Following the brutal tornado of March 14 and the subsequent damage that resulted, the Poplar Bluff School District officials say they have renewed a commitment to be available to the public in times of emergency. The district received an opportunity to test that Sunday.

A severe storm front was forecast to hit the area Sunday. Poplar Bluff found itself categorized at level three by the National Weather Service, making it a prime spot for tornado activity.

According to Assistant Superintendent Charles Kinsey, the decision was made to open the FEMA Shelter at the O’Neal School, as well as the Poplar Bluff Junior High, to the public by 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

“After going through what we just went through, I think the school wants to be a part of helping the community,” Kinsey explained.

Kinsey said he understands some people may be dealing with high levels of stress and anxiety as a result of the recent tornado, but he is glad the school was able to provide shelter.

“At the O’Neal location, we had about 400 people show up,” Kinsey noted. “We only had about 40 people show up at the junior high, but fewer people were probably aware that location was available as a shelter.”

Three schools in Milwaukee remain temporarily closed two weeks after “significant lead hazards” were found inside the buildings.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Health Department is still revising a “Lead Action Plan” from Milwaukee Public Schools. The plan will outline how the district will inspect other school properties for lead and clean those found to have hazards.
Three schools — Starms Early Childhood Center, Fernwood Montessori and LaFollette School — all temporarily closed March 17 after staff with the city health department noticed lead hazards like chipping paint when inspecting the properties. Students have been transferred to different schools while remediation is underway.
During a Friday press conference, Tyler Weber, the Milwaukee Health Department’s deputy commissioner for environmental health, did not give a timeline on when the schools might reopen.
“We want to get these kids back into a safe environment for the wellness of the children and parents,” Weber said.
“Renovation work is happening and they’re (schools) not ready to be opened,” he added. MPS, not MHD, manages the remediation work.
The closures come as four other Milwaukee Public Schools have been recently investigated for high levels of lead. One of those schools, Trowbridge School of Great Lakes Studies, was shut down by the Milwaukee Health Department in late February due to “unsafe lead dust levels.” It reopened two weeks ago.
Children younger than age 6 are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, according to Mayo Clinic. Lead poisoning can affect children’s mental and physical development.
 

Indiana lawmakers have revived a proposal that could lead to Indianapolis Public Schools sharing its school buildings and transportation systems with local charter schools.

The plan creates a nine-member Indianapolis Local Education Alliance (ILEA) made up of district, charter, and city leaders who would be charged with creating a school facility and transportation plan for the city.

The recommendations made by the body would not be binding. But they could be far-reaching, as members would be tasked with developing strategies related to facility use and transportation, including any “structural changes necessary … for a collaborative system of schools that can serve all students within the geographic boundaries of the school city fairly,” the amendment says.

Only IPS would be required to participate in such a group. Other districts could opt into pilot programs that would create independent boards to oversee school facilities and transportation systems, including by authorizing property tax referendums.

The proposal has been significantly pared down since the original version, House Bill 1501, did not move through the chamber before a mandatory deadline.

Author Rep. Bob Behning said last week he would add the language to another bill, and did so with an amendment on Wednesday to Senate Bill 373, a broad education matters bill.

The ILEA would begin meeting in July 2025 and submit its recommendations to lawmakers and the state education secretary by December 2025 under the bill.

The plan is the latest version of a push by Indiana lawmakers this year to exert control over Indianapolis schools and direct more resources to the city’s charter schools. In addition to HB 1501, lawmakers are also moving to require the district to share more local revenue with charter schools. On the extreme end, House Bill 1136 would have dissolved the district completely and replaced it with charter schools, but it didn’t advance this session.

