BEATRICE – A Nebraska lawmaker wants to require voter approval before a public school district can spend building funds. Senator Steve Halloran’s LB 1063 was heard in the Education Committee on Tuesday. It would set a target of $250,000, above which would require voter approval to spend district building levy funds. Why $250,000? Halloran admitted it’s an arbitrary figure.

"Not all schools abuse their buildings funds....some do. But, the nature of what we do in the legislature is, if a few people abuse something and we make laws that everyone has to follow....sometimes it can be intrusive to do that. If the committee can think of a way to narrowly control those districts that abuse it, I'm all for that."
The bill drew no support testimony during the hearing, but plenty of opposition from school officials and organizations that represent schools. Those included the Greater Nebraska Schools Association, which represents 25 of the largest school districts.  Crete Public Schools Superintendent Josh McDowell spoke on behalf of his district, the STANCE organization…Schools Taking Action For Nebraska Children’s Education…. The Nebraska Council of School Administrators and the Nebraska State Education Association.  He said the bill represents an erosion of local control and undermines the authority of elected school boards.

Just before the pandemic began, administrators for the Oneida school district in upstate New York started pondering a plan to consolidate two elementary schools where enrollment had been steadily declining for years.
The onset of COVID-19, and the burst of federal relief aid that followed it, put those plans on hold. In recent months, though, the 1,700-student district has revisited the possibility that it could better serve students and spend resources more prudently with five schools instead of six.
On paper, the decision might seem simple. Having one less building reduces the cost of facilities maintenance, as well as compensation for principals and their deputies, nurses, counselors, and other building aides. That, in turn, frees up funds that could be redirected to staffing and support for students at the remaining schools.
But closing a school is almost always a logistically and emotionally arduous process.
The Oneida district’s students live across 42 square miles, which means closing a school could lengthen bus rides for many. Staff at the shuttered school might not be keen on shifting to another school, meaning the district could find itself needing to fill positions it otherwise wouldn’t. And the school building slated for closure, North Broad Street Elementary, has been a fixture in the community since it opened in 1911, meaning the 10,000-person city would be losing a part of its identity.
 

DENVER – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to award $10,670,000 in grant funding to nine selected recipients across the country to enhance community wildfire smoke preparedness. Of these recipients, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is anticipating a $1,895,705 grant to design a state-wide program for wildfire smoke awareness and preparation. 

CDPHE will use the EPA funds to provide outreach, education, and training for local community partners on how to prepare for, and respond to, the public health threat of wildfire smoke. This includes leveraging the Clean Air for Schools program, which provides air cleaners and indoor air quality monitors to K-12 schools, where CDPHE will partner with local communities to develop response plans for wildfire smoke events. Some of the expected outcomes include Smoke Readiness Plans, providing technical training on ventilation and filtration strategies, preparing school buildings to serve as Community Cleaner Air Shelters, and enabling indoor air quality monitoring in public school buildings to understand wildfire smoke impacts and evaluate effective responses.  With more than 880,000 kids enrolled in Colorado public schools, developing wildfire smoke preparedness programs improves indoor air quality and reduces public health risks for many students. 

WICHITA, Kansas — About a half-dozen Wichita public schools will close for good at the end of the school year, as the district deals with declining enrollment and a massive budget shortfall.

Wichita Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said four to seven schools will likely close. Officials plan to present a list to the school board at its next meeting Feb. 12, and board members plan to vote on closings before spring break in March.

Wichita faces a $42 million budget gap, and leaders say closing buildings is the only way to prevent job cuts.

Susan Willis, chief financial officer for Wichita schools, says resources are spread too thinly over the district’s 90-plus schools. Wichita’s enrollment is trending downward. Meanwhile, the district faces about $1.2 billion in needed building repairs and maintenance, and staff shortages continue.

“It’s hard to even say the words, right?” Willis said. “Because it’s emotional to say the answer that solves those three problems is: Reduce the number of school buildings.”

Wichita is the state’s largest district, but enrollment has been declining since 2016.

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced $100 million is now available through the Clean Green Schools Initiative under the historic $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act. The initiative will allow for the advancement of construction projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help public schools improve environmental sustainability and decarbonize school buildings. Today’s announcement supports the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050 and ensure at least 35 percent, with a goal of 40 percent, of the benefits from clean energy investments be directed to disadvantaged communities.

“Creating a safe and healthy learning environment is critical to providing our children the best education possible,” Governor Hochul said. “These investments will make our school facilities cleaner and more sustainable – and will have a tremendous positive effect on future generations of students.”

Residents of Stow and Munroe Falls would rather scrap and replace many of their current school buildings than renovate those facilities at a modestly lower cost, according to feedback the district has collected so far.

During a public forum Thursday at Kimpton Middle School, the Stow-Munroe Falls City School district received positive responses to proposals to:

Build a total of four new elementary schools to replace the current six.
Construct a new middle school at the current site shared by Highland Elementary and Lakeview Intermediate schools.
Place new elementary buildings at the current sites of Kimpton Middle and Fishcreek and Woodland elementary as well as on district-owned property on Housley Road.

