HARRISBURG — An environmental advocacy group and the state’s two largest teachers’ unions are giving the state a failing grade on efforts to eliminate lead in school drinking water.

“School is for learning and playing — not getting a daily dose of lead-tainted water. Lead damages kids’ ability to learn, grow and behave. There is no safe level of lead for children,” Stephanie Wein, clean water advocate for the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, said last week. “Protecting our kids’ health requires prevention at every drinking water tap — and our report card gives Pennsylvania a failing grade.”

As more Pennsylvania schools test their water, most schools have found that their drinking water systems contain lead, from the pipes running through school buildings and the soldering used to hold the pipes together, to the components in the drinking fountains themselves. Wherever there is lead, there is a risk of water contamination, the environmental group said in a statement announcing it's giving the state an 'F' for its efforts to eliminate lead in school drinking water. For example, the School District of Philadelphia found that 98% of school buildings had drinking outlets test positive for lead. According to a 2021 report by Women for a Healthy Environment, of 65 Pennsylvania school districts surveyed, 91% of those tested found lead in their water.

The legislative Committee on Education grilled the Guam Department of Education for four hours on Friday in an attempt to ascertain what progress has been reached in school readiness. Projects under the Disaster Local Area Network, or DLAN, system were of particular focus.

Chris Anderson, who serves as GDOE administrator of student support services and point of contact for the Office of Civil Defense and Department of Administration gave status updates on projects being addressed through the DLAN system.

“There are total of 17 tickets that were submitted starting from June 13, all the way through as late as Aug. 25. About 24% of the tickets are complete, 76% are still pending and of those that are still pending, 60% of the tickets require most likely contracts,” Anderson said.

The first ticket deals with a health concern many parents have voiced since Typhoon Mawar — mold mitigation for all 41 schools and the central office. But, according to Anderson, that is still pending.

“Right now, the work is with General Service Agency, working through their contracts they needed some assistance with DOE to put together a scope of work which we’ve done and that’s been submitted to them, so we’re just waiting for the procurement process to finalize,” Anderson said.

Addressing safety at schools, namely perimeter fencing for 29 schools, is also tied up in procurement.

MANCHESTER, CT (WFSB) - Bower Elementary School officially reopened after a year of Net Zero Energy renovations.
The project finished just in time to welcome students back on Tuesday.
Now, all students will be learning in a school that can produce enough renewable energy to meet its own annual energy consumption.
The upgrade also came with enhanced classrooms with high-tech tools and versatile furniture. Teachers say, it takes some of the weight off of their shoulders.
“Having a space like this and having all the resources available really helps me dedicate the time to working with the kids and getting them what they need,” said teacher Ms. Sullivan.
The school also has two STEM labs to help foster an interest in STEM fields.
 

Costa Mesans seeking opportunities to recreate, particularly on the city’s west side, will soon be able to find more options, after city officials and Newport-Mesa Unified School District agreed to open certain school fields to the public after hours.

The Costa Mesa City Council Tuesday approved hiring a full-time park ranger and to enhance the city’s contract with Lyons Security Services to allow for public use of lands at Rea, Wilson, Whittier and potentially Pomona elementary schools when classes are not in session.

NMUSD officials have also agreed to remove a temporary fence installed this summer outside its Harper Assessment Center near Harper Park, which serves special education students and houses ISSAC Charter school, as part of a six-month pilot program.