Knowledge of structural problems at Jenkins Middle School in Colorado Springs School District 11 began around a decade after the school was built. Now, it sits empty, waiting for repairs to its foundation that could have a high price tag.
The district has released a final report on the structural and fire protection concerns that resulted in the January closure of Jenkins Middle School. The report confirmed the preliminary findings, released last month, which said the decline was a result of soil settlement related to an increase in moisture content from the time the building was built until the recent inspection.
According to the Colorado Springs Fire Department, the agency and the district have been "closely monitoring the building structure and fire protection systems … for the past few years."
The statement from CSFD at the time the school shut down comes after years of citations during routine annual inspections, according to CSFD Fire Marshall Brett Lacey. 
“Back in 2013, my inspectors began to notice degradation of those fire protection features and they would write them up,” Lacey said, “and [the district] would come back in and correct them with fire rated materials or caulking or trying to shore up those passive features.”
When Jenkins Middle School was built in 1999, building codes didn’t require the installation of active fire suppression systems, such as a sprinkler system. And though there are some sprinklers in the cafeteria, the rest of the school uses passive fire protections, specifically fire barriers. 
The recently released final report covering a geotechnical inspection found parts of the foundation of the building had shifted up to 5.5 inches in some cases, causing fire barriers to no longer stay flush with their frames, rendering them ineffective.
“If you picture a door and a door fits within a door frame, as the structure begins to move, that can begin to warp the frame. Which then, the door may not fit appropriately,” said Colorado Springs Fire Marshal Brett Lacey. 
 

Salinas Union High School District is working on updating its facilities master plan across its 13 schools. Officials so far have hosted several town hall meetings, tours and study sessions, identifying numerous projects including new classrooms, air conditioning, ADA accessibility improvements and more.

There is $130 million available, just a fraction of the $546.3 million needed for SUHSD’s project priority list. That means it will have to pick and choose which projects move forward.

The proposed plan has raised concern from teachers and parents at El Sausal Middle School, the second-oldest school in the district.

El Sausal lacks accessibility – people with mobility issues can access the school from a side entrance, but not the front door – and there are leaky roofs, lack of air conditioning in some buildings, substandard bathrooms with rusted soap dispensers and hand dryers, among other issues. El Sausal staff members provided a detailed document with feedback on the proposed master plan.

Safety is another concern. “Ceiling tiles are falling literally inches from students and staff,” it reads.

Jackson County Public Schools is planning to build its first-ever middle school after receiving a $52 million grant from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction last September. 
Jackson County has long operated without a dedicated middle school, relying on K-8 schools to feed into the county’s only high school, Smoky Mountain High. JCPS also operates a K-12 school, Jackson Community School.
"This is a huge undertaking,” said JCPS superintendent Dana Ayers. “We’re one of only eleven counties in NC that doesn’t have a middle-school model. I just want to catch up to what the rest of our state is already doing.” 
 The introduction of a dedicated middle school will allow JCPS to offer new opportunities to students and teachers. Ayers said a large aspect of this change will be increased collaboration between teachers and age-specific programs for students. 
 Each school in Jackson County teaching middle-grades has only one teacher per grade, per subject. The schools are spread throughout the county, making it difficult for teachers to come together.  
 

The latest assessment from the American Society of Civil Engineers says U.S. public schools still are doing a poor job keeping their facilities in good condition.
America's public schools have received a near failing grade for their lackluster efforts carrying out needed improvements to the nation's aging education facilities.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has given the public school sector a D-plus in its newly released 2025 Report Card for America's Infrastructure. The engineers found that school buildings are continuing to age and deteriorate as the funding provided to bring those facilities to a state of good repair falls well short of meeting needs.
"The annual funding gap to reach a state of good repair for the nation’s public schools 
has grown from $60 billion in 2016 to $85 billion in 2021," the report card says. "Critical needs at school buildings include water upgrades to remove lead and installation of cooling systems amid increasing temperatures."
 

Most of us would rather not think about what our lives will be like in the aftermath of the Big One – a magnitude 9.0 rupture of the offshore Cascadia earthquake fault. Yet, it’s worth considering where you’ll go if your house slides off its foundation or your apartment lacks heat, electricity and running water.

