In the two years since Hurricane Ida damaged classrooms and wreaked havoc on an already strained school system, the federal government has promised $23 million for schools in New Jersey to assist with recovery efforts related to the storm, according to the latest federal data.
But, some school districts say they are still waiting for millions more in reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The total cost for all repair projects for schools related to Hurricane Ida is approximately $42 million, said Sgt. Joseph Walsh, a spokesman for the New Jersey state Office of Emergency Management.
After the September 2021 storm, 49 schools and nine colleges and universities filed for more than $83.6 million in public assistance from the federal government to cover losses and damage. However, the number was based on preliminary damage assessments completed by the school and district officials.
 

Democrats are again pushing for legislation that would allow local governments to hold referenda on increasing their sales and use tax to pay for school capital projects such as construction and renovations. 
The party hopes the effort, which has been tried twice before but defeated by Republicans, will be successful now that Democrats are set to control both the House of Delegates and the Senate following the November elections.
“We think with the change in the dynamics in the House that this bill has a very good chance,” said Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, adding that a similar version of the bill passed with bipartisan support last year in the Democratic-controlled Senate before dying in the House.
Under current law, only nine localities can impose a 1% sales tax to fund school construction and renovation projects. They are the counties of Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Northampton, Patrick and Pittsylvania and the city of Danville. 
Local governments have control over adjustments to their property tax rates — but aren’t allowed to change the sales tax rate without explicit permission from the General Assembly. 
 

The West Virginia School Building Authority announced Monday $111,687,534 is headed to 19 counties for Fiscal Year 2024. This is the largest single year award from the SBA in more than a decade. 

The money will be used to construct 10 new schools and perform major renovations on 13 existing schools.

“I am truly proud to vote for this historic investment in our schools, because it represents our unwavering commitment to providing West Virginia students with the best possible learning environment,” Gov. Jim Justice, as chairman of the SBA, said. “This funding doubles down on our belief that every student deserves access to a high-quality education. These new and upgraded facilities will ensure our students have the resources and technology needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond.”

The biggest single award goes to Wyoming County for construction of the new Mullens PK-8 school. The school system will receive $15.7 million. 

Six of the counties are receiving money for new school construction. 

Berkeley County is receiving $8.3 million, but that is one of three annual payments for a total of $25 million for the construction of a primary and intermediate school.

Galileo Academy of Science & Technology, the public high school near San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, has a lot of physical problems, as you might expect at a 102-year-old facility. After the pandemic, when workers tried to fix the heating system, classrooms instead became so hot that students were unable to focus, and the heat had to be shut off again.
Like many of San Francisco’s aging schools, Galileo has had to wait for major repairs. Nearly two dozen facilities, tabbed for repairs via a 2016 bond, instead saw their fixes postponed until the next bond. And now that next bond is delayed, again.
The public school district announced last week that the bond, slated to go to SF voters on the March 2024 ballot, would be pushed back to November. Perhaps more than $1 billion, it could be the city’s largest bond ever. Officials cited the need for more time for community engagement and project planning.
As The Frisc reported in 2022, the billion-dollar bond was a possibility for that year’s fall ballot. It was shelved, though, amid questions about the 2016 bond spending.
 

Stafford County Public Schools: “The Stafford County School Board hosted its second annual Legislative Summit on Tuesday, December 5, at Stafford High School. Attendees included Senator McPike, current Delegate and Senator-Elect Durant, and Delegates-Elect Cole and Milde. During the event, legislators were provided with information regarding the School System’s current legislative priorities and proposed bills aimed to support the burgeoning school system.”
“The Superintendent and School Board provided tangible ways to improve student outcomes, urging legislators to provide Stafford County with increased funding necessary to support high expectations for student performance, provide a safe, positive learning environment, and provide better conditions to recruit, retain and develop staff. Additional discussion focused on the need for a reduction in the burden of unfunded mandates and inefficient government practices.”
 

The state Department of Education plans to surrender $465 million that lawmakers had earmarked for school construction projects across the state, a move that will delay and possibly jeopardize funding for new classrooms, play courts and athletic facilities.

That decision may make more money available for other state initiatives such as affordable housing or the Maui wildfire recovery, but that would come at a cost to Hawaii’s public educational system.

