A tornado warning issued for the city of Gainesville a little after midnight Sunday marked the first time a warning had been issued since the FEMA storm shelter addition was added to the front of the Gainesville School. Superintendent Justin Gilmore said that in the event that a tornado warning is issued for the city of Gainesville, the front doors to the school automatically unlock, allowing anyone in the area to go inside the shelter to weather out the storm. “You don’t have to wait for someone to unlock it. It does it automatically. But it has to be a tornado warning issued for Gainesville. It doesn’t unlock when there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or if the tornado warning is issued for Ozark County but in a different town,” Gilmore clarified.

LOCAL NEWS 
Paterson Public School No. 3 abruptly closed after 124-year-old building deemed unsafe
newyork
BY NATALIE DUDDRIDGE
UPDATED ON: AUGUST 17, 2023 / 5:44 PM / CBS NEW YORK

PATERSON, N.J. -- A school in Paterson, New Jersey was abruptly closed until further notice because the building, which is more than 100 years old, was deemed unsafe.
At a school board meeting Wednesday night, it was announced that students and staff at Public School No. 3 would be relocated just weeks before classes start.
Part of the first-floor ceiling collapsed on July 28, according to school officials. No one was hurt, but repairs are needed before anyone can re-enter.
"All I can say right now is that the children will be housed temporarily. We don't know for how long," Superintendent Dr. Laurie Newell said.
The school on Main Street was built in 1899.
Parents are supposed to receive letters letting them know what school their children will go to, but some are worried it will complicate their back-to-school plans.
"They can't go walking because I don't know what school they're going to yet. Over here they can walk," said Solange Miya.
"It absolutely will impact my niece because she goes to that school," said Eddy Galva. "I wandered through the building. The school is not conditions for kids to be there."
 

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. — Dare County school officials called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to deal with mold issues custodians found in First Flight Elementary and Middle Schools. 
The discovery comes just days before students are expected to return to the classroom, and teachers have already been temporarily moved to First Flight High School as a mold mitigation group works to get rid of the problem.
Dare County Schools Superintendent Stephen Basnight said the mold could be found sporadically throughout the building.
"It was not everywhere, but it was on computer covers, tables, carpets, and furniture," said Basnight. "We want to be transparent about the process, and more than anything, we don't want the mold in the buildings."
Dare school board members believe the mold spread throughout the schools because of an issue with the boilers. This coupled with hot temperatures and high humidity allowed the mold to thrive.
Basnight said their team of custodians tried to take care of the problem on their own, but the mold returned.
"We came in and we tried to clean it -- that was last Thursday -- where we wiped everything down. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we saw some more come back and by Monday we were repeating the same process over and over again."
 

A school facilities plan released by a working group consisting of Hamilton County leaders includes recommendations calling for campus closures and renovations.

The recommendations, unveiled Thursday by Superintendent Justin Robertson and County Mayor Weston Wamp, are part of a two-phase, seven-year plan to update Hamilton County Schools' facilities. It would cost around $200 million.

Over the course of the plan, three new schools would be built, seven schools would be renovated or receive additions, six schools would be closed and three schools would move to new locations. Additional schools would also be modernized or expanded in the latter half of the plan to meet the district's growth and to prioritize efficiency.

"For too many years, I think we've avoided hard decisions in a way that's negatively impacted our kids," Robertson said in an interview. "Whether that's keeping them in a facility that's not adequate or not providing them the opportunities they deserve educationally. While this is a facilities plan, that piece of it increases educational opportunities."

County officials on Thursday unveiled a "bold new plan" for County School facilities that will focus on expansions of some current schools and consolidation of others.
Years 1-3 in the plan include:
- Expand Eastside and East Lake Elementary
- Replace Soddy Daisy Middle School and make a K-12 campus at the campus of Daisy Elementary and Soddy Daisy High School. Daisy Elementary would be dramatically expanded.
- Reinvest in Brainerd High School to make it a middle school/high school and closing Dalewood Middle School.
- Renovate the Gateway Building at the side of Cameron Hill for career and technical education. It was recently acquired from BlueCross for $10 million.
- Build an all-new elementary school in the heart of Hixson at the current Dupont Elementary. Officials said it would involve "consolidating three of the four small, aging schools (Alpine Crest, Dupont, Hixson and Rivermont) into one world class campus."
- Renovate the former Cigna campus across from East Brainerd Elementary into an expansion of that school
 