For many, if not most Pacific Northwest residents, walking to their neighborhood school to find earthquake relief is a reasonable first instinct. The trouble is the majority of Oregon schools were built before the state had a seismic building code and could well be unusable. 

Emergency preparedness advocates made another try at the Oregon Legislature this spring to raise the standard for new school construction. But it might take a political earthquake to overcome opposition from wary school associations.

“Let’s be clear, the Cascadia Earthquake will most likely be the most powerful natural disaster in modern U.S. history, and we must be bold in our efforts to build a strategic resilience vision for Oregon,” said state Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth.

Evans introduced a measure in the Oregon House that would require new schools to be built stronger and to include disaster shelter features as a condition of receiving state construction support. House Bill 3707 would apply in earthquake country west of the Cascades and in Klamath County, but it didn’t receive a hearing or have a work session scheduled by the March 21 deadline to keep bills moving.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In the state Senate, a bill is being discussed to change the name of the state School Building Authority.
The Senate Education Committee began discussions on Senate Bill 261 on Monday.
The bill would rename the SBA the “School Maintenance Authority,” and it would transition the purpose of the authority from an organization that primarily focuses on financing school construction and improvement projects, to an entity that has the primary focus of financing school maintenance projects.
The bill also includes the definition of “maintenance project,” and modifies the definition of “major school improvement projects.”
Putnam County Senator Eric Tarr said he was left to the understanding that school maintenance projects were the responsibility of local school systems and not directly funded through the state.
“The way I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that much of the school maintenance is afforded at the local level, because in the School Aid funding formula, there’s a step for the square footage that’s in the buildings, that we fund counties for the purposes of maintaining their schools already,” Tarr inquired.
 

BRIDGEPORT — Acting Superintendent of Schools Royce Avery believes the school system must first secure the funding and construct new school buildings before it moves forward with a proposal to shutter several old facilities.
A recently completed study found the district’s aging buildings will need $702.5 million in upgrades over the next decade and recommends closing seven aging schools to save money on costly repairs. 
But Avery said during a community forum Tuesday that the schools should stay open until new buildings have been erected to replace them — a process he noted could take three to four years to complete. 
“We can’t close buildings until we get new facilities,” Avery said. “So until that happens we’re not even going to talk about school closures because we have nowhere to put the kids.” 
 

A new study that takes a comprehensive look at the state of school infrastructure across Michigan identified billions of dollars in needed repairs.

The School Finance Research Foundation, a nonprofit that began its statewide analysis in spring 2023, estimates Michigan schools will need $22.8 billion in infrastructure investment over the next decade. The costs include critical repairs for HVAC systems, roofing and electrical work, among other maintenance needs.

In a public meeting announcing the findings, education leaders from across the state emphasized how aging buildings are impacting student learning—for instance, when temperatures soar.

“You will notice that all schools don't close in those instances, but there are some that have to close because of the ventilation system, because of the HVAC,” said Daveda Colbert, superintendent of Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency. “Students can't learn in those situations. Staff can't perform in those situations.”

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is calling for a $4 billion bond for public school construction, mentioning the proposal in his state of the state address on March 12 and including it in his budget proposal unveiled yesterday.
“We need safer, healthier, and more modern schools,” said Stein during his state of the state address. “So tonight, I’m proposing a $4 billion public school bond. And if you’re not sure about it, let’s let the voters decide,” .
Stein pointed to issues like overcrowded classrooms, reliance on temporary trailers, and aging infrastructure in public schools.
“Our students also need safe and well-built schools,” Stein continued. “Unfortunately, too many of our schools are overcrowded or use trailers or have old leaking roofs and broken heating and air conditioning. It is 2025. We should not have to send kids home from school because the heat doesn’t work.”
“We also need upgrades for safety like cameras, fences around playgrounds, exterior locks, fewer access points to secure our school buildings from people who mean harm. Nothing is more important than keeping our kids safe,” Stein added.
 

