According to the U.S. Department of Energy, K-12 school districts spend nearly $8 billion annually on energy costs, the second largest expense after teacher salaries. Aging facilities combined with limited school budgets can result in deferred maintenance of facilities, with current estimates of around $270 billion needed for infrastructure repairs.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a grant program funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) focused on energy improvements at public school facilities, especially in the highest-need districts, and designed to save schools money. Similarly, the White House released a toolkit on federal resources for addressing school infrastructure needs in April 2022. And today, the Department of Education is announcing its grantees under the Supporting America's School Infrastructure grant program, which bolsters the capacity of States to support school districts in improving school facilities with the goal of more equitable access to healthy, sustainable, and modern learning environments for all students.

The Maryland Energy Administration on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to help K-12 public schools across the state reduce and eliminate carbon emissions. The Decarbonizing Public Schools Program will provide capital to help local education agencies more fully incorporate a wide range of clean energy and energy efficiency measures into Maryland’s public schools.
The program provides incentives for a comprehensive suite of grants focused on capacity building, infrastructure upgrades, renewable energy adoption and the use of new, sustainable construction methods. Notably, the Decarbonizing Public Schools Program will expand statewide construction and access to net zero energy schools – school buildings that create and save as much renewable energy as they use.
Under a precursor to this program, Maryland built and opened its first three net zero energy schools. The first was Wilde Lake Middle School in Howard County, followed by Holabird Academy and the Graceland Park/O’Donnell Heights Elementary/Middle School, both in Baltimore City. This new initiative will help local education agencies retrofit, design and construct state-of-the-art, net zero energy campuses that produce enough on-location renewable energy to meet their total annual electricity demands.

Boston Public Schools officials shared their long-awaited “master plan” for school facilities Wednesday, after narrowly meeting a deadline set by state education officials.
The plan is presented as an opportunity to address long-standing problems with Boston school facilities, including under-enrolled schools, deferred maintenance and, generally, inadequate spaces for working and learning for students and staff.
And it imagines a future of larger, newer, greener — and fewer — standalone schools as it seeks to address present-day problems. The 80-page plan suggests that, at the very least, a little more than a dozen district schools eventually should merge or close.
Of the 119 school buildings citywide, the report finds that dozens are “underutilized,” or well-below capacity, after years of sliding enrollment. According to district data, just 18% of them are equipped to provide what it calls a “high-quality student experience.”
For example, the district has long argued that its many small, single-strand elementary schools — with just one class per grade — can severely hinder enrichment opportunities and administrators’ ability to best serve students with disabilities or those who are learning English.
 

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The first day back from the holiday break was also the first day at the brand-new Thomas M. Peirce Elementary School in North Philadelphia.

Almost 200 students, in pre-kindergarten through 5th grade, arrived for their first day of learning inside the new building on Wednesday.

The building, which the school district said cost about $44 million, is the first public elementary school built in North Philadelphia in more than seven decades.

"I graduated from this school in 1969, and it's so wonderful to see these children have a building like this." Terry Rembert, the grandparent of a current T.M. Peirce student, said.

The old T.M. Peirce, which was built in 1909, was shut down about four years ago.

On the first day of the 2024 legislative session, state education officials presented lawmakers with the latest estimates for Vermont’s school construction needs — a whopping $6.3 billion in the next 21 years. 

And that number, Agency of Education staff cautioned, is likely a significant underestimate.

Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, chair of the House Committee on Education, called the figure “eye popping.” He signaled that his committee would make addressing school construction needs a priority this session.

The cost estimate came as part of a school facilities assessment ordered by the Legislature in 2021, which gathered baseline data on 384 school buildings in Vermont and translated the findings into cost projections for every district statewide. The Agency of Education expects to create a public dashboard with that data later this year. 

From fiscal years 2000-2008, the state provided more than $280 million in construction aid to schools, but amid the Great Recession it suspended state assistance for such projects. This year, lawmakers will consider how the state could revive some funding, though Conlon made clear that footing the entire bill was out of the question.

Nearly 540 million children globally go to a school with no usable toilet, affecting them physically and emotionally during crucial education years. New research from Economist Impact reveals that almost half of these children are affected by 'toilet loss' — toilets have been built in their school, but they have been lost and are not usable due to lack of operation and maintenance (O&M). This hidden worldwide problem puts school infrastructure maintenance sharply in focus.

Economist Impact's year-long study supported by Unilever across Ecuador, India, Nigeria and the Philippines found that poor maintenance led to 1.2 million  'lost' school toilets; that's toilets that have been built but are no longer usable. This equates to a combined infrastructure loss of US$1.9 billion and a societal and economic cost amounting to US$10 billion. The four countries, indicative of others worldwide, could be 10 percent closer to the goal of providing all children access to usable school toilets if toilet construction had been supported by maintenance.

A former special education teacher at Mountain View Elementary School is suing the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and the Kenai Peninsula Borough with and on behalf of her four children, who she says have suffered from medical issues after being exposed to mold and other materials while attending district schools.

