Wake County system schools will need to operate a “fire watch” after inspectors discovered more than two dozen schools’ fire alarms could no longer signal needed maintenance to school staff.

The school system has been operating under a fire watch since Wednesday, the school system announced Thursday. That means a staff member walks the entire building searching for fires when the buildings are occupied. They can’t do any other tasks, per state law on fire watches.

The problems with the fire alarms don’t affect how they function when a fire is detected; the alarm would still sound and sprinklers would still go off, the announcement states. However, the affected alarms can currently only signal a need for maintenance — similar to how a home smoke detector beeps when it needs new batteries — to off-campus officials.

America’s teachers often supplement meager classroom stipends with their own money to purchase everything from markers and cleaning supplies to snacks and toiletries for students who struggle with access to those items at home. This summer, for too many teachers, that list will grow to include fans, bottled water, digital room thermometers, and other supplies to combat high temperatures that make it impossible for kids to focus and pose serious risks to their health.1 This need will only grow as heat waves become more frequent, widespread, and intense across the country. For child care providers and early educators working with very young children, many of whom operate out of their homes, dealing with the impacts of extreme heat will be even more challenging.

As global climate change progresses, extreme heat is becoming an increasing concern for the children, teachers, and staff across the country who are left unprotected by aging schools and child care facilities.2 Researchers expect the United States to see an increase of nearly a month’s worth of annual extreme heat days by 2050 relative to 1976–2005, with much of the Southeast experiencing an increase of 40 to 50 extreme heat days—when temperatures top 90 degrees Fahrenheit.3

CATOOSA, Okla. — Catoosa Public School board unanimously approved the dome cafeteria to act as a community storm shelter during nonschool hours.
"It really is nice, especially last time when the clouds were looking so terrible. I was like, ‘Where are we going to go?’ so now that I know it’s right there, pal out the emergency exit immediately," said Fredrice Shaw an employee at a neighboring business.
Shaw is also a former CPS student who is proud of the school's decision.
 
"Last time we went to Walmart and we just kind of snuck out in the back room so I think it’s pretty cool that they’re doing that," said Shaw.
It’s giving the community more peace of mind. The building has been at the school for a bit but can offer more.
"It’s been FEMA-approved since 2016 when it was built. But it’s been used primarily by our students and staff during school hours. What we wanted to do was use it outside of school hours for our community," said Assistant Superintendent Timothy Ray.
The building is opening its doors to the community. However, there are a couple of caveats. It will only be open to the public after school hours.
 

The Prince George’s County Council passed a resolution Tuesday that will allow several new schools to be built through a public-private partnership. The same resolution failed last week.

The decision went down to the wire, as the funding deal had to be approved by the end of the month and Tuesday was the last day before the council went on break.

The county executive’s P3 school construction deal will fast-track building eight new schools, using $850 million in state funds.

Last week, several council members abstained from the vote.

Supporters held a news conference to make sure it got through this time.

“We don’t play when it comes to our kids,” District 2 council member Wanika Fisher said. “And we don’t play when it comes to our children in District 2. But I have colleagues that don’t mind playing with our kids’ future for politics.”

If it failed again, supporters say, the project would have been in jeopardy and the county stood to lose millions of dollars to build those schools.

MARION — A five-year facility plan for Linn-Mar schools that began in 2022 included construction of a new administration building, a larger performance venue and an indoor athletic center added to the high school, among other projects.
The cost estimate for all the projects at the time was between $48 and $60 million, which included design fees, construction costs and equipment expenses.
After the new administration building is finished this fall, the plan is to renovate its former space at the Learning Resource Center, 2999 N. 10th St. in Marion, as additional space for Linn-Mar High School and for other academic programs.
The Learning Resource Center was built in 1948 when 17 one-room rural schools joined together to become the Marion Rural Independent School. It was renamed Linn-Mar in 1959. The center currently houses the administrative offices for the district as well as the COMPASS Alternative High School and Venture Academics Program, a project-based learning program.
Funding for the five-year plan will come from the following streams:
 

CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- As students soak up the summer, staff is hard at work in the Clovis Unified School District.

With kids out of class, crews are working to keep schools in tip-top shape.

Cole Elementary School has plastic-wrapped windows and doors.

Without kids on campus, crews are using the summertime to give it a new coat of paint.

"This is when we get all of our heavy lifting done," Asst. Superintendent Facility Services Denver Stairs said.

This is just one of multiple "deferred maintenance projects" going on across the Clovis Unified School District.

Stairs says the site will also receive new roofing this summer.

He says district-wide, there's always a running list of items that need to be maintained to keep all facilities in working order.

