Portland Public Schools hopes to reopen in April but more than 40 percent of its 94 school buildings are 90 years old—and many have questions surrounding their ventilation.
Clean air is a key way to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. Just as the coronavirus is less likely to spread outdoors, it's less likely to spread when fresh air is regularly brought inside and old air is blown out.
There is reason to think PPS buildings will have problems doing that.
An analysis conducted last year to assess needs for the latest PPS school bond found a significant challenge for a district looking to reopen at least its elementary schools in early April after a yearlong closure.
The 2020 analysis found $203 million in needed HVAC repairs, of which $34 million worth were considered a matter of "health and life safety." At 26 buildings with health and life safety problems, boilers, piping, ductwork or other parts of the HVAC systems had exceeded their natural life span.
Those buildings included Bridlemile and King elementary schools, as well as Cleveland High School.
That PPS has aging buildings is not a startling revelation—not to the district, which a decade ago embarked on a 30-year plan to overhaul its buildings, or even to taxpayers, who have so far agreed to finance three major school bonds totaling $2.5 billion.
 

In a decision that could affect thousands of children and their families, the Spokane Public Schools board gave preliminary approval Wednesday night to a plan that limits how long children will be able to remain at their current building if boundary changes place them in another school.

In most cases, that limit will be one year.

The issue is known as “Legacy,” or grandfathering – whether some children will be allowed to continue at their current building even if boundary changes place them in another school.

Based on Wednesday’s conversations, the district will move forward with its recommendation for “rising” students, that is, those who are about to enter a given grade at the time of the boundary change.

The decision – expected to be finalized next month – is significant.

Up to 6% of the district’s 30,000 students could be affected by boundary changes that will take effect at the start of the 2022-23 school year, when the district adds two of its three new middle schools.

The board is expected to receive final recommendations in mid-April.

Here’s how the proposal would work.

Is opening a door or window enough ventilation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools?
Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week provided significantly more detail on how schools should approach issues like community spread and mask use when deciding how to reopen schools safely during the pandemic. But critics say the new recommendations downplay the importance of improving indoor air quality and ventilation to prevent the spread of the airborne virus.
The CDC guidance encourages schools to improve ventilation as part of their overall cleaning strategy, and particularly points to opening doors and windows to “increase circulation of outdoor air to increase the delivery of clean air and dilute potential contaminants.”
In separate tips on ventilation, the agency describes this as a cost-free way to reduce the spread of the virus, along with inspecting and maintaining local exhaust ventilation; repositioning outdoor air dampers; and disabling demand-controlled ventilation, a common energy-saving system that reduces the rate at which outdoor air is pulled into a building.
“The guidance addresses near-field (close contact) inhalation dose with masks and distancing. That’s good,” said Richard Corsi, the dean of engineering and computer science at Portland State University, an expert on indoor air quality, via a tweet. “Ventilation is given lip service with little guidance. Incredibly disappointing. The lack of understanding of ventilation or its importance (or perhaps just disregard) is wholly obvious.”
And 13 scientists this week, in a letter to President Joe Biden’s administration, are calling for a greater focus on limiting airborne transmission in schools, meatpacking plants, prisons, and other indoor settings.
 

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding provided to El Dorado County and distributed to local school districts, Black Oak Mine Unified School District was able to enhance safety measures in classrooms and workspaces through the purchase and installation of plasma screen filtering ionization units in all 155 HVAC units in the district.

Lead HVAC maintenance staff member, Kip Steward, is working closely with Site-Log IQ work crews to get the project completed. Operation of these filters reduces particulate matter, kills pathogens and neutralizes odors, which will greatly enhance the air quality supplied to each classroom and workplace in the district. They also save energy. Work is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.

It was the morning of Jan. 28 when Connie Kellum saw the weather report for Camden and called Tawanda “Wawa” Jones, her longtime friend.
“I said, ‘What are we doing for Code Blue? We got five hours, the storm’s in Buffalo, and it’s coming.”
Jones — founder of the Camden Sophisticated Sisters drill team and the Masked Melanin Market, which showcases Black-owned businesses — had been thinking the same thing.
Two years ago, Jones and Kellum had created a warming center for people experiencing homelessness in Camden at the Urban Banquet Hall during a frigid “Code Blue” weekend.
“I said, you get the building, I’m going shopping!” recalled Kellum.
Jones reached out to Camden Superintendent of Schools Katrina McCombs, who decided within a half-hour to let them use the gymnasium at Yorkship Elementary School in the Fairview neighborhood.
By 5 p.m., “the place was loaded and we were ready to go,” Kellum said.
The warming center has now been up and running with donations and volunteers for over two weeks, with no contracts or funding from the city or state.
The shelter at Yorkship is meeting a need that the city is not, said Camden activist Amir Khan, who uses an RV with showers and a washer/dryer to minister to the city’s unhoused residents every weekend. What the women have established in the school gym “is the only real Code Blue/day warming center in the city,” said Khan.
 