Deputy City Manager Alma Reyes said the two parties have held multiple discussions on how to improve access to open space, particularly in west-side neighborhoods where children have fewer outdoor amenities.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Congressman Bobby Scott toured Booker T. Washington Middle School in Newport News Friday, which he attended when it was an elementary school, to discuss the need to invest in America's school infrastructure.
A June 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the state of school infrastructure — the agency’s first report on the subject since 1996 — found that 54 percent of school districts across the country must replace or update major systems in more than half their buildings.
to discuss improving school infrastructure

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By: Ellen IcePosted at 12:45 PM, Sep 08, 2023 and last updated 8:22 PM, Sep 08, 2023
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Congressman Bobby Scott toured Booker T. Washington Middle School in Newport News Friday, which he attended when it was an elementary school, to discuss the need to invest in America's school infrastructure.
A June 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the state of school infrastructure — the agency’s first report on the subject since 1996 — found that 54 percent of school districts across the country must replace or update major systems in more than half their buildings.
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"We found that there are serious deficits all over the country in terms of maintaining schools and building new schools, there’s too many people being taught in trailers, too many schools dilapidated, many schools are 40, 50, 60 years and older,” said Scott.
At Friday's event, Scott highlighted the Rebuild America's School Act of 2023. The legislation would invest $130 billion in grants and bond authority to help repair, replace and upgrade public school facilities.
"The money we’ll have available if the bill passes will have upgrades in terms of technology, upgrades in terms of ventilation systems, and other upgrades to make sure the children can have a safe and up to date place to learn,” said Scott.
 

As the story map was released this week, schools in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and other localities canceled classes or after-school activities due to extremely high temperatures. In Massachusetts, Lowell Public Schools canceled classes Thursday and Friday because ”the temperatures in many classrooms are expected to be too hot for teachers to teach effectively,” a notice on the district’s website said. 

In the past month, schools in Hawaii closed after wildfires impacted areas in Maui, and several Florida districts shut down in anticipation of Hurricane Idalia.

“Sure, weather has always impacted school closures, but what we are seeing in recent years is more frequent extreme weather events, with more damaging outcomes, driving more school closures and more time away from the classroom for students,” said Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign, in a statement. 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Public school teacher Ángel Muñiz grabbed a thermometer and thrust it into the camera as someone recorded him inside his classroom this week.
“It is about 99 degrees (37 C),” he said in a video posted on social media as seven fans whirred noisily around him.
It wasn’t even noon yet, and an advisory that day warned of a heat index of up to 111 F (43.8 C).
Students and teachers are sweltering in public schools across Puerto Rico that lack air conditioning and are demanding government action as the U.S. Caribbean territory struggles to respond to climate change effects while it bakes under record heat this year.
Last month was the hottest August on the island since record-keeping began. Puerto Rico broke the record of the daily maximum temperature six times and the highest minimum eight times, according to the National Weather Service in San Juan.
It also was the hottest August worldwide, with 2023 the second hottest year on record so far.
Heat advisories for Puerto Rico became the norm this summer, with the island reporting a record 47 nights with temperatures above 80 F (26 C).
“Records are being broken almost every day,” said Odalys Martínez, National Weather Service forecaster.
Public schools with no air conditioning or whose cooling systems are inoperable due to power outages blamed on a hurricane-battered electric grid are seeking relief, but it’s unlikely they’ll find it soon.
Last month, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi quietly vetoed a bill that called for air conditioning systems for public schools. The move outraged many, with some calling the situation inhumane as students organized protests.
 

As the D.C. region continues to sweat through a record-breaking late-summer heat wave, some D.C. public school students don’t have air conditioning in their classrooms. It’s a problem the city has been grappling with for decades, but this year, the start of the school term coincided with D.C.’s hottest 4-day stretch on record for September.

“We’ve just been failed on numerous occasions because of what we call bandaid-fix solutions,” says Angela Anderson, president of the parent teacher organization at Whittier Elementary in Ward 4, and parent of 3rd grader at the school. “Every year since I’ve been there, there has been some type of unhealthy HVAC issue.”

Whittier started out the school year last week with four classrooms without fully functioning cooling systems, Anderson says. On Tuesday this week, the PTO raised the alarm about a preschool classroom that “felt like 100 degrees,” according to Anderson. Later that afternoon, the Department of General Services, which is in charge of school maintenance in the District, installed a temporary window unit in the pre-k classroom.

