become hospitalized." Mining nationwide data from 2020, she and her colleagues looked to see if more people ended up in the hospital after nearby schools reopened.

RALEIGH — Five North Carolina public school districts in economically distressed areas will be receiving millions in construction grants according to outgoing N.C. Superintendent Mark Johnson.

Around $60 million in grant funds will be disbursed to the districts from the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund for construction of new school buildings.

“This is the fourth year and the second time this year that these funds have been made available to benefit our students and educators who have had to deal with outdated facilities,” Johnson said in a press release. “These grants will help address our state’s need to replace old, outdated schools with better learning environments.” 

The General Assembly created the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund using a combination of revenue from the North Carolina Education Lottery and a local dollar match. In Tier 1, the most distressed areas, the match is $1 for every $3 in grant funds. In Tier 2, the match is one-to one. The maximum grant amount per project is $15 million in Tier 1 counties and $10 million in Tier 2 counties.

The five districts are Bladen, Carteret, Catawba, Cleveland and Harnett. Johnson’s press release included the following dollar amounts and details of the construction projects planned in each area:

Members of the Baltimore County Board of Education railed against a proposed capital plan during a Tuesday night meeting, decrying school officials’ removal of projects to replace the aging and increasingly overcrowded Dulaney and Towson high schools.
But in a 7-2 split, with two abstaining, the board voted to add the two replacement projects back to the funding request.
Replacing Dulaney and Towson have been in the school system’s construction plan for years, but some board members said that re-adding them to the fiscal 2022 funding request could knock other schools in need down the list.
The proposed capital budget presented Tuesday evening included a request for almost $63 million to build a replacement Lansdowne High; planning money for an addition to Dundalk High that would add up to 650 seats for additional students; and roof replacements at Randallstown and Parkville high schools.
 

BOONE — Watauga County Schools administrators are working with officials from local emergency management and AppHealthCare to prepare for community-wide distribution of the vaccine by making school facilities available to use as clinic sites.
WCS Superintendent Scott Elliott said the first vaccination event will be on Jan. 16, at Watauga High School, and will be focused largely on older adults in the first stage of Phase 1b. WCS will begin to connect school employees to the health department to help them sign up for the vaccine when the number of doses are available. Elliott said he hopes this will take place within the next few weeks.
North Carolina is currently in phase 1a of its vaccination plans, which includes health care workers fighting COVID-19 and long-term care staff and residents. Phase 1b consists of adults 75 years or older and frontline essential workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines frontline essential workers as first responders (firefighters, police), education (child care, teachers, support staff), manufacturing, corrections officers, public transit, grocery store, food and agriculture and U.S. postal workers.
As teachers are included in phase 1b, Elliott said administrators will strongly encourage employees to receive the vaccine. The school system does not plan to make vaccination a requirement for employees until or unless the state adds the vaccine to the list of requirements for employment. Elliott did not anticipate this happening at least until the vaccines are out of Food and Drug Administration emergency approval status.
Taking the vaccine is a decision each employee should consider in consultation with their own personal health care provider, Elliott said.
“Personally, I have a high degree of confidence in the vaccine and plan to receive it myself as soon as it is available,” Elliott said.
 

Atlanta Public Schools will delay the completion of a facilities master plan because of uncertainty brought on by the pandemic.
The planning effort, along with an accompanying demographic study, is important because it will guide the district’s building and property needs for the next 10 years. The document will serve as a key decision-making tool as officials determine which schools could be expanded, closed or merged based on factors such as enrollment forecasts.
Work to update the plan began in June 2019, when the district signed a $900,000 contract with the Atlanta-based firm Sizemore Group to develop it.
Under the original time frame, APS expected to be wrapping up work on the document.
Instead, officials recently announced they will press pause for a year to 18 months, citing concerns about how the coronavirus pandemic could impact enrollment projections.
“We need better data, and COVID has kind of changed the landscape on a lot of things,” said board Chairman Jason Esteves.
Accurately predicting enrollment trends is a critical component of the planning work. Officials rely on population forecasts and anticipated housing growth to predict which schools may add or lose students.
But the pandemic has cast uncertainty over those projections. Larry Hoskins, chief operating officer for APS, told board members last month that he’s “extremely concerned” about whether population forecasts made before the pandemic will change.
“We are now kind of wondering if, in fact, the region will experience the same growth projected prior to COVID, post-COVID,” he said.
 