On Aug. 8, the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools award winners gathered in Washington, D.C, for a ceremony and reception to recognize each school’s commitment to and achievements promoting sustainability practices on their campuses. This annual event is the only dedicated time for honorees to be celebrated on the national stage, and it serves as a platform for the Department of Education to highlight practices and resources other schools across the nation can use to leverage collaboration to create healthy and sustainable schools.
For the first time in many years, the event also included all-day programming during which the honorees could learn from one another. This year, the department honored 26 schools, 11 districts and 4 postsecondary institutions from 18 states. The awards demonstrate that green school practices benefit a range of students, including those in underserved communities; 56% of the honorees' students are considered underserved. Utility cost savings, healthy school practices and future-facing education should be available to all students, and the group of awardees is one indication that the green school movement is making strides toward equity of impact.
Celebrating health and sustainability for students
Keynote speakers addressed honorees at the day’s opening session and later at the award ceremony. These speakers included Cindy Marten, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education; Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Henry McKoy, director of the Office of State and Community Energy Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy; Janet McCabe, deputy administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and Maggie Thomas, special assistant to the president for climate.
Speakers stressed the administration’s support of the honorees’ work to curb climate impacts, cut costs, support health and wellness, and encourage environmental and sustainability literacy at their schools. Several relayed personal stories about their first childhood memories of connecting with nature or being inspired to care for the environment by a teacher or mentor.
 

Schools across the country are struggling to install adequate air conditioning amid record heat waves as students return to the classroom.
It's “a real challenge” to install air conditioning units in schools, in part because many buildings are so old, Tom Parent, the executive director of operations for Saint Paul Public Schools in Minnesota, told TODAY's Maggie Vespa.
"It's expensive to get systems that perform to modern expectations," Parent said.
According to a study conducted by the National Council on School Facilities, 41% of schools reported issues with heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
The issue is even affecting schools in places like St. Paul, Minnesota, where a more common issue was staying warm amid frigid temperatures — not cool.
Now, Parent says the schools in his state are faced with the daunting task of figuring out how to keep students cool among extreme heat waves made more frequent as a result of the ongoing climate crisis.
"We’re trying to (make sure) that these buildings are relevant and supporting our kids for where education is going," Parent told Vespa.
 

SALINAS, Puerto Rico — There was little her family could salvage. Just a few plastic chairs, some photos, her school uniform.

The flooding last fall that devastated the home of Deishangelxa Galarza, a fifth-grader in this coastal area of southern Puerto Rico, also closed her elementary school for three days while the staff cleaned out a foot of muddy water from every first-floor room. Because of the damage to her home, Deishangelxa, pronounced Day-shan-yell-ah, missed two weeks of classes, which upset her.

"School is very important to me because I want to keep studying," she said through a translator last fall. "I want to become a nurse."

For Deishangelxa, it was just the latest interruption in schooling that's been characterized by near-constant disruption. She started kindergarten in 2017, the year Hurricane Maria struck the island. Students missed classes for an average of four months.

GRANDVILLE, MI – Seventh and eighth graders at Grandville Public Schools will be walking into a brand new middle school when they return for the new school year on Monday.
The new $57 million Grandville Middle School building, unveiled by district leaders on Tuesday, Aug. 15, features 200,000 square feet of teaching and open learning spaces, a state-of-the-art robotics competition center, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) facilities, and fitness spaces for community use.
The new middle school, located at 4900 Canal Ave. SW behind the high school, will serve students in grades 7 and 8. The school is expected to have around 850 students enrolled this fall, with capacity to hold 1,000 students if enrollment grows, Superintendent Roger Bearup said.
A $94 million bond proposal approved by Grandville voters in 2019 supported the construction of the new middle school, which was intended to help address capacity issues in the district’s elementary school buildings by creating more space at the intermediate level.
 

The process of changing school boundaries for DC Public Schools (DCPS) is underway. The 2023 Boundary and Student Assignment Study, or Boundary Study, reviews boundaries and feeder patterns and District-wide public school student assignment policies and makes recommendations to the mayor for changes. Recommendations are due to be submitted to Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) no later than February 2024.

The study was launched in March through the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME). It is the first update to school by-right attendance boundaries since 2013-2014, when DC undertook its first comprehensive review of boundaries in 40 years.

DME is running a Master Facilities Plan (MFP) study at the same time and the two have some overlap in the review of  building condition, resources and utilization. Any potential boundary modifications and feeder recommendations would take effect no sooner than the 2025-26 school year, i.e., August of 2025.