Jennifer Harvey-Kindred and two of her adult children, Madeline Kindred and Jillian Kindred, are plaintiffs in the suit, as are two of Harvey-Kindred’s minor children. Between 2004 and 2018, the four children attended at various intervals Aurora Borealis Charter School in Kenai, Soldotna Middle School, Soldotna High School and Kenai Central High School.

School district records published for the KPBSD school board’s Oct. 2, 2023, meeting show that Harvey-Kindred worked as a special education pre-kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Elementary School in Kenai until her resignation effective Oct. 17, 2023.

Whenever the next Big One hits – a magnitude 9 Cascadia megaquake – it sure would be nice if fire trucks could still drive out of their stations and your neighborhood school could function as a shelter. 

Current seismic codes require public buildings to be built strong enough so they don’t fall down in a quake. Now, some emergency preparedness advocates want to raise the bar. Not only should essential buildings resist collapse in a strong earthquake, but also newly constructed schools, in particular, should be built so in the immediate aftermath they can be counted on to serve as relief centers.

This matters to millions of Northwest residents because buildings erected in the near future stand a good chance of being violently shaken by an earthquake. The most recent magnitude 9 rip of the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone happened over three centuries ago, in 1700. Seismologists say that means the region is now well into the window for the next catastrophic temblor.

Additionally, the Northwest faces risks from a multitude of shallow crustal faults and deep slab quakes. Each of these is capable of unleashing up to 7.0-7.5 magnitude shaking in a more localized area.

In Oregon, the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects intends to press the Legislature to require new schools and community college buildings in earthquake country west of the Cascades and in Klamath County to be built with more resilience. 

The Gillett school district in eastern Wisconsin has three school buildings. None has a sprinkler system installed to put out a fire.
The buildings were constructed between 50 and 100 years ago, well before fire codes were updated to require sprinkler systems for all newly constructed buildings. Installing a modern sprinkler system in the aging facilities would be too expensive. And new buildings, for now, are out of the question.
“The only way we could see to replace these buildings would be a local referendum, which has zero chance of passing,” said Wayne Johnson, the Gillett district’s superintendent. “You’ve got folks that don’t have any money, they’re not going to support a referendum to increase their property taxes.”
The Gillett schools are hardly an outlier.
In a survey conducted between Sept. 27 and Oct. 13, 2023, the EdWeek Research Center asked a nationally representative sample of 110 school principals whether the building where they most often work has working sprinklers.
Forty percent of respondents—2 in 5—said no, translating into tens of thousands of school buildings nationwide. Another 13 percent said they’re not sure if the currently installed sprinklers in their buildings work.
 

Department of Defense schools are preparing for an eventual large increase in military dependent students, and are looking to the Guam Department of Education to help accommodate the overflow. A DoD team recently toured multiple local campuses to see how it can help refurbish them ahead of the transfer of DODEA students.

GDOE superintendent Dr. Kenneth Swanson says the Department of Defense Education Activity team made up of planning and facility experts recently visited four campuses: Southern High, Oceanview Middle, Upi Elementary and Ukkudo High. "So they wanted to get a sense of the condition and the facilities that were there, so it was pretty much a walk and talk over the whole facility," he detailed.

Its not known yet when and how many military dependent students will attend GDOE schools, but the preparations are certainly underway. And Swanson says GDOE has plenty of room for more students.

PHOENIX — A proposed bill in the legislature could make it harder for Arizona school districts to fund new projects.

House Bill 2088, proposed by Republicans, Rep. Laurin Hendrix and Rep. Barbara Parker, said it would prohibit any businesses that give money for school bonds and override campaigns – that pass – from being able to bid on the projects that may happen.

For example, if a school district passes a bond measure to build a new school, the construction companies that donated money to the campaign would not be able to do the construction.

They say there’s a first time for everything. For Lewistown Public Schools’ Maintenance Director Jason Fry, the old adage is certainly true.

Fry was a member of the first cohort to complete the Montana Facilities Director Apprenticeship Program through the state Department of Labor. After wrapping up the program on Oct. 31, Fry, along with public schools maintenance directors from, received his certificate of completion for the apprenticeship last month.

“It was a great opportunity,” Fry said. “I feel like this program could be really beneficial for the future of facilities directors in the state of Montana.”

LINCOLN – In 2023, Lincoln schools celebrated a number of successes as the district’s officials pursued their goal of providing the best education and educational facilities for students.

A major accomplishment of 2023 was unveiling the new Lincoln High School Physical Education Center. The $8.3 million building officially opened for use in November, and per multiple officials, is the result of successful collaboration between the town and the school department.

Despite delays, the PEC was considered substantially complete on time in accordance with Rhode Island Department of Education deadlines, qualifying the town for $4.7 million in state reimbursement.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - It’s time for Vermont to start paying for school construction, according to House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington.

Vermont has not supported school renovation projects since 2007 and many are in disrepair. Added to that are concerns about PCB contamination in a number of buildings that were built before 1980.