The move by the DOE to lapse so many capital improvement projects has upset state lawmakers who lobbied hard to secure state funding for school projects for their districts, only to learn that funding is about to slip away because the projects did not move forward in time.

“I don’t understand why this is happening,” said House Speaker Scott Saiki. “This is a big problem. If anything, DOE should come to the Legislature and say, ‘We can’t handle all of these projects for the following reasons,’ and just be honest about it.”

The House Finance and Education committees have scheduled a public briefing at 2 p.m. Thursday to question top officials in the DOE and the Department of Budget and Finance about plans to lapse funding for the DOE projects.

In what's turning into a historic week for Fort Myers Beach, its elementary school reopened on a crisp sunny Southwest Florida Tuesday morning, 433 days after Hurricane Ian's demoralizing devastation.

"Now I'm a parent of a child who is fortunate enough to return today," said Beach native and former student Jenny-Tardiff-Paradiso, echoing others who expressed the similar as children walked through the front door adorned with white and light blue balloons, 62 weeks after many lost their homes. "The commitment to this school comes in all forms. (Because) of the isolation, which is natural when you are raised on an island, we learn to stick together."

This, as the $200 million Margaritaville beach resort prepares to open Thursday, the first of massive projects that will transform Estero Island from its Old Florida village roots and draw more affluent travelers. At the same time, like with other businesses, the offspring of the compound's commuting service industry workers, even if they aren't town residents, are eligible to attend classes.

Here are five things and more to know.

Idaho school districts are reaping the benefits of a new state fund that helps them pay down bonds and levies, and many property taxpayers are seeing decreases in their bills.

Earlier this year, Idaho lawmakers adopted a sweeping property tax relief package, House Bill 292. The legislation provided tax credits to homeowners and created a new fund for public school facilities. 

Districts are getting around $106 million from the fund, with most of the money going toward bonds, according to a model analysis by the Legislative Services Office. The numbers will be finalized in the coming weeks.

Many property taxpayers have already seen the savings on their bills, which started going out last month. Median-value homeowners in the West Ada School District, for example, had more than $100 come off their property tax bills.

But the relief will look different across the state, depending on a particular school district’s financial situation. For instance, taxpayers in eastern Idaho’s Marsh Valley School District will be paying roughly the same as before, after voters approved a supplemental levy in August. 

Lawmakers are closely watching how districts use the money, to ensure it’s fulfilling its intended purpose: lowering property taxes.

Changes to how the state constructs new schools edged closer to reality Monday after Assembly lawmakers approved a bill with amendments that would shed direct funding for charter and renaissance school development in favor of a loan program.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), would retool the long-troubled Schools Development Authority, requiring authority-funded projects in certain districts to meet model specifications while offering loans to fund remediation to charter and renaissance school facilities.

“We think that this is the best version of this bill that we’ve seen since discussion on the bill first started in the Assembly Education Committee a year ago, nearly to the day,” Jessie Young, legislative advocate for the New Jersey School Boards Association told the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

During a hearing held last December, public school advocates worried that allowing charter and renaissance schools to receive Schools Development Authority funding through grants could leave public dollars in private hands if such a school closed. They noted that few charters own their buildings, and such closures are not uncommon.

The Schools Development Authority is responsible for capital improvements — including modernizations, renovations, and new construction — in 31 court-identified districts, which are typically low-income school districts, and funds similar work in other school districts, albeit at lower amounts.

Lawmakers have sought to retool the agency amid growing dilapidation in a broad portfolio of aging school buildings.

Bipartisan legislation that proposes the installation of solar panels in schools across Pennsylvania awaits a vote in the state Senate.

The Solar for Schools bill aims to combat climate change and invest in education. Fewer than 2% of Pennsylvania’s nearly 7,000 schools are powered by solar energy.

Mick Iskric is superintendent of Steelton-Highspire School District, which has a 42-acre urban school campus that serves more than 1,300 students from low-income families. He explained that, after partnering with McClure Company to install solar panels, the district now sees a monthly credit on its electric bill.

Iskric is convinced the legislation would be a game-changer for school districts in the Commonwealth.

