An agreement between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature that will reduce the state’s budget shortfall by $17.3 billion also will mean less money for school facilities.

The agreement, signed April 4, cuts the state School Facility Aid Program by $500 million, reducing the funding from $875 million to $375 million. The program provides funds to school districts for school construction, deferred maintenance and emergency repairs.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In a workshop on Tuesday, the Duval County School Board discussed a much-debated plan to rebuild, close and renovate schools within the district.
The workshop gave the first look at a potential timeline for public school consolidation in Duval County.
The plan, which includes a proposal to close nearly 30 schools, will impact nearly every student enrolled in Duval County Public Schools. Closing or consolidating schools would allow the district to make up for a $1.4 billion gap in the budget.
But nothing has been decided yet, and before making any decisions, the school district wants to hear from the public.
The district says with more students attending private and charter schools, DCPS has lost 30,000 students over the last 10 years.
James Cummings, a parent of an Atlantic Beach Elementary student, had a strong reaction.
“Shocked, saddened, and concerned, like a lot of parents around the city, I’m sure,” Cummings said.
 

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Wake County Board of Education is dealing with growing pains across the district. We're now learning more about their 7-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).

The plan, which now extends through fiscal year 2031, includes school programs, improving current schools, and adding some new schools to keep up with population growth.

Of the total $2.8 billion budget, $475 million is going towards new schools. The most pressing need right now is the booming western part of the county.

Parkside Middle School in Morrisville is already under construction and set to be done by next year, and Morrisville is also set to get another high school by 2028.

For some young parents like Ramchendra Koirala who moved to Morrisville from New York, he says one of the selling points was the schools, and he's glad by the time his kids are old enough they'll have a school close by they can call home.

RICHMOND, Va. -- The way localities can choose to help pay for new school construction and renovation is up for debate this week at the Virginia General Assembly.
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R - Virginia) vetoed a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly that would have allowed Virginia cities and counties to add a one-percent sales tax to fund school construction and renovation projects if approved by voters in a referendum.
in Virginia
The way localities can choose to help pay for new school construction and renovation is up for debate this week at the Virginia General Assembly.
By: Cameron ThompsonPosted at 4:44 PM, Apr 16, 2024 and last updated 4:44 PM, Apr 16, 2024
RICHMOND, Va. -- The way localities can choose to help pay for new school construction and renovation is up for debate this week at the Virginia General Assembly.
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R - Virginia) vetoed a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly that would have allowed Virginia cities and counties to add a one-percent sales tax to fund school construction and renovation projects if approved by voters in a referendum.
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A 2021 report found over half of Virginia's schools are over 50 years old and replacing them would cost around $25 billion.
"We know from a state perspective we can't fund, from the Commonwealth, all $25 billion. And so, this [bill] is really adding a tool to the toolbox for localities with pretty tough thresholds," Sen. Jeremy McPike (D - Prince William), who sponsored one of the bills, said about the tax.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers supported the bill in the General Assembly.
Governor Youngkin offered a different perspective.
"The reality, of course, is this bill is just another tax increase at a time when Virginians really can't afford it," the governor said.
 

NEW HAVEN — Dismayed by school bathroom conditions, students are calling on the city to fund an education budget for the upcoming year that includes more janitors, building maintenance and additional gender-neutral bathrooms in each school.
Toilets, stall doors, ceiling tiles and dispensers have been damaged in bathrooms across the district, according to a March report by the district’s facilities director that said vandalism in school bathrooms is “significant." Students say vandalism is one reason for the poor bathroom conditions, but not the only one, and they say many bathrooms are closed or unusable.
Thailynn Taylor-Morehead, a senior at Engineering and Science University Magnet School, said instead of just complaining, the students want to work with officials on solutions. She said having clean bathrooms should be a “no-brainer."
 

School gardens in this country have been around for over a hundred years. Early on, gardening for children at school often emphasized the use of tools, cooperative work, the value of urban agriculture, and the good health effects of working outdoors.

Today, school gardens can be places for discovery, trial and error, a sense of accomplishment, and wonder. Students can taste a fresh tomato or crunchy carrot.

Gardens that kids help plant and care for can get them excited about science, nutrition, and the natural world. Hands-on learning is a great way to explore and investigate. Gathering information through the senses can spark curiosity and help kids connect with what they’re learning.