The largest U.S. school district, in terms of student numbers, is New York City.

But there are other ways to rank the size of school districts.

The largest school districts in terms of land area are in Alaska. That’s not surprising because it is the largest state—more than twice the size of the next largest state, Texas.

All 10 of the largest school districts by land area are in Alaska, according to the Proximity One website.

CHARLES TOWN -- The Jefferson County Board of Education unanimously approved the Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan for the next 10 years at a special meeting Thursday night.
The plan still has to move through approval by the West Virginia Department of Education, West Virginia State Board of Education and the School Building Authority but is one step further to coming to fruition.
The local board's approval came after months of input from numerous stakeholders. Eight committees were established in the spring of 2019 to facilitate input on the plan, committees including Safety and Security; Long Range Planning; Facilities and Infrastructure; Athletics; Fine and Related Arts; Business and Community Partnerships; Instruction and Technology; and Social, Emotional and Behavioral Health.
There were anywhere from five to 20 people on each committee with more than 80 individuals participating, including JCS directors, staff, faculty, parents and community and business leaders. Four public forums were also held in order to gain public input, hosted at each of the middle schools in the district.
There are a number of 2020 bond call projects that fall under the CEFP, ranging from county wide to school specific. 
 

LITTLE ROCK — The school construction that marked the first 20 years of the 21st century in Central Arkansas is continuing into a third decade, with three charter school projects in different stages of planning and construction.
Academics Plus Charter Schools Inc., one of the state’s oldest charter systems, broke ground in late 2019 on what will be the $32 million Maumelle Charter High School at 9701 White Oak Crossing.
Friendship Aspire Academy in Little Rock that has been operating since March 2019 in the extensively renovated Garland School at 3615 W. 25th St., in south-central Little Rock, is building an eight-classroom annex on the property to accommodate its expanding grades — while simultaneously looking at a southwest Little Rock site for a middle school to open in about 2023.
And the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district’s replacement middle school and adjoining elementary school — on the site of the old high school — are up and out of the ground with the middle school on target to open to students in August.
The construction updates from the systems were provided at a time of the year when registrations and applications are being solicited from families for enrollment in the coming, 2020-21 school year.
The new Maumelle Charter High is being built on previously undeveloped land, and that resulted in a construction delay, Rob McGill, chief executive for Academics Plus Charter Schools, said in an interview.
“We started construction in November and we’re scheduled to begin classes in August of 2022,” he said.
That’s a year later than originally planned because of the time it took to certify that the 32-acre building site did not qualify for environmental protection.
 

Lawmakers are again attempting to limit lead in Washington schools’ drinking water by requiring school districts to fix or replace fixtures that leach the toxin. 

This is the third year in a row that state Rep. Gerry Pollet, D-Seattle, has introduced a measure aimed at curbing children’s exposure to lead. 

In 2019, legislators never held a hearing. Last session, the bill seemed poised to pass after receiving unanimous support in the House, but there was a deadlock in the Senate after schools pushed back, saying it amounted to an unfunded mandate.

This year’s measure, which is sponsored by 21 Democratic lawmakers but no Republicans, is similar to its predecessors. House Bill 1139 would direct public and private schools to test all water outlets — including drinking fountains, but also bathroom sinks and those used to prepare lunch — in schools built before 2016. Schools would need to test again every five years. And schools would also be on the hook to post test results on a public website — and fix outlets with high lead levels.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — $940,420,782 of federal funding was approved last December for public schools in South Carolina.
Today Superintendent Molly Spearman noted the biggest difference with this funding then previous federal funding is schools can use it on things like facility repairs and on indoor air quality. 
Air quality inside of buildings has become a big concern since the pandemic.
“I think a number of districts are looking at ways that they can repair and upgrade air quality in their buildings which is very unusual to have federal funding to do that," Spearman said.
The Department of Education said at last check they have not received any plans from districts, but expect to start seeing some next week.
Since the pandemic shinned a light at just how important air filtration systems can be and experts say it can help with killing viruses like COVID-19.
 