"If you think about it in terms of your house, it's just normal maintenance that we need to do, and so we try to stay up on that," Stairs said.

When it doesn't happen, major issues can pop up, like last year at Clovis High when there was a power failure.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ -  South Plainfield Schools will receive two grants from the New Jersey Schools Development Authority’s (SDA) Regular Operating District (ROD) program. 

The grant funding, which totals a little over $1.3 million, will go specifically toward roof upgrade projects at Roosevelt Elementary and the Roosevelt Pre-K Annex, which will open this fall at the Leonard A. Tobias Administration Building. 

“This funding opportunity allows the South Plainfield School District to save a significant amount of money,” said Business Administrator Alex Benanti, adding, “Work on the roofs began this past week and is expected to be complete in early August.”

HOUSTON — The Houston Independent School District is reporting that dozens of its campuses sustained damage when Hurricane Beryl tore through Southeast Texas on Monday.

The district reported that an "overwhelming majority" of its schools lost power during the storm and around 70 of them were still without power as of Friday morning. HISD highlighted that there were downed trees at roughly 50 of its campuses and around 60 of its campuses had roof or structural damage.

Twenty-two children have died and at least 132 have been injured after a school building collapsed in Nigeria’s central Plateau state, local officials say.
Saint Academy in the state capital Jos caved in while students were in class on Friday morning. Children were left trapped under the debris.
Volunteers used excavators, hammers and their bare hands to break through the piles of concrete and twisted iron rods to reach many of those trapped.
Police told reporters that at least 22 children had died in the collapse, with many more receiving treatment in local hospitals.

Madison School District 12 and Venice School District 3 began discussing a proposal to consolidate during special meetings each board of education held Wednesday evening. At the meetings, local education officials gave a presentation on the benefits of a potential merger to the two Madison County school boards and community members.
Madison District 12 is a pre-K through 12th grade district with an elementary school and combined junior high and high school. Its enrollment was about 675 at the end of the 2023-24 school year. Venice District 3 is a pre-K through eighth grade district consisting of an elementary school that enrolled about 67 students at the end of the 2023-24 school year. It is currently building a new school to serve up to 160 students with a $26 million emergency construction grant from the state after the former school was condemned in 2020 due to structural issues. Venice High School closed in 2004 with an enrollment of 58 after a voter referendum, according to past BND reporting.
 

The state has agreed to fund several new facilities to take the place of some of Newark’s oldest school buildings — but the deal still leaves out 20 schools that need to be replaced, district officials say.

Through the state’s Schools Development Authority, New Jersey will pay to replace 13 school buildings built before 1920, said Superintendent Roger León during June’s board meeting.

But leaders of Newark Public Schools have identified 33 schools that need replacing and dozens more that need renovations. The state identified Newark’s need to replace its aging buildings but more funding is needed to move forward with the plans, according to Edye Maier, the SDA’s director of communications.

HARRISBURG, July 11 — Today, the Pennsylvania House gave final approval to Solar for Schools (HB1032), introduced by state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Phila. With prior passage in the Senate, this bill now moves to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk to be signed into law.

HB1032 will create a grant program to help school districts across Pennsylvania fund and install solar panels on school grounds. By generating their own energy, districts can save millions of dollars over the life of a solar project — while creating good-paying jobs and bringing career training opportunities to their schools. It is the first initiative of its kind to be passed in Pennsylvania.

Fiedler calls the passage of this bill “a groundbreaking victory for energy, education and environmental policy in Pennsylvania.”

“When we wrote Solar for Schools, we set out to create a piece of legislation that would unite labor and environmental groups to build the future we all want for our kids,” Fiedler said. “Since then, we’ve not only won Solar — we’ve created something so much bigger. We now have proof that environmental and labor leaders, Democrats and Republicans, can work together to usher Pennsylvania into the 21st Century and ensure we are a nationwide leader in the energy of the future. I’m incredibly proud of Solar for Schools, and so excited for the communities that will soon benefit from all that this program has to offer. But it’s truly just the beginning!”

BOSCOBEL, Wis. (WXOW) - After a failed referendum in 2017, the Boscobel Area School District broke ground on a $21.5 million school back in May.
Thursday, members of the district’s board of education toured the construction of the addition to the rear of the current high school.
“It’s a lot of hard work from a lot of different people,” Nate Copsey, Director of Facilities and Grounds said. “From administration to school board to the community. Just a lot of hands in. We all worked toward a common goal and kind of got there.”
The high school, which was built in the 1950’s, currently houses 6th through 12th grades. The addition of the referendum will bring grades 4 and 5 to the new part of the building.
“It really creates a new modern learning environment. We’re a little outdated in some of our areas so we’re excited to see some changes. We’ve always tackled and had problems with gym space,” Copsey said. “So to accommodate a lot more practices and things like that it just gives us a lot more opportunities going forward.”
 