Krowinski says a study committee put forth recommendations on how the state can help and they’re on the table this upcoming session. “We want to look at a sustainable way to help support our schools,” she said. “I don’t think we have a choice at this point. I think the need is so great.”

She says a school construction bill would likely also incorporate PCB testing efforts.

With UNICEF's help, 1,000 classrooms at 192 schools can now stand up to a cyclone. Margarida, 15, witnessed her old school get destroyed by Cyclone Idai in 2019. Attending a climate-proof school, she says, has been life-changing.
A big part of UNICEF’s response to climate change is to blunt its impacts on children — especially those who are most vulnerable to them — through mitigation or adaptation measures.
This includes making systems children rely on — health, water, education — more climate-resilient. It means enabling these systems to stand up to extreme weather and other climate-driven disasters.
Mozambique is highly prone to cyclones and recurring floods. The weather system in that part of the world, the country's long coastline and the nine river basins flowing through it are contributing factors. Increasingly, so is climate change.
 

The Hawaii Department of Education has a new official responsible for overseeing campus facilities as it struggles to handle millions of dollars in capital improvement project funds. 

Audrey Hidano was appointed as interim assistant superintendent of the Office of Facilities and Operations last week, according to DOE’s website. Before joining the DOE earlier this year, Hidano served as deputy comptroller for the state Department of Accounting and General Services as well as deputy director of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

She was also co-founder of Hidano Construction Inc., which specialized in residential projects before it dissolved in 2016.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — It’s been an unusual school year for Southern Elementary School in Greensboro, N.C.
Earlier this school year, every book in its media center was thrown out after a cleaning of the carpet discovered mold.
“It’s just disappointing that maybe thousands of books were going away because of mold,” said Abby Hopper, a fifth-grader at the school.
Replacing an entire library’s books is not easy and not cheap. But the school was able to take advantage of a unique program in the nation’s capital.
In the basement of the historic Library of Congress in Washington is a little-known room that houses the Surplus Books Program.
Much of the collection is made up of extra books the Library of Congress' cataloging office and the copyright office receives from publishers.
Those books, of all different genres, are available to take for free.
The goal of the Surplus Books Program is to build library collections around the country and U.S. territories. Eligible groups can apply to participate in the program through the Library of Congress.
 

The holiday break offers time for the Guam Department of Education to roll up its sleeves and get back to fixing what they can at local schools.  A good plan, as students are out of the classroom. Now, meet some of the members that make up the small team working to get 41 public schools up to par.

Aging facilities, mold, and more. Ray Meno with GDOE told KUAM News when asked about the largest challenges for the very small team working on the campuses, “Getting materials and having enough man power to do the work and coordinating everything.”  

Meno has worked with the Facilities and Maintenance Divsion for 27 years.  KUAM linked up with him and his crew at Harry S. Truman in Santa Rita. The crew getting those materials like bathroom sinks, which must be ADA compliant, other requirements include installing exhaust fans in a restroom, along with lighting, and making sure bathroom stalls are at the proper height.

Supervisor John Palomo added, “You’re implementing standards now that we have to abide with  and we’re not prepared…so we’re trying to get prepared and we’re trying to get  whatever materials we need to start.” 

RUMFORD — Mountain Valley High School opened its doors Wednesday to serve meals and provide clothing and toiletries to all area residents needing help due to the storm Monday.

Regional School Unit 10 schools in Rumford, Mexico, Buckfield and Sumner closed for the week on Tuesday because of electrical power outages and impassable roads in the district’s towns, administrators wrote on the district’s website.

RSU 10 Assistant Superintendent Matt Gilbert said by email to the Rumford Falls Times on Friday that he wanted to recognize several people “who have led the charge (and) who deserve to be recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty (at the high school).”

Gilbert listed staff including School Nutrition Director Jeannie LaPointe and her husband, Steve LaPointe, along with the MVHS “lunch ladies” staff, “(who) have been in the kitchen every day since the shelter opened to make sure people are being fed healthy meals.”

LORAIN — Lorain Schools’ “new” buildings aren’t looking so new, with maintenance needs making themselves known as some buildings hit the 15- to 20-year-old mark. 

The district has estimated a nearly $35 million price tag over the next five years to keep its facilities in working order — with everything from parking lots to HVAC systems now in need of routine maintenance, repair or replacement. 

But other issues are also making themselves known, like cracks in walls at Washington Elementary School. Those cracks point to potential structural issues in the 20-year-old space, and the storm in August highlighting potential inadequacies in the masonry. 

“You realize you don’t do anything to your house for 20 years and see what kind of shape it’s in,” Executive Director of Operations Mary Mayse said. 

At a school board meeting last month, Director of Operations Tony Dimacchia gave an overview of the projects he said the district needs to complete to maintain its buildings. Earlier this week, Dimacchia, Superintendent Jeff Graham and Mayse met with The Chronicle-Telegram about those upcoming costs.