Feedback from Thursday's forum — along with another public meeting this week and community surveys — will help the district to finalize its master plan for facilities ahead of an opportunity to put a bond issue on the November ballot.

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Help could be on the way for schools across Virginia, because on Jan. 23, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee advanced a proposal designed to dedicate more money toward school infrastructure. 

The bill, authored by State Senator Jeremy McPike (D-Prince William), would allow all localities in Virginia to charge an additional 1% sales tax to fund school construction and renovation, but only if voters of that locality approve the increase through a referendum.

“This will give the local citizens the opportunity to choose whether they want to increase the local sales tax so they can improve schools for kids in their community,” explained Washington County School Superintendent Keith Perrigan, who also represents 81 school districts as President of The Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia. 

Currently, only nine municipalities have approval from the Virginia General Assembly to charge such a tax. 

Perrigan said many localities can’t afford the cost of renovating their existing schools or building new ones.

At an afternoon committee meeting Monday, some members of the Prince George’s County Council expressed worry the county’s public school system will have to make cuts to programs for kids because of a change to the way it pays for new schools.

Prince George’s County has begun building new schools through a public-private partnership in which developers build and maintain the schools, and the county pays the developers back over 30 years.

Six new schools opened this school year under the program, and now Prince George’s County is starting a second phase in which eight more new schools are expected to be built.

Supporters of the public-private program said it’s a way to get new schools built much faster and much cheaper, and in addition, will help keep schools from falling into disrepair.

The moment something big breaks, (we’re) not going to have the money to pay for it.”

This is the worry of Deputy Superintendent Randy Meyer and others at the Victoria Independent School District.

This week, the district’s maintenance headaches came from a busted boiler at Vickers Elementary School and a frozen section of pipe at Mission Valley. Though relatively small when compared to other potential costly catastrophes like half-a-million-dollar air conditioner chillers or a school bus, it still resulted in students missing a day of school.

With aging campuses, this week’s woes once again prompted Meyer and others to wonder when they will be able to stop patching equipment in use well-past their intended lifespans and employ a solution to replace things on a healthy schedule.

Washoe County could close more than a dozen schools in a plan to modernize and consolidate over 100 district buildings as studies show enrollment numbers are set to decline.

The billion-dollar endeavor includes closing as many as 19 schools over 15 years, while reimaging buildings, education and what to do with dozens of schools, some a half-century old and below capacity.

“(This is) the most bold and broadest facility master plan, facility modernization plan this district has ever undertaken,” said Chief Operating Officer Adam Searcy.

With officials hoping to make some progress on addressing a backlog of maintenance needs, Hamilton County commissioners are considering more than $3 million worth of school projects that include paving, security upgrades and more.

The request, which totals almost $3.7 million, would also cover boilers and chillers at several schools in addition to roof repairs. The panel will decide whether to fund those projects at its next meeting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday on the fourth floor of the Hamilton County Courthouse, 625 Georgia Ave. Commissioners discussed the item during a meeting Jan. 10, with plans to vote on it the following Wednesday, but the panel's meeting was delayed a week because of inclement weather.

The funding would come out of a $6 million pot commissioners withheld from the school budget last summer to lower ongoing funding obligations to the district.

WASHINGTON (CITC) — Students nationwide sat in freezing classrooms this week as their schools' heating systems failed amid extreme weather.
Nearly every U.S. state was placed under a weather alert over the last week due to snow, rain and freezing temperatures. In some schools that chose not to close, infrastructure issues created "unbearable" environments for students and teachers.
The San Antonio Independent School District (San Antonio ISD) closed Thursday and Friday as officials worked to fix the heating systems in 31 schools. Prior to the closures, teachers described students "complaining that they were cold" in their classrooms throughout the week.
Several San Antonio ISD employees alleged district leadership knew of the heating issues ahead of time, but kept schools open regardless.
San Antonio ISD's deputy superintendent of operations and chief of operations both resigned following the allegations. The district's superintendent, Jaime Aquino, has maintained that the matter should be partially blamed on human error.
"It is crucial to acknowledge that our current situation stems from various issues, including aging infrastructure, system failures and being underfunded by the state," Aquino said Thursday.
San Antonio ISD is not the only Texas school district struggling this week, as the Houston Independent School District (Houston ISD) reportedly closed multiple schools over leaking pipes and a lack of hot water. One middle school student asked his grandmother to pick him up early after spending a day and a half in his "very chilly" classrooms, according to ABC13 Houston.
 

OAKLAND PARK - Talon Frazier has big plans, the Jr. ROTC student at Northeast High School will take flying lessons over the summer.  

For now, he's thrilled to be going to classes in a brand new building that opened just days ago on his campus. 

"It's a lot more comfy and refreshing to go here every day," he says.  When I got here this was a vacant empty parking lot."