Leila Rojas loves school.
Since she became one of the first 4-year-olds enrolled in the Defense Department’s free universal preschool program, which launched last year at M.C. Perry Primary School at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, Leila is thriving academically, socially and emotionally, said her mother Yadira Rojas.
“It’s been amazing for us,” Yadira Rojas said. “Leila talks about her teachers all the time, about how much they teach her, how nice they are, and how they play with her all the time.”
Now thousands more military children will get that same opportunity as the Defense Department prepares to open universal pre-kindergarten at nearly all primary schools on U.S.-run bases worldwide this fall.
 

CEREDO, W.Va. (WCHS) — Gov. Jim Justice visited Wayne County Friday morning, bringing with him $20 million from the State School Building Authority for a new Buffalo Elementary School. The money will be used to add classrooms to Buffalo Middle School to make it a K through eighth grade facility.

"If we want them to have better and better learning experiences and learning environments, and we have to step up especially at times when we have a surplus," Justice said.

Students are also excited about a new school.

"We got more room for us to learn. We have more room so teachers can teach us better," Audrey Clickett, fourth grader at Buffalo Elementary, said.

Buffalo Elementary was built in the 1960s. Officials say the building is old and outdated. They say learning is better in a new and updated facility, adding the new building puts students in a different state of mind.

CHEYENNE — It’s been almost a year since students from Arp Elementary School were moved into a swing space, and it’s been more than two years since the local school district asked for money to demolish and rebuild the south Cheyenne school.

The good news is that the funds to design and build two new elementary schools in Laramie County School District 1 has been secured from the Wyoming Legislature. However, school district officials are still in conversation with the State Construction Department (SCD) about where those buildings should go.

Schools are invited to watch the White House’s first-ever Summit for Sustainable and Healthy K-12 Infrastructure on April 26th, highlighting the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to providing communities equitable access to energy efficient, climate resilient, and healthy school facilities that are conducive to learning. This summit will highlight the pressing need for sustainable 21st-century school infrastructure and the impact that facility conditions have on student and teacher health and learning outcomes. The event will also provide deeper insight into the tools and existing commitments offered by the federal government to invest in school sustainability and infrastructure. Students, educators, administrators, parents, and other school stakeholders are invited to tune in to the opening plenary and panels on April 26th from 1 – 3:30 p.m. ET.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – “When you’re a school district as large as ours, it is really a challenge to try and keep up with just the renovation and refurbishment needs of our facilities,” said Rory Salimbene, chief facilities officer for Orange County Public schools.

Salimbene took News 6 inside the district’s oldest school, Howard Middle School. The building is 97 years old and its age shows. Right now, the school is getting some much-needed upgrades, including new lighting, seating and finishes in the auditorium.

Upstairs, crews are building new floors, a new ceiling and are patching, repairing and painting the walls. They are also updating the old electric wiring and 22-year-old air conditioning.

“So much of what’s needed for a school, you can’t see it,” Salimbene said. He told us the biggest obstacle toward maintaining schools is money.

WOBURN - A new 15-member ad hoc committee established over the winter to explore the findings of a 766-page school feasibility study will spend several hours walking through several educational facilities this weekend.

According to a Building and Capital Building Committee agenda recently posted with City Clerk Lindsay Higgins, the advisory group will launch their investigation by examining the current condition of the Joyce and Kennedy Middle schools and the Altavesta, Linscott, and Wyman Elementary schools on Saturday.

The scheduled 45-minute long site visits are expected to begin at 8:45 a.m. with a walkthrough of the Joyce Middle School and end more than three hours later following a visit to Central Square’s shuttered Wyman School. Based on the meeting agenda, the day’s activities will start at 8:15 a.m. with a light breakfast at the Joyce and will continue at 12:15 p.m. at the Locust Street middle school after the walk-throughs have concluded.

More than 49 million students were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools as of fall 2021, according to the Digest of Education Statistics. Coincidentally, that number (the “49” in 49 million) matches the average age of a main instructional school building in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. More alarming, nearly four in 10 schools (38%) were built before 1970—and half of those have never had a major building renovation or addition.
Clearly, too many of the nation’s school districts are having to make it work with less-than-ideal educational facilities. But at what cost to student performance and staff satisfaction?
Newly released findings from a 28-school research study by Drexel University and Perkins Eastman reveal a strong correlation between the quality of school building environments and key educational indicators like test scores, graduation rates, enrollment, teacher retention—even community health and wellness.
The study, “Addressing a Multi-Billion Dollar Challenge” (140-page PDF download at BDCnetwork.com/2024-school-study), investigated the differences between modernized and non-modernized elementary, middle, and high schools—17 modernized, 11 non-modernized—throughout Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. 
 

After a century of being a home to education, Woodbury Middle School’s renovation will ensure the building continues doing the job.