“Get your son out of this school.”
That’s the message Yanira Rios received seven years ago from her son’s kindergarten teacher shortly after moving to Bridgeport, the only community in the region where she could afford an apartment. Her son had learned to read in preschool before leaving Shelton, and now Rios was being told that his teacher needed to focus on his classmates, who were far behind him academically.
“It was so discouraging to have a teacher beg you, ‘You have to figure it out. You have to get your kid out of here, because at the end of the year he’s going to be behind,'” said Rios.
A few months later, she cried while reading the letter saying her son had won a coveted spot through the school choice lottery in Westport Public Schools, the top ranked district in the state and No. 28 nationally.
“I was excited to the point of tears, because it meant a lot to me that he would be in a place where he would be challenged, where when he graduates he would be, I would say, on equal footing with most people in the state,” said Rios, who grew up in public housing and attended schools in Bridgeport and Puerto Rico. “It was heartbreaking to see the differences in Westport.” She also has a daughter who is now in the Westport school system.
The opportunity given to Rios’s two children, however, is not shared by the majority of students from Connecticut’s cities, where schools are largely filled with poor students who are multiple grades behind. Why? Because for decades state lawmakers have relied on predominantly white suburban communities to voluntarily offer enrollment to city students or to allow the construction of affordable housing so low-income city dwellers can move to their suburb and attend their schools.
Neither strategy has consistently worked.
 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A few extra pennies is going to add up to millions, possibly billions. The half-cent sales tax has begun collecting revenue in Duval and Clay Counties. The money generated will go back to the school districts.
Schools are going to be restored, renovated and even rebuilt. It all depends on the school's age and what all needs to be done. While the sales tax means pennies on a coffee order, it’ll end up touching every school in the district.
Click here for Duval schools. Every school in Duval County is listed. Click on your school to get a break down of the master plan. The district is expecting the tax to generate about $2 billion in 15 years.
Click here for Clay schools.  They have the school project listed by each school. Clay County School District is expecting their half-cent sales tax to generate around 400 million over 30 years. 
 

Manchester High School Central has joined a list of schools a consultant recommends be closed due to declining enrollment and climbing maintenance costs.

The latest version of the school facilities report prepared by MGT Consulting Group recommends closing four elementary schools and one high school, while merging two other high schools to address declining enrollment and more than $150 million in deferred maintenance and other costs.

A draft copy of the revised audit released Monday suggests closing Hallsville, Gossler Park, Smyth and Wilson elementary schools, along with Central High. Other recommendations include merging Manchester School of Technology with Manchester Memorial High School.

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) – A former teacher for Horry County Schools has filed a lawsuit against the district, alleging exposure to mold while at school led to numerous health issues.

According to the lawsuit filed Dec. 31, 2020 against the district and four individual schools, Mary Burroughs taught at St. James Elementary School, Seaside Elementary School, Lakewood Elementary School, and Socastee Middle School during the 2016-2019 school years.

During that time, Burroughs said she continued to suffer from severe headaches, short-term memory loss, a lack of energy, watery eyes, dizziness, congestion in her nose and throat, and nerve issues in her hands and fingers, the lawsuit states.

Burroughs alleges she did not suffer from these ailments before working for the school district. A medical and allergy test revealed exposure to mold, according to the suit.

The plaintiff claims she reported problems with her modular classroom at St. James Elementary as having a mildew odor and mold problems on numerous occasions to not only the school’s custodian and maintenance personnel, but also the principal.

According to the lawsuit, HCS had knowledge of water damage, water leaks, and mold issues for years within numerous schools, including St. James Elementary.

Positive cases of the coronavirus have prompted New York City leaders to close more than 100 school buildings on Monday, News 4 has learned.
The Department of Education plans to close 128 buildings, which are made up of classrooms for younger grades attending in person as well as those in Learning Bridges and early childhood daycare.
A map of building closures due to coronavirus cases can be found on the city's website.
City Hall says there is no plan for a larger district-wide closure of buildings while state data for the city holds below the 9 percent benchmark that would trigger an automatic closure by the state.
New York City, like the state's other regions, has seen a significant rise in case numbers and deaths amid a winter surge of the coronavirus. As of Sunday, New York state's coronavirus dashboard showed New York City's seven-day rolling average at 6.24 percent. Despite the concerning number of COVID cases following the long holiday break, Mayor Bill de Blasio insists keeping schools open is important and safe.
"About 100,000 students, teachers, staff got tested across the entire school system ... the positivity level was .68 percent. Much, much lower than anything we're seeing anywhere else in New York City," de Blasio said. "So, the safest place to be in New York City of course is our public schools."