Washington Teachers’ Union and D.C. Public Schools representatives spent Thursday in front of a mediator weighing charges that the city breached its agreement with the union over how to reopen schools.
A ruling in the union’s favor could jeopardize parts of the city’s already complicated push to resume in-person learning on Monday. Both groups said they expect a ruling before school starts.
The union alleges the District has not met all safety guidelines outlined in the agreement signed last month, and it also says the city needs to share more school-specific data on the number of students returning to campuses. The union fears the city is calling for more teachers to return than necessary. Under the agreement, schools that do not adhere to the guidelines that cover safety and staffing issues are not allowed to reopen.
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee called it the union’s “last-resort effort to prevent schools from reopening” and said the complaints were “meritless.” He has said schools will reopen Monday.
“We have spent many months and millions of dollars to prepare,” he said in a statement. “We know our students are ready, we know our buildings are ready, and we know our staff is ready and efforts to reopen schools on Monday will continue as planned.”
If the arbiter does not rule in the union’s favor — or takes too long to rule — Washington Teachers’ Union President Elizabeth Davis said she is considering seeking an injunction, which she believes could delay the reopening of schools.
The city does not need an agreement with the union to reopen, but an agreement would make it more likely that teachers will show up to school buildings Monday. The city canceled its November reopening plans after it failed to reach an agreement with the union.
How D.C. and its teachers, with shifting plans and demands, failed to reopen schools in the fall
Davis said calling for an emergency hearing with an arbiter was a necessary step to ensure that school buildings are safe for students and staff. She said some of her members have found violations on walk-throughs of the buildings, including inadequate supplies in bathrooms and HVAC systems that lack documentation showing they have been repaired and upgraded.

After embarrassing revelations about deferred maintenance, New Haven plans to launch an annual check on its schools to make sure multi-million-dollar buildings are being kept up.

New Haven Public Schools administrators revealed this plan after a night of tough questions at a hearing Wednesday night.

The questioning took place during a Zoomed meeting of the Board of Alders Education Committee.

The meeting followed on the release of a report by the engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill that showed widespread maintenance problems in school air systems. The New Haven Board of Education asked for the inspections as part of school Covid-19 safety precautions; the final report came out on Monday.

“I cannot remember a time when we’ve had such a comprehensive analysis done in the schools of our ventilation systems,” said Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans. “As we’ve been discussing, this is something we should do regularly, to make sure maintenance is up to par.”

While the district has managed to check through and fix nearly all of the urgent issues Fuss & O’Neill identified, two schools — West Rock STREAM Academy and Quinnipiac Real World Math STEM School — are too far gone to fix, according to health officials and school administrators. So the city is closing those two schools permanently.

The alders asked how those two schools got to such a state of disrepair and why poor maintenance seems to be an issue across the board.

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Canyon ISD is currently in the process of renovating and creating seven different facilities.

The construction is part of a $196 million bond passed in November of 2018 and could soon be coming to an end.

“Canyon ISD alone has seven projects that are going at this time. We have Randall east and west which will be Randall High and Randall Jr. High. We also have Heritage Hills Elementary, Spring Canyon Elementary, we have a maintenance facility we are working on and we are trying to complete the new Happy State Bank addition as well as West Plains High School,” said Heather Wilson, assistant superintendent of business and operations, Canyon ISD.

Seven projects in the works and almost all of them projected to be complete this year.

“We just want to create great opportunities for our kids in school buildings that have some space to allow for that ongoing growth that’s happening all across Canyon ISD,” said Darryl Flusche, superintendent, Canyon ISD.

New boundaries for the elementary schools and new high school have already been updated.

“With the opening of the new schools, we’ve already set the attendance boundaries so, we know for each school, which residents go to particular school buildings in Canyon ISD as we open the new schools,” said Flusche.

Just down the road from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a community flush with resident health professionals, the Decatur, Georgia, school system had no shortage of expert input on whether to resume in-person classes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Scores of public health and medical professionals from the affluent, politically liberal Atlanta suburb have weighed in about what's best for their own kids’ schools.
One emergency medicine doctor said initial reopening plans for the district's 5,000-plus students weren’t safe enough. A pediatrician doing epidemiology work for the CDC advocated delaying. Others, including a leader of the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine efforts, argued the district could get students back in classrooms safely — and that not doing so jeopardized their development and mental health.
“The challenge for me has been trying to weigh all of these things that I’m being told by experts and non-experts alike to try to make the best decision that we can,” Superintendent David Dude said. “And that’s what I, and I’m sure other superintendents, have been struggling with.”
Each side argued data and science supported their view in a debate over reopening schools that sometimes veered into vitriol. The division in Decatur illustrates the challenges U.S. schools — many in communities without so much expertise — have faced in evaluating what’s safe.
 