Students, parents, teachers, local officials and Salem community members gathered Saturday morning to celebrate the completion of renovations to the school at 206 Main St. 

“Today is a significant milestone in the school district’s multiyear effort to create safe facilities for our students and families,” said Superintendent Maura Palmer. “Just like a middle child, this school patiently waited for its turn while all the others got the attention, and the irony is that it really isn’t the middle child, it’s the oldest child, but God was it worth the wait.”

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — The West Virginia School Building Authority on Wednesday approved $87 million in construction and repair projects for the state’s schools.

The approval covers projects and construction plans that were rejected in December due to lack of funding during the fiscal cycle. The new funding is coming from the state’s $150 million budget surplus.

Among the funding approved Wednesday was $16 million for a new state-of-the-art Ona Elementary School in Cabell County.

About $1 million was approved for a STEM class addition and cafeteria expansion at Cabell Midland High School.

In Wayne County, a project to create an addition to Buffalo Elementary School for a PK-8 was awarded more than $20 million.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, minutes ahead of his 11:59 p.m. deadline on April 8 to act on this year’s General Assembly bills, vetoed legislation that would have authorized any Virginia city or county to raise its sales tax 1% by voter referendum to fund school construction.  Only nine Virginia localities – Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Northampton, Patrick and Pittsylvania counties and the city of Danville – are afforded the option under current state law. Isle of Wight County has been lobbying for the referendum option for the past three years as a possible means of paying back more than $30 million it borrowed in 2020 and 2021 to replace the circa-1961 Hardy Elementary with a new, larger Hardy that opened in 2023, and to fund the estimated $71 million cost of replacing another 1960s-era school, Westside Elementary.  House of Delegates Bill 805, sponsored by Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, and Senate Bill 14, a nearly identical bill by Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, would each have abolished the list of authorized localities and expanded the option to all cities and counties.

GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- Another version of plans to consolidate, close and build Green Bay public schools, particularly at the elementary level, could be ordered by the school board on Monday.

In the wake of declining enrollments and tightening budgets, the district has been reviewing plans which could result in about a dozen schools being closed, others being expanded, and new schools built.

After reviewing results of a conceptual boundary survey and other feedback, which showed little support for Scenario A and Scenario B, interim superintendent Vicki Bayer is asking the school board to create a Scenario C.

Among the findings:

66.1% supported making boundary changes to address declining enrollment

Adding K-8s wherever possible on the east side had 57.4% support

Scenario A had 28.2% support (supportive or very supportive)

Scenario B had 24.4% support (supportive or very supportive)
This new scenario would be created based on the following criteria:

When the class of 2021 at Putnam City High School was asked where they wanted to hold their prom, district administrators were anticipating suggestions for a variety of picturesque venues around Oklahoma City.

But their request was a pleasant surprise to staff — the students chose to hold prom at nearby James L. Capps Middle School, a then-new building in Putnam City Schools.

The school, which opened in 2020, sits on 38 acres and features a spring-fed creek that runs under a glass skybridge connecting different wings of the building. With its tall glass windows and large indoor gathering areas, Capps is a source of pride for the community.

“It has become a destination for all of our schools,” said Putnam Superintendent Fred Rhodes. “It’s just off-the-charts cool.”

The enthusiasm for the building can be traced to the district’s efforts to include student and staff voice in the school design process, Rhodes said.

The Guam Department of Education is in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding funding for a temporary facility for Simon Sanchez High School students, which would be 90% funded by FEMA and 10% by GDOE, according to Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson, who appeared before lawmakers on Tuesday for an oversight hearing covering the SSHS situation, GDOE's rightsizing initiative and other matters involving the education department.

Due to the condition of their campus, SSHS students are having to use the John F. Kennedy High School campus under a double-session schedule with JFK students. 

"We understand, and we agree, that the dual schedule piggyback environment that our Simon Sanchez kids are in at JFK is not good for the JFK student body or the Simon Sanchez student body in the long term," Swanson said Tuesday. 

Hunt Valley, Md. (WBFF) — A potential battle is brewing in Baltimore County over how to make schools less crowded. Baltimore County has the highest number of overcrowded schools in the region, and there are disagreements over how to free up seats.

“It is absurd to develop in areas that are significantly over capacity,” said Yara Cheikh, a Baltimore County parent and member of the Dulaney High School Parent Teacher Student Association. “We need to fix it.”

A few years ago, Cheikh was part of a task force created by Baltimore County Council to study overcrowding in schools and come up with solutions.

“I have seen the ramifications of overcapacity at the elementary school, high school and middle school levels,” Cheikh told Project Baltimore. “We've seen the damage that it does to our schools and to our communities.”