The Roanoke School Board decided Tuesday to postpone a vote approving the school district’s 2022-26 capital improvement plan due to lingering questions about the selection process and concerns that crucial projects may be excluded. The board will vote at its next regular meeting on March 8.
Multiple school board members said they wanted to see improvements at Westside Elementary included in the plan. They also asked questions about the selection process, concerned other needs may have been missed.
“I just don’t want to miss anything in terms of school needs,” Natasha Saunders said.
The capital improvement plan is a five-year list — in this case, from fiscal years 2022 to 2026 — that maps out capital projects and appropriate funding sources.
The projects were identified using nine prioritization factors, which included equity, health and safety, and existing conditions, according to Chief Operations Officer Chris Perkins. He said the Office of Equity and Student Services reviewed the proposed plan, and that principals had provided input on their schools’ needs.
The proposed plan includes two dozen projects, the majority of which are related to HVAC replacements, roofing and paving. The plan also proposes additions to Morningside Elementary and Breckinridge Middle and either renovation or replacement of Preston Park Elementary, but the specifics of those projects have not been decided. Other proposed projects include playgrounds and athletic infrastructure.
 

BELOIT—The Beloit School Board’s oversight and finance committee passed a 10-year capital improvement after it was presented by Facilities Director Sean Winters on Tuesday evening. The facilities capital improvement plan for the 2020-2021 school year from Fund 10 is not to exceed $781,000.
The presentation also included a plan by Director of Food and Nutrition Dawn Smith for food service projects paid for through Fund 50 planned for the next decade which was also approved. The Fund 50 plan for food service for the 2020-2021 school year, is not to exceed $978,600.
Both items will go before the full board at an upcoming meeting.
Winters said the district’s intent is to budget $2 million dollars annually in its facilities budget which consists of $1 million for capital improvements such as bathroom and classroom upgrades, boiler replacements, flooring, cabinetry and equipment such as lawn mowers and tools and $1 million for repairs, preventative maintenance, mechanical certifications and materials.
The district may use Fund 46, which allows the district to set money aside for the use of future capital improvement projects. As part of the criteria of Fund 46, the board must approve a 10-year capital improvement plan annually. Currently there is only $100 in the Fund 46 account which was set up a couple years ago.
Winters explained the capital improvement plan is fluid but is designed to give a rough outline of what projects the district intends to address. The individual projects and accompanying dollar amounts would go before the board for approval as they come up.
“This is purely to show the board we are having some foresight in plans for our district,” Winters said.
 

The Bethlehem Area School District is convening a task force to study the best way to tackle extensive repairs needed at three elementary schools.
Just addressing the infrastructure problems at Fountain Hill, Thomas Jefferson and William Penn elementary schools, is estimated to cost almost $40 million, while replacing all three schools could cost up to $80.3 million.
The district was beginning to explore whether to renovate or repair the schools last school year when the coronavirus pandemic struck, said Mark Stein, district chief facilities and operations officer, during a Bethlehem Area School Board meeting Monday night.
Stein presented the school board with updated cost estimates for a facilities study from last year and outlined a plan to convene a facility study task force to weigh the best way to address the needs at each school. The task force will review current conditions of the three schools, school boundaries, attendance and enrollment projections and projected cost estimates, Stein said.
The district wants the task force members to brainstorm possible solutions and study them as a team. Eventually, the task force will present their work to the board and stakeholders.
There is no timetable for replacing the buildings or a funding strategy, Stein said.
 

ROCK HILL, S.C. (WBTV) -Thousands of students in Rock Hill Schools will be going to a new school soon.
The Rock Hill School Board decided to close three elementary schools within the district.
Rosewood, Belleview and Finley Road elementary schools will shut their doors at the end of the school year.
The school board says there are two reasons for it.
It will save the district $25 million.
The board says this move will help put other schools at a 75 percent to 85 percent capacity.
That reason is not enough for some parents and teachers.
Superintendent Bill Cook said this decision is two years in the making. The reason it did not happen sooner was COVID.
So what does this mean for your child?
It means that some students are going to get shifted for two reasons - either to make room or to go to a different school.
Rezoning lines have not been set yet, but when they are some people could be possibly affected.
Anyone who is will get a letter from the school.
Cook said the district will take care of every family that will have to move.
”We’re looking certainly forward to the opportunity to connect and form some new relationships, but for those who are impacted we recognize change is hard,” said Cook.
 

The Fayetteville City School System has been awarded a $5 million Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant to construct a tornado safe room on the Fayetteville High School campus, a facility that will be the first of its kind in Tennessee.

Over a year ago, city school system officials learned about the FEMA grant opportunity, brought to their attention by Eddie Keys, assistant principal at FHS. While facilities in other states have been constructed using the FEMA grant, none exist in Tennessee.

Eric Jones, facilities director, and Keys worked together under tight time constraints in making application for the tornado safe room with the deadline looming at the end of December 2019. Just recently, the school system was notified that the grant application has been approved, paving the way for the tornado safe room facility that will also house a new gymnasium for the high school.

CHESHIRE — The School Modernization Committee is polling residents on the condition of the town’s schools and a projected surge in enrollment.

“The objective of the survey is to gather perspectives from the residents...to gauge their ideas of what the schools are like now — and information on how they feel these buildings should be improved,” said Committee Chair Jen Bates.

