From the Arkansas Department of Agriculture comes news that $500 is to be awarded to each of 52 Arkansas schools for creation or expansion of a school garden. Public and private schools, early care and education facilities, and alternative learning environments were all eligible to apply for the grants, which are provided to Arkansas through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. North Little Rock Middle School, the Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center, Mann Magnet, Indian Hills Elementary and Pulaski Heights Elementary were among the grant recipients in the Central Arkansas area. 

“School gardens provide a hands-on opportunity for children to learn about Arkansas agriculture and where their food comes from. The lessons learned through school gardens have a lasting impact on children, their families, and entire communities,” said Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward.

TACOMA, Wash. - Kindergarten students are gearing up for their first day of in-person classroom instruction in the South Sound this year.
Tuesday is the big day for Tacoma Schools where up to 15 kids will be allowed into each classroom. Students will spend two days on campus each week while distance learning from home for the others.
Families in Tacoma have been rolling with the punches since last spring, but new state health guidelines are more flexible. As long as new COVID-19 infection rates do not surpass thresholds detailed by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), younger students are returning to public school campuses.
"I’m really nervous about COVID-19," said parent Anna Izenman.
Her son could see his first day inside a classroom come Tuesday, but Izenman and other parents wonder if the rest of the school year should remain in a distance learning model until a vaccine is more widely available.
The President of the Tacoma Education Association (TEA) shared similar concerns for public school employees who may not get the vaccine as early as other populations.
"Many of our educators have not had access to the vaccine," said TEA President Shannon Ergun, adding some vaccines might not be available until April.
Izenman said Tuesday’s move could be positive for kids. Making sure everyone remains healthy and children have access to in-person instruction are important considerations, but success requires our entire community to strive to keep infection rates low.
"You just have to trust they’re going to bring healthy students into a classroom," she said.

The Edmonds School District will be asking voters in April to consider approving a $180 million capital levy that would provide much-needed building upgrades, address capacity challenges and improve existing facilities.

If approved by voters during the April 27 special election, the levy would provide $30 million per year for six years to replace Spruce and Oak Heights elementary schools, maintain existing school buildings and athletic fields, and make district-wide accessibility improvements.

At $180 million, the proposal over six years has been reduced significantly from the $600 million capital bond the district put before voters last February. That proposal  failed after receiving a 56% yes vote. Under state law, bond measures required a 60% majority to pass. 

“I think what scared people away was the $600 million bond when really the tax rate wasn’t going to go up,” said district spokesperson Harmony Weinberg. “I don’t think people understood that — they just saw $600 million.”

INDEPENDENCE COUNTY, Ark. (KAIT) - Two Independence County school districts have found a unique way to maintain the fields for their shared solar array.

The Cedar Ridge and Midland school districts flipped the switch on their shared solar array Friday, becoming the first school districts in the state to partner in a solar project.

Cedar Ridge Superintendent Dr. Sherry McMasters said the schools began working on the project in January 2020.

“Being a partner with another district in this project just kind of solidifies the fact that you’re better off when you work with somebody else than you are in trying to do things by yourself,” said McMasters.

The solar panels sit on what used to be portions of the hayfield at Cedar Ridge, creating over a megawatt of solar energy total.

The schools are expected to save a significant amount in energy costs with the solar panels.

“Between $70 and $80 thousand a year is what our district alone will save,” said McMasters.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Earlier this week, Portland Public Schools announced plans to begin limited in-person instruction for some students. 
A number of KGW viewers had questions regarding safety concerns.
Elizabeth Thiel, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said the union and district had come up with an agreement on safety conditions for limited in-person instruction right before the district’s plans were announced.
Portland Public Schools (PPS) hopes to start some limited in-person instruction around Jan. 25. 
Officials haven't said which schools would be involved, but that 16 elementary schools would be included, many of which already have childcare on-site. 
Shawn Bird, chief of schools for PPS, also said comprehensive support for improvement (CSI) schools as well as two high schools would also be included. CSI schools are those with the most need.
The focus will be on younger kids, those who didn't do well in the first quarter and credit recovery for older students.
“It's up to two hours a day. But it's not necessarily every day for a student,” said Thiel.
 

Additional federal money is being allocated to school districts across the state to help with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday said he is dedicating $2.2 billion in federal stimulus funds to K-12 school districts and charter schools.
The money can be used to support food programs, make technological improvements, address learning loss among students, make repairs to school facilities and to improve indoor air quality.
“All schools have been affected by the covid-19 pandemic, and I commend school communities for rising to the challenge to combat the toll it has taken,” Wolf said in a news release. “This extra funding is critical to help schools meet the unique needs of educating students at this time while keeping school buildings safe when students return to the classroom.”
The funds are available through the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER II, which Congress passed in December. In all, $54 billion was allocated to school districts across the country through the package.
Allocations already are determined for each school across the state based on a formula that considers the number of low-income students served by school facilities. Still, officials must apply for funds through the state Department of Education’s website before they receive monthly payments.
 