“And then ultimately, all that savings, what we’re trying to do is get more funding to offset our expenses and get more programming for students,” Iskric said. “So, the more money I save, the more support I can get directly into the classroom.”

According to Iskric, the district has achieved 100% reliance on solar power for its electricity and will save an estimated $1.6 million over the next 20 years.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - Millions of dollars are headed to schools across South Carolina to bolster security and safety.

But it fell short of covering what districts reported they needed to ensure students and staff are safe, so the head of South Carolina’s school system wants to see more money put toward this focus next year.

Lawmakers allocated $20 million in the current state budget for school facility safety upgrades at the request of State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver.

When the Department of Education opened up this pot of money for applications, it received nearly double that amount in requests from districts.

“While it might seem like a lot, really when you think about it at the state level and 77 school districts across the state, it dries out pretty quick,” South Carolina Department of Education Communications Director Derek Phillips said.

Last month, the State Board of Education approved a plan to distribute that money to more than 40 traditional school districts, along with several charter schools and the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Every district that applied for funding received money, ranging from a few thousand dollars to $1 million, which is going to Marion County School District (Marion 10), Marlboro County School District, Laurens County School District 56, Darlington County School District, and Florence County School District 2.

“At the end of the day, the first priority is keeping our school staff and our students safe each and every day when they enter the school buildings,” Phillips said.

YABUCOA, PUERTO RICO — Silence reigns on the basketball court of Ramón Quiñones Medina High School at the start of the school year. There are no shouts from students practicing sports like basketball or volleyball. There are no deafening whistles from teachers calling out defensive fouls, no thuds of sneakers running this way and that, no echoes of balls ricocheting off the ground.

At midday, recess time, when students used to get together to play sports, the voices, yelling and applause of classmates who would relish watching and encouraging their teams have now disappeared.

While the requirement may still stand — as it does for all schools in Puerto Rico — to provide physical education classes five days a week, Ramón Quiñones Medina High School has gone six years and counting mired in this silence. Its students are supposed to spend one hour per day on physical education, but the nearly 300 young people who attend this school each year have been without formal instruction in basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer and even track and field since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. When the storm swept through the school’s basketball court, it severely damaged its columns, beams and roofing.

The $1.9 billion slate of school repairs and construction that Duval County voters agreed in 2020 to help finance through a half-penny sales tax could end up costing $3.9 billion, school administrators now project.
The sticker shock is being compounded by a forecast that tax revenues earmarked to pay for the 15-year worklist could fall $1.4 billion short of the new final price.
Neither budget cuts nor tax hikes have been ordered to bridge the gap, and it’s not certain the new counts will be entirely accurate either.
But the twin forecasts underscore the administrative headaches the school system is facing trying to deliver all 180 separate projects, including building 28 new schools, in the school district’s master facility plan.
“We’re going to have to make some decisions in terms of funding” for the work, Erika Harding, the district’s assistant superintendent for operations, told School Board members in a workshop last month. “And some of the projects are going to require some cutbacks.”
While it’s not clear how the board will respond, the forecasts will be “what’s driving future decisions and conversations,” School Board member Lori Hershey said after the board took up the subject recently.
 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the V.I. Education Department two grants totalling $464 million to demolish and replace Claude O. Markoe Elementary School on St. Croix and Addelita Cancryn Junior High School on St. Thomas, according to a recent news release from the office of V.I. Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett.

The release said $140 million will be set aside for the Markoe project, and $324 million for the Cancryn rebuild. Both schools were damaged extensively during the 2017 hurricanes.

“These awards are for the prudent replacement standard which will be integral for improving our preparedness and resiliency against natural disasters. As with much of the funding released to our territory for the territory’s rebuild, I and my team worked diligently to change the provisions of the Stafford Act which is used for rebuilding after U.S. disasters,” Plaskett said in the release. “My office made the convincing argument that the level of disaster in the Virgin Islands was exacerbated by the lack of federal funding investment in our critical infrastructure prior to the storms, which made the effect of the hurricanes more profound.”