The Center for Research & Public Policy, which is administering the survey, will call 400 randomly selected residents and conduct a 10-minute poll, according to an announcement released by Assistant Town Manager Arnett Talbot. Residents and business owners can also fill the survey out themselves online until Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. Links to the survey can be found at CheshireSMC.questionpro.com or the town homepage at cheshirect.org.

“The survey results will provide the School Modernization Committee vital information as it prepares final recommendations to the town,” Talbot’s announcement states. “The results of the survey, when completed, will be publicly shared and will be available on the town’s School Modernization Committee web site.”

The committee has examined 13 concepts to keep local schools up-to-date and has narrowed those down to two proposals focused on reducing the strain on the town’s four elementary schools as a large number of new students are projected to enter them over the next five years.

TRENTON — School funding is back before the state Supreme Court, which has been asked by the Education Law Center to order Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature to provide more money for school construction by the end of June.
School construction in the 31 mostly urban districts covered by the Abbott vs. Burke series of lawsuits must be paid for and managed by the state under a 1998 court ruling. The program is continuing some previously approved work but hasn’t had money to take on new projects in about six years.
The Education Law Center filed its most recent motion on Jan. 28.
“We’ve been trying to get the Murphy administration to step up and deal with this without having to get the court involved. Our preference would be to keep the court out of this,” said David Sciarra, the ELC’s executive director. “But to no avail. We’ve just been unable to get them to move on this, to kind of ask the Legislature for a specific amount of funding and put it on the table.”
“We’ve made every effort, is all I can say,” Sciarra said. “We’ve tried. We’ve bent over backwards to try to get cooperation from the administration, from the Legislature, and just have gotten nowhere. So, we’ve asked the court to step in.”
The law center went to the Supreme Court a year ago with a similar request, but it was dismissed as premature in anticipation that funds would be included in the 2021 state budget.
 

With preparations underway to reopen Clark County School District buildings for the first time since March, the district’s facilities are back in the spotlight.

Ranging in age from a few months to nearly 100 years old, the 400 buildings occupied by schools and other district operations have a $7.9 billion need for what the district calls “modernization, life cycle and equity updates,” that includes deferred regular maintenance.

By late 2019, they also amassed a backlog of around 15,000 maintenance requests for HVAC, plumbing and structural repairs and earned a stark warning from then-facilities chief David McKinnis that some were “dangerously close to imminent failure.”

COVID-19 has hastened that day of reckoning, as the health of school buildings will be critical to keeping students and staff safe and socially distanced when young students return to the classroom for the first time in nearly a year on March 1.

The school district says workers have been on campuses throughout building closures to reduce the maintenance backlog, keep up facilities and improve ventilation critical to mitigating the spread of airborne germs like the new coronavirus.

This ongoing work nearly has halved the maintenance backlog from 15,000 to 8,000 requests, according to the district’s current chief facilities officer, Jeff Wagner, who replaced McKinnis in 2020.

NEWCOMB — A column of concrete not more than 18 inches wide rises up the north side of Newcomb High School, serving as a buttress against a wall of aging brick to help keep it from collapsing.

Five years ago, school officials noticed the wall was separating from the rest of the building, and an engineer was hired to save it. The solution: Build the buttress and attach steel bolts to it from the wall for stabilization. The cost of the project was around $26,000.

Newcomb Principal Bill McLaughlin said the makeshift piece of engineering has served its purpose.

“I don’t think the state or the [state] regulatory commission would allow us to use it if it was unsafe,” McLaughlin said. “I think it meets the minimum specs and requirements for utilization.”

Such is life for schools in the Central Consolidated School District, which serves the communities of Kirtland, Shiprock and Newcomb. Candice Thompson, the district’s director of operations, said its capital budget of $3.1 million simply cannot cover all the construction and maintenance needs. The shortfall forces administrators to be creative in how they address those issues, she added.

“When we talk to our peers in the southeast corner of the state, and I tell them about our conditions, they’re like, ‘What?’ I tell them, ‘I’ll give you the nickel tour here, and you are going to be shocked,’ ” Thompson said.

Friendswood school officials recently received a pleasant surprise when the bonds voters approved in the November election not only sold at a lower interest rate than anticipated but at the lowest rate anybody had ever seen.
And that will result in a lower tax-rate increase for district residents than had been anticipated.
In a sale completed by an underwriting team led by Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc. near the end of January, the district sold $120,455,000 in bonds at an interest rate of 1.823483 percent. The bonds will provide the amount authorized in the election.
According to the finance team, this rate set a new low in the Texas market.
“I was ecstatic when I heard the final pricing of the bond in January,” Friendswood school board President Tony Hopkins said. “I knew that 1.82 percent for a 30-year bond was low, but had no idea it was the lowest priced Texas bond to date.”