After failing in two attempts to pass a bond, Castle Rock school district is taking a new approach to repairing aging infrastructure and improving security at its schools: a larger capital projects levy.
“We looked at another bond pre-COVID, but we said if the community said no two times we should look at something else,” Greene said.
An increased capital projects levy will be on a Feb. 9 ballot. Ballots will be mailed out around Jan. 22, according to the elections website. Drop boxes open on Jan. 22 and close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.
The increase would make the projected tax rate 44 cents per $1,000 assessed property value over three years. That would cost the owner of a $250,000 house about $9.16 per month.
In 2014, Castle Rock voters passed a 27 cent capital levy, but Greene said because of increasing tax base in Castle Rock homeowners only paid 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2020. That makes the proposed increase about 25 cents over last year.
Replacement capital levies are not new taxes, but continuations, and in this case an increase, of an existing tax. Levies help pay for things the districts do not get much state or federal support for, Greene said.
The proposed levy would raise $495,272 each year for three years. Greene said that number was settled on by determining how much was needed for projects then working backwards to get the tax rate.
 

The Los Angeles Unified School District has approved an investment of more than $233 million in voter-approved bond funds to conduct massive upgrades at Lincoln High School.
The money will be used to construct approximately 10 general and specialty classrooms and associated support spaces within a new classroom building and a Performing Arts Building.
The proposed Lincoln High School Comprehensive Modernization Project also includes the voluntary seismic retrofit and modernization of the administration building, home economics building, auditorium, gymnasium and pedestrian bridge.
The school, located at 3501 N. Broadway, northeast of downtown, was founded in 1878.
"I am super grateful to the Lincoln High School community for modeling such stellar collaboration on this significant effort to honor our past and celebrate our future," Board Member Monica Garcia said Tuesday. "This is hard work to do and all the historic pieces make it extra special. Again, thank you to the voters for your continued support for our schools and athletic fields."
Lincoln High School Principal Rose Ann Ruiz praised the board's action.
 

The Hays school board Monday night focused on doing what it can to fix its existing facilities with the money it will likely have during the next five years in its capital outlay budget.
Superintendent Ron Wilson said he hoped the discussion would hep identify short- and long-term goals for the district's facilities. However, he acknowledged those priorities will likely change as new needs arise.
The superintendent brought to the board a grid showing the condition of the facilities in the district. Wilson compiled the grid with the help of Buildings and Grounds Director Rusty Lindsay.
More than half of the buildings in the district are in need of work to their HVAC and plumbing systems. 
"I point out that we have done a lot of work," Wilson said. "It's not all red. We have done a lot of work by being very sensible about our dollars. The green is low attention and a lot of those are because we have put dollars toward maintenance, upgrading and improving those areas."
The district has an average annual capital outlay revenue of about $2.9 million. The July 1 carryover for FY21 was $2.77 million.
"We spend an average of $3.1 million in capital outlay every year, and that is just to keep everything going," Wilson said.
 

On Jan. 11 the School Committee unanimously approved a $15 million capital improvement plan for infrastructure upgrades at the Dartmouth Public School district over the next five fiscal years.

The full five-year plan includes some big-ticket items like $4.5 million for a new roof for the high school and $2.5 million for new windows at Potter and DeMello Schools, as well as restoration or replacement of doors, windows, flooring, and fields, and a $350,000 tech infrastructure upgrade.

School Business Administrator Jim Kiely discussed the plan with committee members at the meeting, noting that the town has been “very helpful” in funding pandemic-related improvements and has already allocated “a significant amount” of CARES Act money to school buildings. 

In fiscal year 2022 the district plans on spending around $1.8 million, $300,000 of which will go towards HVAC upgrades.

More than $200,000 will be spent on each of three different projects: a flooring replacement project that Kiely said has been ongoing for around a decade, new AV and lighting systems for the high school auditorium, and replacing grease traps in the schools’ kitchens.

In its 2021 budget, Congress included millions for lead testing in schools, where children are still exposed to the toxic metal.

The federal appropriations bill for the 2021 fiscal year, signed into law this month, included $26.5 million to test for lead in schools and child care centers, a nod to the legacy of the Flint water crisis, which lifted the issue of lead in drinking water into the national spotlight.

The bill was signed a week after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency introduced new requirements for water utilities to test water in elementary schools and day cares for lead.

The Flint crisis spurred a national conversation on the dangers of exposing children to lead. “It really alters the entire life-course trajectory of a child,” Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint pediatrician, told Circle of Blue. Hanna-Attisha’s research helped uncover the extent of the city’s lead contamination, revealing elevated lead levels in the blood of children who ingested drinking water supplied from the Flint River.