“It helped a little. It kind of felt like hot breath and warm hugs when the teacher and the students came in. But it was better than nothing,” Anderson says.

Out of options to fund repairs to its decaying buildings, a 400-student school district in one of Washington’s poorest counties launched a legal challenge against the state two years ago. 

On Thursday, the Wahkiakum School District lost in a unanimous ruling from the Washington Supreme Court. Local taxpayers are still expected to share in the costs of maintaining and constructing school buildings, even if, like Wahkiakum, they haven’t approved a bond in 20-plus years. 

But the debate over the state’s investment in school construction funding costs will continue. While the opinion says the state isn’t required to cover 100% of basic school capital construction costs, it offers a legal path for school districts to challenge how much and where the state is currently chipping in. 

“They’ve left the door open,” said Wahkiakum Superintendent Brent Freeman. 

There is little reprieve for school districts that fail to pass a bond in Washington state, which are often the smallest and poorest. Without a bond, these districts are also locked out of qualifying for the state’s largest construction assistance program. Another state grant program, which is more flexible and is aimed at small school districts, hasn’t offered sufficient funds for substantive repairs. It was funded for about $100 million in the last legislative session.

As school-aged children and young adults in the United States and many other countries around the world head back to school, parents, teachers and administrators are increasingly keenly aware of the importance of school facilities in supporting student and staff health and well-being. For many, schools represent a safe haven, the center of the community where children learn, develop and grow. Yet, from outdated infrastructure to climate-change related extreme weather events such as wildfire smoke and heat waves that increase the incidence of indoor air pollution, much of the education sector is struggling to keep up with the requirements of operating and maintaining modern school facilities.

It is widely understood how critical the school years are to supporting academic needs, but students, teachers and staff also need educational facilities that support their physical, mental and emotional health. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, "By the time a student graduates high school, they will have spent more than 15,000 hours in a school building, which is the second longest indoor exposure time after their home…This is a time of critical physiological, social, and emotional growth and development, which is susceptible to many indoor conditions including, indoor air pollution, mold, elevated noise levels, radon, asbestos, inadequate lighting and more." These indoor conditions can not only affect student health, but have a significant impact on learning, too. A recent New York Times article highlighted that "decades of research have suggested that improving air quality also can raise academic performance, increase test scores, bolster attention and memory, and decrease absences due to illness or other factors."

As a member of the school board in the remote Central Idaho town of Salmon, Josh Tolman worried that an earthquake would turn the elementary and middle schools to rubble. The foundations of the schools were crumbling. The floors buckled. The district canceled school whenever a few inches of snow fell for fear the roofs would cave in.
But Tolman and the school district were in a bind: They couldn’t convince enough voters to support a tax increase that would allow the district to build a new facility. The school board ran six bond elections in seven years. But even though 53% of the community supported the bond in one of their first attempts in 2006, it wasn’t enough. Idaho is one of two states that require two-thirds of voters to support a bond for it to pass.
“Unless an existing school actually falls to the ground and becomes unusable, I don’t perceive them ever passing a bond,” Tolman said in a recent interview.
By 2012, the school board and its superintendent had had enough. They decided to turn to a state program that lets school districts borrow money from the state if they have unsafe facilities and can’t pass a bond or figure out another way to fix them. The loan program had been created after the state Supreme Court ruled that Idaho had failed to comply with its constitutional mandate to provide a “safe environment conducive to learning.”
 