“We are embarking on a city-wide planning process that will provide strategic, data-informed recommendations to ensure more students have access to great schools and facilities that meet their needs,” said Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn.

Air conditioning outages continued to plague Fort Worth public schools Tuesday, as maintenance crews scrambled to repair the aging systems straining under a relentless heat wave.
Nearly 100 classrooms at 25 campuses reported problems Monday, the first day of the school year. In a statement, Fort Worth ISD said affected students and staff were moved to areas within school buildings with working air conditioning units.
“We want to assure you that we are treating this matter with the utmost urgency,” the statement said. “We want to emphasize that the well-being of our students and staff is our primary concern.”
North Texas has recorded 36 days of at least 100 degrees, more than a typical summer, which sees roughly 20 days with 100-degree temperatures.
 

JACKSON, Miss., Aug. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Educational Facilities Revolving Loan Fund (EFRLF) is a new initiative passed by the Mississippi Legislature designed to support public education infrastructure. Specifically, the program makes funds available for school districts to pay down district debt, repair or renovate buildings, or build new Pre-Kindergarten or Career and Technical Education Centers across the state.

State leaders provided an initial allocation of $40 million to establish the EFRLF as an evergreen fund, meaning districts receiving these funds pay it back over ten equal annual installments at 0% interest. This money is in turn loaned out again each year providing a perpetual funding source for schools.

Through this program, 61 local education agencies have been awarded financial support offered by the Revolving Loan Fund. In its inaugural year, funds have been awarded to a diverse range of districts across Mississippi, fostering an equitable approach to educational development. Examples of how the funds are being used include emergency road repairs, roof replacements, building new Pre-Kindergarten centers, and fixing bathrooms.

If you are from Idaho, you are probably aware of our deepening struggle with school facilities and determining a path forward. The historic growth of our state has only increased the demand on our classrooms.
This is an issue I often hear about from parents and teachers. As a former school board member of Idaho Falls School District 91, growth, aging facilities, and property taxes were issues we wrestled with on a regular basis. Now as a state senator and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, I am committed to bring solutions to these longstanding issues. My objective is to provide a path forward for school facilities while decreasing the reliance on local school-related property taxes.
The issue is not as simple as it may seem.
As our school facilities age, parents and teachers become frustrated by their condition and functionality. The Idaho Legislature has a constitutional responsibility to provide adequate facilities that provide a safe and productive learning environment for our students.
 

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. -- The Escambia County School District has been making renovations to a number of its schools since the end of last school year.
With classes set to start back Thursday, maintenance crews were putting some eleventh hour finishing touches on various projects before the doors open.
The Escambia County School District director of facilities planning says these improvements were needed and there's more to come.
School officials tell WEAR News, renovations during summer break totaled about $22 million.
"We have a considerable amount of federal funding that we're using to replace air conditioning and exterior envelopes -- windows specifically," Director of Facilities Planning Keith Wasdin said.
Wasdin says the money came from emergency relief funds designed for elementary and secondary schools. He says sales tax money is also being used to help fund the renovations.
 

In 2021, Winona Area Public Schools’ (WAPS) architect identified about $63 million in deferred maintenance needs at local schools. The district’s $94 million referendum this April aimed to address some of that deferred maintenance, as well as remodel and upgrade facilities, but that referendum did not pass. While some citizens have expressed concern about the substantial amount of deferred maintenance the district has left unaddressed, others have argued that the district does not receive enough funding to complete all deferred maintenance projects.

SANTA FE, N.M.— Environmental, public health and social justice groups today urged New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to establish statewide health buffer zones to prohibit oil and gas wells within one mile of schools and other educational facilities.

In June state Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard introduced a ban on new oil and gas leasing on state lands within a mile of schools, but no policy exists to protect children from wells on other lands. Today’s letter asks the governor to use her executive authority to ban new wells within a mile of schools across New Mexico and phase out existing wells within that health zone by 2026.

“It’s critical to protect our children and grandchildren from toxic oil and gas emissions,” said Daniel Tso, former council delegate of the Navajo Nation Council. “I’ve seen an increase in respiratory illnesses among Navajo students who attend Lybrook Elementary School, which is surrounded by oil and gas wells. They don’t deserve to be poisoned when they go to school.”

Anyone wishing to understand the challenges facing Kansas and its sister plains states should spend time in an abandoned schoolyard.

