Instead of soaring on swings, racing down slides, and climbing on monkey bars, students at four Santa Maria elementary schools are playing on concrete slabs. 

The Santa Maria-Bonita School District allocated federal COVID-19 relief dollars to improve the playgrounds at Fairlawn, Tunnell, Alvin, and Ontiveros elementary schools. Over the summer, the district removed the outdated equipment, purchased new equipment, and installed concrete slabs with the goal of completing construction before school started. 

Elementary school leaders and staff picked color schemes and preferred structures. But contracts for construction tripped over federal red tape and tumbled any building plans. 

“We are more than 10 weeks into the school year, and there [are] no bids accepted to build the playground,” Fairlawn Elementary physical education teacher Michael Clair told the school board during its Oct. 23 meeting. “Without a playground, they have many limited options during recess time. Many students are apathetic about going to recess, and a lack of opportunities is contributing to social and behavioral issues throughout the [day].” 

EAST PALESTINE — Engineering on a new in-school health clinic and renovations on existing ones are expected to get underway in the next few weeks, East Palestine Superintendent James Rook said at the district’s school board meeting on Monday.
East Palestine received a boost from the Appalachian Community Grant Program in March to expand and enhance healthcare access for students in partnership with Akron Children’s Hospital. East Palestine and Crestview shared in $488,196 of the allocated $7.5 million for the development and expansion of school-based health centers across Ohio. The funding came from the new Appalachian Children’s Health Initiative.
East Palestine had already announced it had designated space in the elementary and high school to house an in-school clinic. In addition, the grant money will be used to fund a health primary care provider.
While the in-school services are not meant to replace a student’s general practitioner, it is meant to support healthcare systems already in place and ensure equitable health services. According to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, in-school services can include preventive care, including annual physicals and immunizations, acute illness, mental health and behavioral health services and supports, oral health and vision services and chronic disease management.
Rook said the clinic will offer telehealth services to East Palestine students.
 

MADISON, Wis. (Civic Media) – The top of the ballot on Tuesday took many of the headlines and plenty of the attention during this fall’s election, but down ballot, voters in over a quarter of Wisconsin’s school districts were being asked a very important question.
Would they be willing to pay more in local taxes to fund their school district’s operations or facility projects?
For the vast majority of school districts, the answer was “yes” as 92 of the state’s 120 districts with a question on the ballot had their ballot measures approved.
All told, 108 of 138 referendum questions were approved for a total of just over $3.4 billion in additional local property taxes for areas where the measures were passed.
Why are local taxpayers being asked for more money to pay for schools?
Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement that the referendums were proof of under-investment by the state Legislature.
“Too many communities were forced to vote Tuesday whether to increase property taxes just so their local schools can pay staff, heat and cool their buildings, and provide a quality education,” Underly said. “Wisconsin families value public education and understand our schools need sustainable funding to keep the lights on and provide a high-quality education to our kids. At the same time, they understand this responsibility should not disproportionately fall on local taxpayers.”
 

Colorado voters on Tuesday greenlit billions of dollars in spending by school districts, with major bond proposals in metro Denver winning significant support.
Denver Public Schools, Aurora Public Schools and the Cherry Creek School District each put bond measures on the ballot that approached or reached $1 billion. All three had tallied a majority of voters’ support as of 11 a.m. Wednesday.
A smaller $490 million bond measure by the Douglas County School District passed with 58.97% support. That measure will be used to build schools and for maintenance projects. It was the district’s third attempt in three years to get a bond measure passed.
“I am so grateful for our entire community for shouting loud and clear that they support our schools, our kids, our teachers,” Douglas County Superintendent Erin Kane said in a statement.
Voters also passed Denver Public Schools’ $975 million bond Tuesday, with returns showing 73.94% in favor of Ballot Issue 4A.
 

Californians on Tuesday decisively passed a $10 billion initiative to support construction projects by TK-12 schools and community colleges. The victory of Proposition 2 will authorize the first state bond for school construction since 2016 and replenish state funding that had run dry.