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Schools at all but one U.S. military base in Germany will continue remote instruction through at least Feb. 12, officials announced Thursday.
Schools at Spangdahlem Air Base are the sole exception, the Department of Defense Education Activity-Europe said.
“We will continue to work with military and public health officials to monitor the situation and will provide updates as necessary,” DODEA-Europe said in a statement. “The health and safety of our students, staff and community is our top priority.”
DODEA’s 34 schools in Germany have been closed for in-class learning since mid-December when Germany shut down its schools as part of strict lockdown measures.
DODEA officials had considered reopening classrooms as early as Monday.
The Bitburg-Pruem district, which includes Spangdahlem, had a relatively low average of 51.5 daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 over seven days as of Thursday, according to data posted by Germany’s Robert Koch Institute. That’s just above the average weekly rate of 50 new cases per 100,000 residents that Chancellor Angela Merkel has said must be reached in Germany before restrictions can be eased.
The incidence of new cases is higher in other parts of Germany where there are DODEA schools. According to RKI, the rates in the city of Kaiserslautern and the district surrounding the city were both above 90 per 100,000; Wiesbaden averaged 82.6 new cases in one week and Stuttgart, 70. The district housing Grafenwoehr averaged more than 155 new infections over the last week while Bavaria, which houses several U.S. military installations, including Grafenwoehr, averaged 97 new cases per 100,000.
 

STANWOOD, Wash. — It’s been a dramatic week for the staff at the newly built Stanwood High School in Snohomish County.
This week Principal Christine Del Pozo watched the demolition of the former school while welcoming back a very small portion of students to begin in-person learning.
Students who have special needs, require language assistance and students whose families are experiencing homelessness are back to the classroom this week. That's around 60 students.
Teachers have been moving into their classrooms and Del Pozo says around 25 teachers are coming in daily and several are teaching online students from their new classrooms.
Until COVID-19 restrictions are lifted the massive student body of more than 1,200 will continue to learn virtually. The new school replaces the original campus that was built in 1971.
The building was designed with safety measures in mind. A big part of the new design is having all of the students in one building that features a single entrance that locks each morning when school begins.
Lockers are also mostly a thing of the past. Only a few dozen are available. That's another safety effort as the school is designed with massive open spaces and emergency situations in mind.
The school itself is around 260,000 square feet and has state-of-the-art facilities like a wood and metal shop, performance theater, and a multi-level gymnasium.
The construction pays tribute to the past with a two-story wall where much of the original gym wood flooring is displayed vertically.
 

SOUTH BEND — South Bend schools Superintendent Todd Cummings announced plans Monday evening to “rightsize” and “reorganize” the district by closing two school buildings at the end of this school year, creating an “Innovation Network Zone” that would give autonomy to two other schools, and potentially closing one high school in 2022-23.

The recommendation calls for closing Hay and Tarkington elementary schools and creating the “Innovation Zone” for Muessel Elementary School and Marquette Montessori Academy. It will be up for a final board vote on Feb. 22.

The second part of the plan, which involves students in sixth through 12th grades, will be studied and voted on by the school board by the end of 2021 and will take effect in the 2022-23 school year. The first option is to create two junior-senior high schools for sixth- through 12th-graders.

This plan would involve three “underperforming middle schools in the district that would be absorbed into two underutilized high schools.” A second option is to reconfigure an existing high school into a career and vocational center. The final option is to close one high school.

MARYLAND, USA — Schools and universities across Maryland will receive a combined $1.17 billion as part of the pandemic relief package passed by Congress in late December.
According to a spokesperson for Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the money can be used to improve school facilities ahead of reopening and to address learning losses for students. 
In total, Prince George's County Public Schools will receive $122 million while Montgomery County Public Schools will receive $112 million. 
The announcement came as debate continues in Maryland over whether to reopen schools for hybrid in-person learning.
Last week, Gov. Larry Hogan pushed for schools around the state to open their doors by March 1st.
"There is no public health reason for school boards to be keeping students out of schools," he said. "It is abundantly clear that the toll of keeping students out of school far exceeds any potential risk of having students in school where they belong.” 
During the announcement, Hogan pointed to other areas in the country that have compelled teachers to return to schools. In Chicago, the governor said, pay has been cut off for teachers refusing to come back to classrooms. He added that South Carolina has threatened to take away licenses for teachers who make a similar decision, while Ohio will only offer vaccines to instructors in school systems that commit to continuing or beginning in-person learning.
"If school systems do not immediately begin a good-faith effort to return to the classrooms, we will explore every legal avenue at our disposal," Hogan said. "The time has come to get all of our kids back into the classroom and to reopen our schools.”
School districts receiving this federal funding can put the money toward repairs and improvements,  including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems projects to improve indoor air quality in school facilities. 
Among the groups targeted to address the learning, losses are low-income students, children with disabilities, English learners, racial and ethnic minorities, students experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care.
 