Tempers get short. Test scores suffer. On the worst days, schools close, and students lose days of learning while parents’ schedules are disrupted.
Yorkwood Elementary in Baltimore, before it finally got air conditioning last year, was subject to closure by the district on any day the forecast hit 90 degrees by 10 a.m. And the number of those days has been rising over time.
“I remember one year we literally had seven [closure] days before we were able to have a full week of school because of the heat,” said Tonya Redd, the principal.
July 2023 was the world’s hottest month on record. And America’s schools weren’t built for this. According to a 2021 study by the Center for Climate Integrity, more than 13,700 public schools that did not need cooling systems in 1970 have installed — or will need to install — HVAC systems by 2025,based on the increasing number of very hot days during the school year. Total estimated cost: over $40 billion.
The good news is, there are many design and architectural innovations that can keep students, faculty and staff comfortable, while also creating healthier, greener and even more engaging places to learn. And there’s federal funding to pay for it.
But, installing air conditioners without making other renovations, which is often the cheapest and most expedient option, raises a school’s fossil fuel consumption, ultimately making the problem of climate change worse.
Baltimore is an example of a district that’s had to rapidly upgrade for a changing climate. Six years ago, 75 out of its 140 school buildings, including Yorkwood Elementary, lacked air conditioning.
Now, that number is down to 11, according to Cyndi Smith, the district’s executive director for facilities planning, design and construction. “It has been a big challenge,” she said. “We have the oldest average-age buildings [of every district] in the state, going back to the late 1800s.”  
 

For the first time in its 146-year history, the Sumner Elementary School in Roslindale will begin the school year with air conditioning. The addition has already made a difference to teachers, many of whom are busy preparing and decorating their classrooms for Boston Public Schools' opening day on Thursday.
"In the past I would have to bring so much water because it would be so hot and humid without the air conditioner," said Meghan Welch, the school's principal.
The Sumner school building is one dozens of city buildings that BPS officials have been working to retrofit with window air conditioning units over the last two years, according to a back-to-school memo released last Wednesday.
The Sumner school building received classroom units in June. And as the first day of school nears, Welch is glad that students will be able to learn in a more comfortable setting, especially since temperatures in Boston can remain hot and sticky in early fall and can soar by late spring.
BPS is in the last stage of a $7 million effort boosted by COVID relief funding to cool classrooms in some of its oldest buildings. The project is part of a larger plan called the Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools, aimed at improving the quality and sustainability of school facilities.
 

Temperatures forecasted to hit a high of 91 degrees on Tuesday will shut down all schools in the Southfield Public Schools district and will prompt an early dismissal for all Detroit public schools.

The Pontiac School District also decided to make Tuesday a half day for students.

Southfield expects to resume classes on Wednesday, when the high temperature is expected to be a slightly cooler 88 degrees.

Detroit will release students at all schools three hours early Tuesday, according to a district announcement. Southfield and Detroit are a week into the school year, after starting Aug. 28.

Heat is not a new threat to public schools. Many in Michigan do not have air-conditioning or have antiquated HVAC systems that can't handle high temperatures at the beginning and end of the school year.

Steel beams have been erected for the new Miller Middle School building, according to Durango School District 9-R Chief Operations Officer Christopher Coleman.

In January, the middle school began constructing a 60,000 square-foot three story building east of the existing school building where the football field used to be. The project will cost $45 million.

The Cuningham Group, in collaboration with Reynolds Ash + Associates, helped design the new building and the renovations to the existing school.

The plan also called for keeping a more modern portion of the building, which was added in 2004. That part is located on the school’s east wing. An elevated bridge will connect the buildings.

“It is exciting to see the structure taking shape, and other work is progressing in the background including site utilities and renovations,” Coleman said.

IDAHO FALLS — The path to building a new elementary school in Idaho Falls School District 91 has hit a major roadblock. It doesn’t appear the Idaho State Tax Commission is going to certify a voter-approved 10-year $3.3 million-per-year plant facilities levy.
Without certification, the school district cannot collect the $33 million in property taxes to build the elementary school. This is despite the measure winning a supermajority vote during May’s election.
At the heart of the issue is whether the school district can have multiple plant facility levies. The district says it can, and the state says it can’t.
As a result, the school district is taking the state to court.
Background on the issue
For the past several years, District 91 has been trying unsuccessfully to pass large general school bonds to fund renovation and build new schools to accommodate growth.
The latest large-scale attempt in November was a $250 million bond to build a new high school, two new elementary schools and do various renovations. It failed to receive the supermajority vote required to pass.
So, the district and its school board opted to take an unconventional approach. They asked voters for a plant facility levy for the construction of a single new elementary school through a lease-purchasing agreement. The vote for a plant facility levy only required a simple 55% percent majority to pass, as opposed to the 66.6% supermajority requirement for a general school bond.
 