Albemarle County is expecting an increase in its student population over the next few years, but it doesn’t have enough space for them. The solution? More schools.

Albemarle County Public Schools is constructing its 16th elementary school, the first new elementary school in the county in 20 years, near the southern end of the county.

The new elementary school will open for the 2026-2027 school year, wrote Matt Wertman, interim director of building services at ACPS, in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow. The new elementary school is within walking distance of Mountain View Elementary School, off of Galaxie Farm Lane.

Construction for a new multi-purpose room at Parkside Montessori in the San Mateo-Foster City School District has neighbors worried over damage to their homes and quality of life due to drilling and noise pollution. 

With her house right behind the construction site, Farz Yountchi said she and her direct neighbors have noticed cracks in their walls and driveways. Doors are shifting, she said, and her house is “shaking all day, non stop.” 

The K-8 school is going through a few upgrades, including replacing the air conditioning system to existing buildings and installing solar shade structures. The facilities upgrade project also includes replacing the blacktop landscaping, converting existing grass to turf, reconfiguring the parking lot and the construction of a new multi-purpose room. 

There's zero doubt the Columbus City Schools district needs to close some of its 113 buildings, not to mention to figure out how to dispose of other closed schools wasting $400,000 of taxpayer money annually.

The multi-million dollar question is whether the proposal submitted June 25 by the Superintendent's Community Facilities Task Force is the proper plan or needs adjustments for Ohio's largest district of 46,000 students, down from 110,173 during the 1971-72 school year.

The task force originally proposed closing up to 20 school buildings under nine different recommended scenarios.

But in a final report, it recommended closing six elementary schools, two middle schools, a high school and the downtown administrative building. The task force also recommended the district modify the age groups served by four schools. None of the changes would begin before the fall of 2025.

UPDATE: (7 p.m. July 8, 2024) – Logan County Schools Superintendent Jeff Huffman says Logan Middle School is still safe for students and staff to be in despite structural issues with the foundation. He also says they hope for the structural work to be finished before the school year starts on August 19.

“There has been zero safety threat. That is something we just wanted to confirm was one of the reasons we brought in the structural engineers when we did,” Huffman said. “I have no reason to believe that this will not be a successful construction activity.”

LOGAN COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – The West Virginia Department of Education says nearly $3 million may be needed to fix the foundation of Logan Middle School, and they’re looking for answers as to why the foundation needs to be fixed in the first place.

During a meeting of the West Virginia Board of Education Monday, the board mentioned that the school is only around 27 years old, and should not be sinking. Logan County School officials say they’re working on a structural stabilization project due to the settlement of the fitters.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Hundreds of new school seats will be available to Staten Island over the next few years, as New York City works to tackle overcrowding in school buildings, a growing student population, and a new law that would reduce class sizes.
New schools are being constructed throughout the borough, while other seats may be acquired by leasing or buying and renovating space. Additionally, charter schools are also expanding opportunities for more seats.
The city School Construction Authority (SCA) 2020-2024 Capital Program includes more than $539 million in funding for 11 buildings, adding 4,989 seats on Staten Island.
Here’s a look at the new school seats expected for the borough.
 

MEDINA, N.D. — Work will begin on the first new construction at the Medina Public School in the next weeks after a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, July 3.

Damon Bosche, superintendent of Medina school, said the project will add four classrooms and four breakout rooms at the southwest corner of the existing building. Planned construction costs are $3 million.

Bosche said the addition is in response to an increasing enrollment at the district. The school currently has about 200 students in prekindergarten through the 12th grade. This compares to about 150 students in the same grades five years ago.

Some of the increased enrollment comes from open enrollment students from outside the Medina Public School District. About 40% of the students are from outside the district.

“It is a good thing,” said Rory Hoffmann, president of the Medina School Board, of the project. “We needed it, we are busting at the seams. I wish we could have done more.”

DENISON, Texas (KTEN) — At Denison's Frontier Village and Museum, the restoration of what is believed to be Texas' oldest standing schoolhouse is nearing its final stages.

The Holder family, among the earliest settlers in Grayson County, is believed to have constructed the historic building back in 1855. But Its true origin as a one-room schoolhouse dating back to 1830 have come to light in a recent study, further solidifying its status as the oldest surviving educational structure in the Lone Star State.

"Due to research that we've done, we found that it's more possible that it was purchased in 1855, but built in 1830 as a one-room schoolhouse," said Frontier Village executive director Aaron Thornhill. "That would make this the oldest standing schoolhouse in the State of Texas."