For years, the school that was opened in 1962, was a poster child for crumbling Broward schools with leaking roofs, mold and poor air conditioning.  

It was one of the schools that was supposed to be renovated immediately after Broward taxpayers approved an $800 million bond issue in 2014, but through a complicated mixture of delays, mismanagement, skyrocketing costs, and state funding cuts nothing happened. 

Grayslake Middle School will be closed for at least a month after the building experienced major issues due to the extreme cold temperatures this week, officials said.
Community Consolidated School District 46 Superintendent Dr. Lynn Glickman said there were significant issues with boilers, unit ventilators and sprinkler heads at Grayslake Middle School due to the cold weather.
“Yesterday, we were informed by our contractors that due to the scope of the repairs that will need to be made at GMS, we will not be able to reopen that building for several weeks,” Glickman said in a message to the school community Thursday.
The current estimate is four to six weeks for repairs to be made. “I know that this is difficult news to process, but I’m glad that I’m able to share this news while also sharing a plan moving forward,” Glickman said.
 

ALEDO – Aledo ISD recently closed on a land purchase and partial land swap totaling 100-plus acres north of Old Weatherford Road for a future high school site.

AISD purchased approximately 50 acres and swapped approximately 50 acres with the Walsh Ranch Development to add up to approximately 100 acres just north of McAnally Middle School and just northeast of Lynn McKinney Elementary, which is currently being built. The land purchase was for $1,959,580; the district will have responsibility for developing infrastructure on the site as required by the city of Fort Worth.

“With the passage of the Aledo ISD 2023 Bond, we were able to complete these transactions for a site that will allow for a large comprehensive high school to be built when growth and our community indicate it is time for another high school,” Superintendent Dr. Susan Bohn said. “We have been able to turn what years ago was planned to be a future high school site on Old Weatherford Road into three school sites for our community.”

Unit 5 is gaining recognition for an initiative to make most of its buildings leaders in energy efficiency — a move that's resulted in significant cost savings.

At its monthly meeting on Wednesday, the school board heard from operations manager Tom Rockwell about the milestone: McLean County's largest school district is home to more than half of Illinois K-12 schools awarded the Energy Star rating in 2023.

To earn the rating, a building must meet strict energy performance standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

About half of the Unit 5 certifications resulted from energy projects that Rockwell said spared the district about $4.3 million in energy costs. Another $1 million came in the form of utility incentives, he said.

Board member Jeremy DeHaai was quick to applaud the Unit 5 operations team.

For years, students and staff at Bushwick Leaders High School for Academic Excellence in Brooklyn had a recurring complaint about their aging school building: There were no working water fountains.

Staff and students tried in vain to get them fixed, and Principal Enrique Garcia resorted to stockpiling bottled water to hand out to thirsty students. Seventeen-year-old senior Gabrielle Smith felt compelled to act after a friend passed out on a sweltering day because of dehydration.

“That was the turning point for me and my mom. She was like, ‘I need to bring this issue up, I need to do something,’” Smith recalled.

Her mom, Florence Knights, brought the problem to East Brooklyn Congregations, the four-decade-old network of faith-based community organizations that helped found the school. Leaders from that group got the attention of First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg, who came to the school to meet with families and staff in spring 2022.

“The day after he met with us, water and AC units were brought into our school,” Smith recalled.

Bundled in coats and mittens to stave off the frigid winter air, a group of school leaders, staff, parents and construction workers watched as the final steel beam for the new Rogers High School building was set in place on Thursday, marking a major milestone for a project that has hit more than a few barriers along the way.

“This generational build will impact families and students for far longer than we will be around and so I'm so thankful to be a part of this and enjoyed learning all about high schools being built,” Principal Jared Vance said. “I just can’t thank the community and city enough for what they’ve done in supporting us.”

The final beam was signed by several students and staff members at Rogers High School, affixed with a small tree and an American flag, then raised by a crane and set into place on the new building’s steel frame.

When school lets out this summer, crews could begin the work to take down the 1949 academic building at Alamo Heights High School. 
But during a hearing in Alamo Heights City Council chambers on Tuesday, a panel charged with reviewing the school district’s request to demolish the building hit an impasse. 
The architectural review board (ARB) voted not to recommend approval or denial of a request to raze the school building at 6900 Broadway St. In its place, the district wants to construct a new academic building that would open in 2026.
Instead, the board agreed to disagree, leaving the council to decide if the district can proceed with its plans. 
The case is scheduled to be considered by the City Council in February.
 

Is it a good idea to reduce the public support needed tp pass a school construction bond?  The 50% plus 1 vote is the standard to pass a property tax levy, raise sales taxes in taxing districts and elect candidate who can raise your taxes without a vote in many instances.

A school construction bond has to meet a much higher super majority standard of 60% voter approval and some lawmakers want to pass an amendment to the state constitution making it easier they argue to pass bond measures in the future.