With initial results from all precincts, 56.8% of voters backed the bond measure, and 43.2% opposed it. Still to be counted are mail-in ballots not yet received and provisional ballots. Support for the bond broke 60% in Los Angeles, Alpine, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Mendocino, Alameda, Yolo, Marin and San Mateo counties. Only counties in the state’s far north opposed it.

Proposition 2 was one of two $10 billion state bonds on the ballot; the other was Proposition 4 for funding efforts to abate the impact of climate change. Proposition 2 supporters had worried that voters might choose one over the other, but both passed easily.

Voters across Oregon were asked to approve taxes to help local schools at a time when districts throughout the region are facing substantial budget shortfalls.
According to initial returns from last night’s election, Oregonians, in many cases, said “no,” particularly when it came to funding new and improved buildings.
A dozen school districts and community colleges were pushing for funding through either a levy or bond.
An easy way to remember the difference between the two types of funding measures, experts often say, is that “bonds are for buildings, and levies are for learning.” In other words, bond money has to be used to build, repair or renovate physical structures, while levies are used to pay for staffing and other ongoing operations.
Voters throughout the Willamette Valley, as well as pockets in Central, Southern and Eastern Oregon, voted on these measures on their November ballots. The majority rejected added taxes.
Six school funding ballot measures appear to have failed, and four have passed, according to initial returns. Two are still too close to call.
 

Frisco ISD voters rejected more than $1 billion in school bonds Tuesday as the district seeks to make campus upgrades and purchase new equipment.

The largest bond in the package was $986 million Proposition B, which would have gone toward new buses, safety and security upgrades, and renovations on 20 aging schools. After years of rapid expansion, the district has in recent years seen a slowdown in growth.

Prop B failed with 52% of voters against it, according to unofficial results. It was one of three bond proposals in a package totaling almost $1.1 billion. Voters rejected all items.

The district’s Proposition C, for $88 million, would have funded new computers and upgrade online infrastructure. More than 52% of voters rejected it.

Prop D failed with 73.1% of voters against it. It would have paid for a new $11.2 million tennis center.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — “We are in school for 180 days. 180 days of mice, mold, moldy ceilings, and underfunding if you are a Magruder student,” Magruder High School junior Justin Tom told members of the Montgomery County Public Schools (MPCS)Board of Education on Nov. 4.
Tom was one of several who came to the hearing to testify about school maintenance problems and delayed construction projects.
“We are concerned that the recommended CIP [Capital Improvement Program] moves 3 million to other projects and delays construction funds,” Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton told the board.
The testimony came after 7News reported on October 22 that Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor acknowledged MCPS will not receive $39.3 million in expected state aid due to “an error in the MCPS submission for aid in the Charles W. Woodward Project,"
 

Over the last two months, there have been numerous reports of school threats in Arizona, whether credible or false. However, an ABC15 investigation found there are few laws at the state level regarding safety and security for schools and their buildings.

Arizona schools and districts do have security protocols such as perimeter fencing for certain grades and emergency protocol plans where a required number of drills are laid out. In those plans are specific needs with emergency operations plans in conjunction with emergency response staff, but since Arizona is a local-control state with schools, physical safety measures can vary from district to district and even from school to school within the same district.

Measures like visitor single point of entry, cameras and perimeter fencing are seen at schools but it’s not a requirement. According to guidelines from the Arizona Department of Administration, the School Facilities Oversight Board, under the department, “a school site provides adequate security if there is a fenced or walled outdoor, play or physical education area for preschool children with disabilities and students in kindergarten through grade six.”

TAUNTON — The price tag for the new B-P high school building that voters approved in 2022 could end up dropping by as much as 25%, according to new projections from the school administration and project management team.
That would bring the cost of the project down from $180 million to about $135 million — after factoring in state matching funds.
B-P Superintendent Alexander Magalhaes, along with the project management firm PMA Consultants, met with Taunton City Council’s Committee as a Whole on Oct. 1 to give an update on the construction of the new school building, about a year after the groundbreaking in October 2023.  
Which cities and towns are in B-P school district?
Originally built in 1972 and located in Taunton, B-P serves Taunton, Raynham, Middleboro, Berkeley, Bridgewater, Dighton and Rehoboth.
 