Despite halting planning on new capital projects, St. Paul Public Schools plans to borrow $67 million this year to pay for ongoing construction at several schools.
The school board already has signed off on $15 million in bonds covered by the annual property tax levy. In the coming months, they’ll be asked to consider an additional $52 million for several projects.
That’s actually far less debt than the district has been taking on of late.
Under plans initiated by former superintendent Valeria Silva, the school district since 2016 has been spending $112 million a year on building maintenance and capital projects, up from around $30 million before then. The idea was to improve the look and function of the district’s aging schools, not necessarily to increase capacity.
But those projects have cost far more than anticipated.
Following a Pioneer Press report detailing how much the estimates have grown, Superintendent Joe Gothard in 2019 put a stop to pre-design work on any new projects, further delaying improvements that already had been pushed back because of a lack of funds.
However, several projects, including renovations at American Indian Magnet and Frost Lake, were approved last year because preparations already were well underway when other planning was stopped. The $67 million in borrowing this year will help pay for work at those schools as well as projects near completion, such as renovations at Humboldt and Como Park high schools.
Gothard’s administration was expected to release a new five-year construction plan last spring but postponed it because of the coronavirus pandemic. That plan finally is set to go before the school board in February, with a vote expected in March.
School district spokesman Kevin Burns did not say Monday whether the district intends to go back to borrowing $112 million in future years.
 

In response, CPS officials said they will delay the scheduled return of thousands of teachers and staff until Wednesday “to ensure we have the time needed to resolve our discussions without risking disruption to student learning.”
Chicago Teachers Union members have voted to defy Chicago Public Schools’ reopening plans and continue working from home Monday because of health and safety concerns.
City officials had said in recent days they would view the collective refusal of in-person work as a strike, but in response to Sunday’s vote results said they will delay the scheduled return of thousands of teachers and staff until Wednesday “to ensure we have the time needed to resolve our discussions without risking disruption to student learning.”
The CTU’s move to reject in-person work marks the culmination of a months-long fight between the union and the nation’s third-largest school system over how and when to reopen schools during the pandemic — a disagreement that threatens to plunge the city’s education into deeper turmoil if a deal isn’t reached over the next few days.
“So what does this mean? It means the overwhelming majority of you have chosen safety,” the union told teachers and staff as they announced the vote results. “CPS did everything possible to divide us by instilling fear through threats of retaliation, but you still chose unity, solidarity and to collectively act as one.”
About 86% of the 25,000 rank-and-file CTU members participated in the electronic vote over the past three days, with 71% favoring the rejection of in-person work in an unusually close vote for CTU labor actions. When the CTU voted to strike in 2019, 94% of members who voted chose to walk out.
 

CHEYENNE – The city’s growth has pushed Wyoming’s largest school district to build another new school building, called Coyote Ridge Elementary, to serve 556 fifth and sixth grade students.

Earlier this month, the Cheyenne City Council annexed from the county a 24-acre plot of land at the corner of Powderhouse Road and East Carlson Street in Laramie County School District 1’s Central Triad. But that was simply a rezoning effort designed to put the property under the city’s jurisdiction.

The steadily expanding district bought the land in 2014 in anticipation of the need for a new school building in the future. Last year, the Wyoming Legislature approved the construction of a $24 million building, which is set to open in August 2022.

What does it mean to go to public school in the United States during the pandemic?
The answer looks so different in different parts of the country, it is hard to tell that we are one nation.

In some rural and suburban areas, especially in the South, Midwest and Great Plains, almost all students began the 2020-21 academic year attending school in person, and they have continued to do so, except for temporary closures during outbreaks.

In many cities, the bulk of students haven’t been in a classroom since March. And in some districts, like New York City, only younger students have the option of going to school in person, with many attending only part time.

With little guidance from the federal government, the nation’s 13,000 districts have largely come up with their own standards for when it is safe to open schools and what virus mitigation measures to use. Those decisions have often been based as much on politics as on public health data.

Through all of this, there has been no official accounting of how many American students are attending school in person or virtually. We don’t know precisely how many remote students are not receiving any live instruction or how many students have not logged into their classes all year. Nor has the federal government tracked how many coronavirus cases have been identified in schools or which mitigation methods districts are using.