New research has found that a student's perception of their school building conditions is related to their anxiety. The researchers found that students who had a negative perception of their school's physical environment reported higher levels of anxiety.
The research was carried out by researchers from Queen's University Belfast, University of Johannesburg, University of Jyväskylä, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the University of Eastern Finland, and has been published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Public Schools is looking into possibly closing some schools to better serve the students they have.
The big announcement came during the district's third update in front of the State Board of Education (OSDE) Thursday morning. 
As TPS gave its update on financial transparency and Corrective Action Plan, Interim Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson mentioned looking into the possibility of some school closures. 
"We are also having conversations regarding ensuring we provide the best quality learning experience for our students, and in that conversation, that can lend itself to some school closures," she said.
TPS Board Member John Croisant said State Superintendent Ryan Walters has asked about closing schools before, and Walters mentioned it to the district earlier this month, and again during Thursday's meeting. 
"I think that's a huge overstep of their authority," Croisant said.
TPS parents like Ashley Daley, said the thought of closing schools is terrifying. 
 

During a School Safety Advisory Commission meeting on Tuesday, Alabama's State Fire Marshal, Scott Pilgreen, drew attention to a lack of basic safety system maintenance in schools. The advisory commission provides recommendations to the Alabama legislature regarding school security.
Maintainance of safety measures such as door locks and fire systems were issues discussed among the group.
"I'm not trying to indict anybody in these schools, but you talk to the leadership of the school you get a mixed bag. Some of them are extremely apologetic and want to get on it quickly to get it fixed. A lot, 'we don't have the money,' and they want to point to the superintendent's office. When that happens, my people call me," said Pilgreen.
 

LORAIN — As Lorain Schools’ “new” buildings start to age, the district is looking at a $35 million price tag over the next five years to keep the facilities in shape. 

During a brief presentation at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, Director of Communications and Marketing Tony Dimacchia gave an overview of the costs and projects Lorain Schools will need to complete to maintain its buildings. Those projects range from resurfacing parking lots to replacing ceiling tiles and gym floors. It also includes security upgrades like kick-plate lockdown devices for classrooms and a mass emergency notification system. 

Lorain Schools is also looking at purchasing the former health department building at 1144 W. Erie Ave. for about $200,000. The building would need about $909,000 in renovations and a 2,000-square-foot addition costing about $629,000 to meet the district’s needs. If the purchase moves forward, Lorain Schools would look to relocate its administrative offices to the former health building, while using the office space at the high school to expand career tech programming. 

To build a new building to meet the district's needs would cost an estimated $2.5 million, Dimacchia said. 

“We certainly don’t want to increase the costs of the district, but it is critical for us to maintain safe and healthy facilities,” Dimacchia said.

PEMBERVILLE – Eastwood Local Schools has started to address the future of its middle school and high school.

At its Nov. 20 meeting, the board of education approved a resolution of intent to participate in the Expedited Local Partnership Program with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.

Superintendent Brent Welker said the district was starting a fact-finding process to fully understand the scope and costs associated with new construction or renovation of the two schools.

“So we will be ready if our number is called,” he said Monday.

He said the district sent a letter of interest to OFCC in 2021, but at that time was far down the list for funding. The district was bumped up in the last couple months due to completion of the elementary school portion of its master facilities plan.

Functionality and maintenance have become issues at both the middle and high schools, Welker said.

The high school was built in 1960 and added onto in 2000.

“We’ve kept it in pretty good shape,” he said. But finding replacement parts for the mechanical systems “is a big deal.”

The middle school was built in 1970.

There has been some interest in getting the middle school and high school under one roof but providing a 21st-century learning environment is a priority, Welker said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An entire county school system in coal-producing West Virginia is going solar, representing what a developer and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s office touted on Wednesday as the biggest-ever single demonstration of sun-powered renewable electricity in Appalachian public schools.

The agreement between Wayne County Schools and West Virginian solar installer and developer Solar Holler builds on historic investments in coal communities made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democratic Sen. Manchin had a major role in shaping as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Manchin, who announced this month that he wouldn’t run for reelection in the deep-red state, citing an increasingly polarized political system, was quick Wednesday to tout U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2022 landmark climate, health and tax law, which placed special emphasis on creating new clean energy jobs.

“Let’s be clear — this investment in Wayne County is a direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act,” he said in a written statement. “This type of investment in rural America to create jobs, make our country more energy secure and lower electric costs is exactly what the IRA was designed to do.”