KETTERING, Ohio (WDTN) — With school buildings going on 70 years or older, Kettering City Schools has been working with state officials and contractors to create a plan to address the aging infrastructure.
On Thursday night, officials unveiled their plans during a public forum, sharing some pretty big changes in the works, including both potential renovations and demolitions to buildings within the Kettering City Schools system.
Partnering with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) for funding, city officials had multiple plans — some involving the consolidation of elementary and middle schools in the district.
“We’re presenting some bold plans for the future, does the community want to consider consolidating Kettering Middle School and Van Buren into one combined middle school?” said Mike Ruetschle, architect. “And might it be at Fairmont High School? It’s kind of an extraordinary idea.”
Many of the schools in Kettering’s district are coming up on 70 years old and after inspections with the OFCC, they wouldn’t fund renovations of some schools due to age and poor condition.
Dealing with a forecasted decline in enrollment and facing the mounting potential costs of renovations, officials had to propose funding in the hundreds of millions.
 

Several years ago, Oklahoma City Public Schools shuttered more than a dozen of its school buildings.
It was part of a realignment process in the district to right-size student populations within schools — some were overcrowded, others were underenrolled — and to make the school experience better and more consistent for students across the city.
But what to do with all of those empty buildings?
It’s a question that scores of district leaders across the country are now asking themselves. As enrollment has declined in some public schools — due to the greater uptake of alternative education environments such as virtual schools, homeschooling and private schools since the pandemic; lower birth rates; and population shifts that have left some school districts with far fewer children than they served years ago — a number of districts have made the decision to consolidate student populations and close down school buildings.
Then what?
“When buildings sit vacant, they can become unsafe spaces, and we didn’t want that to happen,” says Stephanie Hinton, executive director of early childhood at Oklahoma City Public Schools.
One idea that has taken hold in many districts: repurposing these empty school buildings into early care and education centers.
It’s a natural fit, says Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst with the Education Policy Program at New America, a think tank.
These buildings are often capacious and centrally located within a community, featuring large parking lots and already zoned for educational purposes, notes Loewenberg. They’re also typically former elementary schools, meaning that some aspects of the original classroom and building design can accommodate younger learners.
 

For decades, dozens of rural school districts have been asking the state for money to fix a range of serious health and safety problems. Only a small percentage of that money has come through.

Southeast Island School District Superintendent Rod Morrison got a chance to be heard. He was in Juneau to testify before the powerful Alaska Senate Finance Committee when he lifted a large lightbulb from a plastic shopping bag and showed it to committee members.

“You’ll see it almost caught on fire,” Morrison said, pointing out black marks on the top of the lightbulb. “This happened with six of our gymnasium lights and it’s obvious our fire suppression system was inoperable.”

Morrison’s district has made at least 17 funding requests to the state for financial assistance to replace the fire suppression system in the school at Thorne Bay, a small community northwest of Ketchikan.

“I would assume that we are on the brink of another Kasayulie 2.0 coming to us that may be more costly to the state than if we came forward and tried to do something about the condition of these schools,” said Alaska Senate Finance Committee co-chair Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat from Bethel.

Hoffman was referring to a successful lawsuit brought by a group of Alaska Native parents in 1997. They argued that Alaska’s education funding system violated its constitution and the federal Civil Rights Act. In 2011, a judge agreed and ruled that the Alaska Legislature had to find a more equitable way to fund infrastructure in rural school districts.

KYUK and ProPublica have spent the last year visiting rural schools and found the same kinds of conditions that spurred the case: leaking roofs, failing heating systems, and broken sewer lines.

Bulloch County Schools will open its first school-based health center this fall, offering comprehensive medical care and counseling care to students and staff at two of its schools.

Langston Chapel Elementary (LCES) and Langston Chapel Middle School (LCMS), which share a campus, will benefit from this project that is being funded by a $1 million grant from the Georgia Department of Education. These schools were selected because they have the school district’s highest number of students who are in foster care, Medicaid eligible, or experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness. The goal is to help remove the multiple barriers that these families experience with receiving quality healthcare and to help lessen disruptions to their children’s education.