With more money and fewer restrictions on the second round of federal COVID-19 relief funding, all three local school districts are planning to spend at least some on capital improvements.

The coronavirus relief act signed into law Dec. 27, 2020, includes $54.3 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, referred to as ESSER II.

School directors are awaiting details but have previewed their plans based on the information they have received so far.

Blount County Schools Director Rob Britt expects to present a plan for the district’s $7.5 million to the school board at its February meeting.

BCS plans to focus the funding on three areas: learning loss, health and safety, and facilities for deferred maintenance, Britt emailed The Daily Times this week.

Frustrated with how long it will take under the current capital improvement program to renovate and replace outdated school buildings, the Roanoke County School Board on Thursday envisioned an accelerated model that would involve back-to-back — and simultaneous — construction projects.
But first, the school board will need to convince their counterparts on the board of supervisors, who hold the purse strings.
School board members want to start building a new Burton Center for Arts and Technology in 2023 and a new Glen Cove Elementary and W.E. Cundiff Elementary in 2024. To do that, they need funding.
“We agree that we have three that are well past their prime,” Chairman Don Butzer said. “So basically what we’re going to the county for is asking to move up the funding on the Burton Center ... and we would be asking the county to use whatever other funding mechanisms they have to accelerate the two elementary schools to 2024.”
“We’ve certainly kicked it down the road long enough,” Tim Greenway said.
The school board has spent the past several years attempting to negotiate with the county to speed up infrastructure improvements. The county agreed in December 2019 to increase its annual debt issue by 20%, from $10 million to $12 million. School projects are eligible for the funds in two of three years in the cycle.
 

When the state took over the Camden school system in 2013 after years of poor student performance, the district enrolled more than 11,000 students in more than two dozen buildings.
Today, the district, once the largest in South Jersey, has lost about half of those students. The educational landscape has changed as thousands of students fled to other school options in the city.
In the latest proposed game-changer for Camden, state-appointed Superintendent Katrina McCombs wants to close several schools and reconfigure grades. Her plan would bring back middle schools — which were eliminated several years ago after performing poorly.
The changes would affect hundreds of students and teachers and change the academic structure by separating elementary and middle-school students. One proposal would leave North Camden without a traditional public school.
McCombs, the third chief to lead the struggling district since the takeover, says the moves would help close budget deficits that have ranged annually from $22 million to $44 million, and boost academics.
“We have to make some changes,” McCombs said. “We just can’t continue to do the same thing.”
 

A new mass COVID-19 vaccination site opened Tuesday morning in Ocean County.
The Southern Regional Middle School site in Manahawkin becomes the second site operated by the Ocean County Health Department to help vaccinate tens of thousands of people who already signed up to receive the vaccine. Utilizing schools as vaccination centers has been in the plans for a possible pandemic for 20 years.
"They are geographically dispersed throughout the county. They have a large infrastructure, large facilities, some are even offering staffing assistants to meet the need right now with the vaccination efforts,” says Ocean County Public Health Coordinator Dan Regenye.
School officials say that they are happy to be a part of the effort.
 

PANAMA CITY — Federal reimbursement for Hurricane Michael recovery costs in the Bay County school system has been far too slow so far, officials say.
Bay District Schools officials held a three-hour workshop last week to discuss several topics, including expressing their frustration at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response since the 2018 Category 5 storm.
To date, the district has spent $176.5 million on reconstruction since the hurricane. Meanwhile, FEMA has reimbursed $37.3 million, with a little more than $23 million of that in the second quarter of 2019.
One of the issues facing BDS, said Lee Walters, BDS facilities director, is fixing something so quickly that the damage to a facility falls below the 50% damage line. That threshold is important because a building with more than 50% damage can be approved by FEMA to be completely replaced. If improvements are made to a structure and the damage falls below 50%, the school district loses the ability to replace the building.
Walters said one example was replacing the air conditioner at Lynn Haven Elementary's gym. If the AC is replaced, the damage to the building falls below the 50% threshold for FEMA. Walters said he wants to get the school a new gym.
 

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – A Defense Department high school on Okinawa closed its doors this week after three “members of our Kubasaki High School family” tested positive for the coronavirus over the long holiday weekend, principal James Strait said in a Facebook post Monday.

“In accordance with public health’s guidance, a negative COVID test will be required for all students to return to school on Monday, Jan. 25,” he said in the post, referring to the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

All students and staff will be tested Thursday at the high school, which is on the Marine Corps’ Camp Foster and administered by the Department of Defense Education Activity. More information on the testing schedule is available on Kubasaki’s Facebook page.

Though the school building is closed, "teachers and students are continuing to engage in optional enrichment activities" online, DODEA spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.

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.