Flint’s water is now being mended and its lead pipes are nearly all replaced. But the toxic metal still lingers elsewhere. A 2019 report from Environment America, a national network of environmental groups, showed elevated lead levels in the water systems of schools across the country.

John Rumpler, Environment America’s clean water program director, told Circle of Blue last summer that schools need more attention because of potential harm to the brains of young children.

Teachers unions in Minneapolis and St. Paul are pushing back on their districts' February reopening plans, asking them to delay the return to classrooms over safety concerns during the pandemic.

Gov. Tim Walz announced in mid-December that elementary schools could reopen as soon as Jan. 18, with precautions, and many districts are set to bring young students back next week. But Minneapolis and St. Paul, which have both been in distance learning since the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring, are aiming for February starts.

Minneapolis announced its plan last week, and union leaders in that district say they've been excluded from key decisionmaking discussions. They are seeking an agreement to establish class-size caps, weekly COVID-19 testing for staff and social distancing protocols before the district's youngest students return to in-person classes.

Under the district plan, which was presented to the school board Tuesday night, preschoolers and kindergartners could return to school buildings on Feb. 8 and first- and second-graders on Feb. 10, followed by students in grades three through five on Feb. 22. The board will vote on the recommended plan next Tuesday.

CAMDEN, S.C. — It has been one year since North Central High School was destroyed by an EF-2 tornado with estimated winds of 130 miles per hour. The tornado touched down on the school, stadium, and buses located at the building.
Today, staff and students are using a vacant technology center as a new location for their learning. 
Principal David Branham said between switching facilities and the pandemic this year, everyone has learned to be more flexible and resilient during tough times.
"I think it's really preparing them for adversities later on in life and being able to overcome things," Branham told News 19. "I felt like it was somewhat of a hidden blessing that we were able to handle covid a little better because we were just used to adapting and being flexible."
The old building has been demolished, though the auditorium and gymnasium still stand. Students are still able to return for winter sports, such as volleyball, and other club events. The football stadium has also been rebuilt.
Branham says that some plans have been approved through the district for their new building and have been submitted to the office of school facilities. He hopes that they can start construction as soon as the plans are reviewed.
 

In cities around the world, the pandemic has heightened awareness of the need for parks and natural spaces. After months of lockdowns, with many people spending most of their time inside their homes, something as basic as a patch of lawn or tree-shaded corner park has become a vital urban refuge. But space for urban parks is in short supply, and the time it takes to plan, design, and build a new park can stretch on for years. To meet the need for parks more quickly, some cities are taking advantage of a source of open space they’ve long ignored: schoolyards.

“Schoolyards are a cost-efficient and a space-efficient way of bringing opportunities and dramatically increasing access to green space,” says Benita Hussain, director of 10 Minute Walk, an effort focused on increasing access to public space in cities.

Most school playgrounds provide acres of open space but are mostly locked behind gates after school hours. 10 Minute Walk works with cities and school districts to develop partnerships for governing and maintaining these spaces as public parks once the school day is over.

Hussain says that as the pandemic drags on, more cities are putting in the work to make these kinds of conversions happen.

Atlanta Public Schools is pushing ahead with plans to resume in-person classes later this month for the first time since March, even as COVID-19 cases surge and teachers express concern.

At a Monday school board meeting, district officials discussed the reopening plan that could bring more than 13,000 students back to school buildings starting Jan. 25. That’s about one third of the students who attend the district’s traditional schools.

The January date marks the second time APS has proposed bringing students back. In October, the district backed off a plan to reopen buildings, citing a rise in cases. This time around, a couple thousand more students indicated they want to return even though the virus is spreading much faster.

Board Chairman Jason Esteves said academic and attendance data show that face-to-face learning needs to resume, and that postponing will harm the most vulnerable students. He said mitigation strategies, such as mask requirements and social distancing, will reduce the risk.

Superintendent Lisa Herring said she’s made reopening decisions with “thoughtfulness and carefulness” and “rooted in safety and health.”

St. Louis Public Schools moved forward with a plan Tuesday night to reduce the number of schools in the district, deciding to close at least eight schools but giving three other schools a reprieve.

The city’s school board voted 4-3 after more than two hours of debate to close a smaller list of schools than it considered late last year.

The closures are an effort to put more funding toward support services and academics, rather than facilities costs, as the district continues to lose students and operate half-empty buildings.

Six schools will close after this school year: Clay, Dunbar, Farragut and Ford elementary schools; Fanning middle; and Northwest High School. Cleveland High School will close, but the building it’s in will continue to house Central Visual Performing Arts High School. Carnahan High School will be converted to a middle school.

The list could grow to nine. The historic Sumner High School will be considered for closure in March, giving time for Harris-Stowe State University to finalize a plan to support the school. Sumner opened in 1875 as the first high school for African Americans west of the Mississippi. Harris-Stowe is a historically Black college.

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.