Of the 13 schools that could be closed in Milwaukee Public Schools, six are in one ZIP code: 53206.

The remaining seven are just miles down the street in ZIP codes 53205, 53210 and 53212. They form a square in the northwest-central part of Milwaukee's most segregated, primarily Black neighborhoods that have been subjected to poverty-driving inequities for decades.

Of the 13 schools that could expand, 10 are in the southern half of the city.

MPS' consulting firm that made the recommendations, Perkins Eastman, has advised changes like those would give all Milwaukee kids a better education. In an interview, consultants also said they are well aware of Milwaukee's past and present racial segregation.

"We understand that these are difficult conversations, and that we're not dealing with just today. We're dealing with histories of disinvestment in communities," consultant Patrick Davis said in an Oct. 31 interview. "We need to be able to understand that."

The firm argues that decades of change in Milwaukee's population mean that today, many northwest-central schools have more space than needed to enroll every eligible child living nearby. That's the case even as many families choose to bus their students to schools that are farther away in search of better academics, often filling seats in already-crowded southside schools.

When disasters like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton strike, everyone in a community is impacted one way or another, and it take support from well beyond the affected communities recover and rebuild.

The U.S. Department of Education and state organizations like the Florida Association of School Administrators have action plans in place to assist schools during these difficult times. And on a local level, communities look to school leaders for guidance, compassion, and support—and a path to move forward.  

We talked to two school leaders whose schools and communities were impacted by these devastating storms and asked them to share how they supported their students and staff and navigated challenges in the immediate aftermath of the storms.

Addressing the Most Pressing Needs First
For Carlos Grant, principal of Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, South Carolina, whose school was closed for eight school days in late September and early October following Hurricane Helene, his priority was on the well-being of staff and students.

Starting with staff, Grant reorganized the school’s leadership team to ensure they could speak with each staff member individually and receive regular updates on their situations. For the students, they focused on reassuring parents that the school closure was designed to prioritize safety.

“We wanted families to feel supported, especially as some were without power or internet or faced dangerous road conditions, which made it impossible for eLearning,” said Grant.

As the fastest-growing school district in North Texas, Northwest ISD is preparing for further expansion. 

The district currently enrolls nearly 33,000 students. By 2033, it’s expecting 18,000 more.

As bonds in 2021 and 2023 funneled more than $2.7 billion to the district for construction projects and technology updates, the district is experiencing a boom in construction. 

The district’s construction department currently oversees nine projects funded by those voter-approved bonds. Tommy Osborne, the district’s construction director, presented the projects to school board members during September and October meetings. Here’s an update on how the district is managing all of them: 

Construction workers in hardhats and safety vests bustled around the 7,000-square-foot Loveland building, installing fixtures and painting. It was late October, and they had two months to go before the grand opening.

Soon, the former Thompson School District preschool would become “The Landing,” the first shelter for homeless youth in northern Colorado. Leaders of the effort say the state-of-the-art-building will give young people ages 15 to 20 a safe place to live and receive services while they get their lives back on track.

The $9 million project is just one example of how Colorado school districts are repurposing shuttered schools. Often, such facilities keep serving students in some fashion — becoming child care centers, career education programs, or private or charter schools. In some cases, they are transformed into housing or nonprofit hubs.

Finding the right use for shuttered schools is a timely debate as enrollment declines in districts around Colorado and education officials face tough decisions about when to cut bait on underused buildings.

Milwaukee Public Schools now has 31 green schoolyards, with the opening of five more this fall. For the first time, two of them feature microforests, a worldwide trend with roots in Japan. And one of the schools is the site of the largest redevelopment—by far—since the first MPS green schoolyards opened as a pilot project in 2018. 

At all of the five new green schoolyards, asphalt has been replaced with more sustainable elements. That includes bioswales — depressions that have native plants at the surface and engineered soils below ground to collect and filter rain runoff from — as well as trees, porous pavement, and other ways to manage stormwater. Each redevelopment, though, is designed for its specific site and community.  