Study the boarded-up structures; touch the rusty slipper-slide; nudge the squeaky merry-go-round. An instinctive feel will emerge for the dreams of communities past, and with it, a sense of how depopulation and school consolidation have accompanied Kansans on their walks through history.

Kansas Reflector has reported on the vote by Barton County residents to dissolve their school district, as some residents of Wilson react in protest to the proposed closing of their high school. In the early 1900s, Kansas had more than 8,000 organized districts, most of them serving one-room schools. During the 1940s baby boom, the number of Kansas children aged 13 and younger shot up almost 80 percent. Facing population pressure, administrators argued that larger and fewer districts produced lower costs of scale, allowing the fixed expenses of maintaining schools to be spread across more students.

The state legislature responded in 1945 by adopting statewide educational standards. This had far-reaching consequences for both rural and urban areas.

In Topeka, plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board of Education case argued that segregation caused Black schools to fall short of the equality standard set by the state government, opening the door to a successful U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and arguably, the next phase of a civil rights movement. In farm country, educators claimed that rural schools suffered from poorly trained teachers, bad attendance, and lack of extracurricular activities like music and sports, which prepared children socially for modern life.

By 1950, when a whopping one-fourth of all Kansans were of school age, the number of school districts had been reduced to half of what they had been a generation earlier. One- and two-room rural schools were phased out, replaced by town schools answerable more to distant bureaucracies than locally elected officials.

(The Center Square) – The Detroit Public Schools were to receive an update Tuesday at its regular board meeting on a $2.1 billion plan to upgrade its infrastructure with the use of federal COVID-19 money.

The district has transferred $135.9 million of the budgeted $343.6 million in federal pandemic relief money that it has planned in 2023, according to a budget document included on the agenda. The district is spending almost 80% of its federal COVID-19 money in 2023 on its facility plan.

Detroit is expected to spend $1.2 billion updating its public school facilities over the next 20 years. The plan includes improving the overall condition of schools through some new school buildings and renovations focused on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, roofs and masonry. 

According to WGHP-TV, 500 elementary school students in Burlington, North Carolina, might be displaced at the start of the school year due to a severe mold infestation that could cost the Alamance-Burlington School System (ABSS) at least US$700,000.

In July, the summer cleaning crew at Andrews Elementary School made the discovery of mold on desks, tables, and chairs, as well as around return vents and doors within the school. According to WGHP, a leaky air conditioning unit, combine with this summer’s severe heat, created the mold problem.

“The engineers did explain today that, fortunately, we do not have what’s called toxigenic type molds in the building, and it’s really room specific,” Les Atkins, ABSS public information officer, told WGHP. “So, it’s not like the entire building is mold infested.” However, no teachers or administrators are currently being allowed inside the school building.

The ABSS school year starts for students on August 28, with teachers needing to return in less than two weeks on August 18, WGHP reports. At a recent meeting to address the problem, the school board immediately approved taking action to mitigate the mold, but whether the work can be done in time for the start of the school year is still in question.

“Just so our families know, we do have a plan in place to relocate students to other facilities, should we need to do that,” Atkins said.

Mold and other types of fungi are increasingly becoming a problem on a worldwide scale. Check out Is Fungus the Cleaning Industry’s Next Biggest Challenge? to learn more.

Nearly 64 million people in the United States currently live in counties that have been flagged by the American Lung Association for having spikes in deadly particle pollution on a daily basis. And studies show that children are at disproportionately high risk.

Exposure to tiny airborne particles from wildfires, an increasingly common occurrence of late, is about 10 times as harmful to children’s respiratory health as pollution from other sources. Children also are more vulnerable than other populations to excessive heat, another growing climate-related concern. Those surging health risks put an extra burden on schools to ensure that children are safe and comfortable enough to learn while they’re on campus.

“The wildfire smoke, the heat, the drought, flooding—all the impacts of climate change are here,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder of Undaunted, a national nonprofit that advocates for solutions to fight climate change. “Schools are where students spend more of their waking hours than anywhere else. We need to make sure they’re resilient and prepared for extreme weather events.”

Right now, countless numbers of schools aren’t, say environmental experts. When the air quality gets too bad or temperatures soar, schools often respond by closing or sending kids home early. When schools are open, aging infrastructures, too few school nurses, and a lack of alternative recess space further challenge their ability to safeguard kids’ health and well-being in the face of increasingly extreme and frequent weather events.