The Massachusetts School Building Authority has given the green light for facility upgrades in four Holyoke public schools as part of the state’s Accelerated Repair Projects.

The initiative aims to improve learning environments in schools while making strides in energy efficiency and achieving cost savings.

State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg recently announced the approval of these projects. “The Accelerated Repair Program allows us to make critical repairs to more schools in less time,” she said. “By improving the learning environment for our children, the Program also makes schools more energy efficient and generates significant cost savings.”

The MSBA’s recent allocation covers up to $25,897,256 for Accelerated Repair Projects. The MSBA reimburses school districts up to 80% of the cost for improvement or complete construction projects.

Holyoke schools have been designated a substantial portion of the latest amount, primarily targeting structurally, functionally, and educationally buildings needing specific repairs or replacements.

In April, asbestos closed Mitchell Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia, forcing students to learn virtually for weeks, then crowd into a small space at another school for months to finish out their term.
And though officials promised a reopening for the 2023-24 school year, some worried that the 1915 building needed so much work that repairs might not be finished by Tuesday, students’ first day of school.
On Thursday Philadelphia School District facilities area manager Stephen Manna, who has been leading a team working day and night to get the school in shape, proclaimed: Bring on the students. Mitchell will be ready.
“It’s basically a safe, clean learning environment with brand-new lights, brand-new ceiling tiles,” Manna said.
Some Mitchell staff, however, said they felt unprepared to start the school year. While district officials invited news cameras to tour Mitchell’s first floor, where the hallway was clear and shining and classrooms were mostly ready, the school’s second and third floors were still in disarray.
By midmorning Friday, the second floor, third floor, and basement still had desks, chairs, boxes, and assorted teaching materials stacked and pushed against walls in hallways. Shaw MacQueen, a Mitchell teacher, said that “everyone’s at their wits’ end,” and the staff asked for more time to get the school ready for students, but was denied.
 

CHEYENNE — The Wyoming School Facilities Commission announced during a special meeting Wednesday the proposed replacement of a Cheyenne elementary school as part of the $95 million the Legislature set aside for school construction this year.
Laramie County School District 1, under the design and construction portion of the state’s budget, flags on three capacities and three conditions, with two of the conditions being “very high,” according to Jerry Vincent, director of the State Construction Department. Three Laramie County elementary schools have the highest capacity need in the state, with Arp Elementary School in the lead, according to the SCD report
Capacity need refers to the number of students which can be legally contained in a classroom, and condition refers to the safety and functioning space of the physical building.
Andy Knapp, executive director of facilities and planning for LCSD1, said the state would not specifically name what the project funds are for, and there are “several schools in need of condition remedies” in the district.
“I would anticipate we would be making some sort of plan to deal with Arp,” said Knapp, who confirmed the south Cheyenne elementary school was one of the top priorities.
 

Nick Gibb, the long-serving Conservative schools minister, is right that safety is the most important consideration when deciding whether to close school buildings deemed to be dangerous. The public is all too familiar, post-Grenfell, with the horrific consequences that can follow from ignoring warnings that buildings are structurally unsound. But the announcement that more than 100 schools in England will not reopen next week, due to the possibility of concrete ceilings falling in, is enormously troubling. Not only will this last-minute decision disrupt thousands of children’s education, with knock-on effects on parents and carers, it also points to the extent of the harm caused by the Conservatives’ refusal to invest in the nation’s schooling.