It can be a lengthy timeframe to get the State of Delaware to approve major school renovations, but the Brandywine School District has hopes for their two Mount Pleasant schools.

Both Mount Pleasant Elementary and Mount Pleasant High Schools would be the subject of a Capital Referendum later this school year if their Certificate of Need (CN) is approved by the Delaware Department of Education.

Districts submit CNs to the state in late August, and typically they hear back by late October or early November on whether the DOE budget request will include the typically 60% match for what can be expensive projects.

The other 40%, and the actual approval, would then come down to voters in a Capital Referendum.

Brandywine's request is valued at $217,283,710, and is focused on five separate projects.

$76.3 million is earmarked for a complete renovation of Mount Pleasant Elementary School, which was built in 1932, and still has a portion of its original roof, and a wooden frame.

The kindergarten classrooms are roughly half the size of the Department of Education's recommendations, and Facilities Director John Read told the School Board when they supported the CN that there are other major needs.

"We have to relocate the gym and cafeteria. Our cafeteria looks like it should be storing airplanes, not having lunch in there."

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrated $34 million in Inflation Reduction Act grants awarded to the five organizations across the country that will use these funds to work with school districts to improve indoor air quality in schools. EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz joined grantees at Horatio B. Hackett School in Philadelphia to congratulate them on their awards.  
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda continues to put kids, communities, and public health first – this time by working to improve indoor air quality in schools,” said Adam Ortiz, EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator. “EPA is proud to celebrate both the School District of Philadelphia, a leader in school sustainability, as well as the five grantees who will work with districts across the country to keep our students healthy.” 
 

Researchers have examined the impact of school closures due to natural disasters and found that these closures have similar impacts on student performance across economic groups. The researchers find white students and high-performing students are least affected, but nearly every group of students sees test scores decline.

The topic is of particular interest following Hurricane Helene, which caused students in parts of western North Carolina to miss weeks of school. Schools in Asheville, N.C., re-opened on Oct. 28.

“Schools can be closed due to a variety of natural disasters, from wildfires to hurricanes, and research suggests that the frequency of these disasters is only going to increase due to global climate change,” says Melinda Morrill, corresponding author of the study and Jenkins Family Distinguished Professor of Economics in North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management. “As a result, it’s important for us to not only understand the extent to which these closures affect student learning, but whether certain groups of students are more affected than others. That latter question is what we focused on with this work.”

Billings Public Schools decreased its energy bill by 26.3 percent or $1,056,033 last year with energy-efficient equipment and practices.
It's projects such as installing solar panels at Riverside Middle School that have allowed School District 2 to save money on energy.
Scott Reiter, the district’s facilities director says with solar panels, the meter can run backwards, not enough for credit, but still a savings to the district each year.
Reiter says the 50-kilowatt solar panels cost more than $300,000.
With about $230,000 in grants, Reiter expects the system to pay for itself in less than 10 years with savings of about $10,000 annually.
The savings is one of several for the Billings public schools which adds up to more than $1 million in energy savings over the last year.
 

SODA SPRINGS — In Jeff Uskoski’s college-level statistics class, students are used to sweating it out — and not because of the math. 

His classroom at Soda Springs High was sweltering on a cool fall Wednesday — and that was in spite of open windows and three fans. “Math is kind of next door to Hades,” he joked.

In the corner, next to the fans, a ceiling tile drooped from frequent leaks. It’s not a question of if, but when, that ceiling will leak again, said Jess McMurray, the principal at Soda Springs High. 

That classroom is a microcosm of the bigger issues at the high school. There’s the cracked foundation, the outdated auditorium, the questionable roof on the modular classrooms — the list goes on. Essentially, the 65-year-old building is at the end of its lifecycle, Superintendent Scott Muir said. 

On Nov. 5, Soda Springs leaders are asking the community to support a 20-year, $55.2 million bond so they can replace the high school, which was built in 1959. If passed, $10.3 million would go toward more classrooms and a gym expansion at Thirkill Elementary. 

It’s the only bond on any Idaho November ballot, and the biggest ask of the total $244 million school leaders are seeking from local taxpayers.