“This center will provide essential healthcare services to both our students and staff, making care more accessible and timely,” said Aldric Dekle, principal of LCES. “By offering on-site health services, we can improve attendance, support well-being, and ensure that our staff and students stay healthy and ready to work and learn.”

The principal of LCMS, Willie Robinson, Ed.D., agreed and called it a “game changer” for his school. These administrators also believe it will be a positive employee benefit that they can highlight as they seek to recruit faculty and staff at their schools.

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Governor Sanders paid a visit today to the campus of the Arkansas School for the Deaf and Blind, where construction is kicking off on a brand-new state-of-the-art facility.
After touring the facility with legislators and staff last year, Governor Sanders committed to developing a plan to address the school's critical needs, with the goal of improving educational opportunities for its students.
"Every single student here is getting the education, not only that they need, but that they deserve," says Governor Sanders.
The construction project aims to expand resources and ensure high-quality instruction in modern facilities while preserving the historic nature of the campus.
“Blind and visually, impaired and deaf kids, they have just as much right to have a great educational experience as anybody else. I just think sometimes they need people to advocate for them," says Cary Smith, Secretary on School Board.
It will also include specialized classrooms tailored to students unique hearing and vision needs and addresses critical safety concerns, like mold, and worn-down buildings.
 

At Poolesville High School in Maryland, two seniors — Eric Huang and Pranav Karthikeyan — noticed the process of submitting requests for maintenance issues at the school was far from efficient.

The students, who are a part of the school’s science, math and technology program, would soon discover a similar story played out at other schools as well — involving either genuine concerns or simple needs like soap in bathrooms. Students would have to go through multiple people before school staff learned about the problem.

“In order to actually communicate that right now to my school, what I have to do is talk to my teacher, who will send an email to the building manager, who now communicates that to maintenance staff,” Karthikeyan said.

“These concerns and these issues pile up over time,” Huang said. “Coming from a neighborhood that’s not necessarily as safe, I really do understand the entire importance of security.”

At West Philly’s Overbrook Elementary School, a group of third graders recently spent part of the morning outside in their asphalt schoolyard. Split into groups and holding printed maps of the space, they wandered around and brainstormed about how the space is used — and what it could become.

“Y’all, we could put a basketball court right there!” one student said excitedly.

Overbrook is one of three Philly schools currently in the process of revamping their schoolyards with support from the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that works to create equitable access to  public parks, green spaces and natural lands across the United States. TPL’s work focuses on low-income neighborhoods that have less access to green spaces. The organization coordinates with school districts to build new, climate-friendly schoolyards that serve students and the surrounding neighborhood during after school hours. But, instead of leaving the renovation process entirely up to an architect, TPL’s participatory design program gives kids the reins. TPL has already revamped 15 schoolyards in Philadelphia, including Alain Locke and Benjamin Franklin Elementary, and hundreds more nationwide.

DERWOOD, Md. - Parents and students at a Montgomery County school are frustrated after a part of the ceiling falls during the opening weekend of the school's spring musical over the weekend.
Ceiling collapses during spring musical 
The backstory:
Magruder High School in Derwood is about 55 years old and naturally has some maintenance issues.
"Our infrastructure is aging in general, the cost of maintenance and repairs and construction is increasing in general, and our budget is becoming more restrained, so when you put all those pieces together, it's certainly frustrating that the ones impacted by this are our students," said Magruder PTSA President Kim Glassman.
Photos shared with FOX 5 by parents show a chunk of the ceiling missing after it fell during the spring musical "Once Upon a Mattress."
As all great productions do - they took a pause and then the show went on.
But after an assessment, school officials found the issue needs more time to fix - so the auditorium is currently closed and the musical has moved down the road to Shady Grove Middle School.
Parents tell us they have been asking for capital improvements to the school for years - and those have been delayed.
According to MCPS officials, the CIP budget focuses on 'significant, long-term capital projects', and issues like this are considered general school maintenance, falling within the operational budget.