Aside from the occasional rustle of paper and tap of keyboards, silence permeated Louise Hanania’s Paterson classroom. Her fifth graders hunched over their laptops, absorbed in a writing assignment.
Then the rattling of a tambourine shattered the silence. The jarring disruption came from behind a line of cabinets, bookshelves and corkboard.
The jangling was quickly joined by a piercing voice. “Red chair!” a woman trilled. “Orange basket! Green plant!”
On the other side of the cabinets, in the same room Hanania and her students were using, sat another class, listening to another teacher. These students, Spanish-speaking second graders, were learning English to the beat of the tambourine.
Hanania’s pupils didn’t flinch. Not at first. None of the children craned their necks. 
But as the other teacher continued to strike the tambourine to the words she chirped — a technique to help non-English speakers learn — concentration among Hanania’s students frayed. A boy tapped his foot in time. A girl hummed along. Students giggled and twisted in their seats.
 

TROY- The Troy City Schools Board of Education has received word the district is being offered state funding towards the potential construction of multiple new buildings.

“It is exciting news,” District Superintendent Chris Piper said. “We are being offered funding by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC).”

The OFCC funding would cover approximately 42% of the state-recommended cost for mulitple buildings. Additional funding could also be raised through passage of a levy.

“The state will support 42% of what they recommend,” Troy City Schools Board of Education President Sue Borchers said. “Once we get formal word that we are getting the funding, we have 13 months to pass a levy, which is a very short time.”

“That means we have to get on the November ballot and/or the March Ballot,” she said, “so our window is as tiny as it can get.”

Three Arkansas school districts in which voters recently passed property tax increases for campus building projects -- only to see construction costs soar -- are getting some extra help from the state.

The state Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Commission on Monday agreed to distribute to the Southside School District in Independence County, the Watson Chapel School District in Jefferson County and White County Central School District about $17 million to aid the districts in their construction of a new school and various school additions.

The vote of the three-member commission comes after Arkansas lawmakers earlier this year authorized the transfer of as much as $24 million from the state's Academic Facilities Partnership program to its Academic Facilities Extraordinary Circumstances account to supplement the funding for seven projects in the three districts that had seen property tax increases.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – As Rhode Island celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week and observes Mental Health Month, Governor Dan McKee, Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) today announced the launch of the $3 million W.E.L.L. Initiative (Wellness in Education Leads to Learning), which will support the development of wellness spaces in schools statewide and provide funds for accompanying professional development and programming. The design of these spaces allows students and staff to experience a quiet atmosphere and have a chance to decompress. The initiative comes as education systems nationwide reimagine education and school facilities to meet the holistic needs of students in the wake of the pandemic.   

“Every child deserves to attend a 21st century learning environment that not only supports a comprehensive educational experience but also supports the social, emotional, mental, and behavioral health needs of students,” said Governor Dan McKee. “We encourage schools to browse offerings and look forward to the positive impact the W.E.L.L. Initiative will have for students and teachers across Rhode Island.” 

“Any educator can tell you that even in the best of times, students and teachers alike can become overwhelmed at school. RIDE’s W.E.L.L. Initiative ensures that if they do, they have a space available to them that can help meet their needs,” said Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos. “These funds are going to provide oases of calm in our schools, as well as the training and resources necessary for faculty to use them to their full effect.”

William Penn Senior High School has two pools — one for swimming competitions and one dive tank — that have been shuttered since 2009.
At various points, district officials have attempted to reopen the pools, which have become storage areas for classroom furniture. In 2017, the district and state lawmakers announced a plan to raise $1.2 million to make necessary renovations with an eye toward reopening them in 2019.
That date came and went, and the pools continued to deteriorate.
Now, the school board is revisiting the issue.
“There was some interest in reopening the pool,” Superintendent Andrea Berry said.
 

On May 6, Ford Bend County voters passed a $1.26 billion bond proposed by Fort Bend ISD. It is the largest bond ever passed by the district, which has grown to be the 6th largest school district in the state of Texas, with more than 80,000 students.

Each of the bond's three propositions passed. The first two, which provided for campus construction projects like the rebuilding of three schools as well as technology improvements across the district, passed by nearly 66%.

The district will also construct a new natatorium.

“It says to us that our community does support our schools, and that’s really important right now. I think our teachers needed to feel that," said Christie Whitbeck, superintendent of Fort Bend Independent School District. "All the things we do in the interior that are really for the kids are also about our staff.”

GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Twelve.

That's the number of Green Bay school buildings a facilities task force is recommending be closed or repurposed to the school board.

The facilities master plan is being done to address the Green Bay Area Public School District's aging buildings, declining enrollment, and projected budget deficit.

The District is currently facing a projected $20 million budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year.

The task force said right now, school buildings are not used to capacity, and it could get worse.

Owyhee Combined School Vice Principal Lynn Manning-John stood on the Nevada Capitol lawn Thursday in front of her students — her “babies” — from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada, a community she grew up in and returned to after attending an East Coast college.
Teresa Melendez, a lobbyist and Indigenous organizer, guides a student from the Owyhee Combined School, located on the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada, before a press conference outside the Legislature on Thursday, April 27, 2023 in Carson City. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent)
The students, many wearing ribbon skirts and shirts, carried signs with a common theme: “don’t leave us behind.” Among them was her daughter, a senior at the school who was recently admitted to Tufts University, an elite research institution in Boston.
“We have produced some phenomenal kids out of Owyhee,” she said. “But I have to tell you, we do it in some really hard-to-describe conditions.”
 

If Akron Public Schools is going to pull off a multipoint facilities plan over the next five to 10 years, it's going to need some financial help from the public.

The board is reviewing options for a long-term facilities plan that would close a handful of older buildings and build two new ones. Nothing has received the green light yet, except for a small rezoning in the East cluster. But if the board moves forward with the plan in full, it will almost definitely require passing a levy.

The administration has presented the board with a way to fund a new building in the Kenmore neighborhood to hold both Pfeiffer Elementary and Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts students. The total cost of the project, including demolition of the former Kenmore high school building, is estimated at $61 million, and would utilize money from a handful of existing revenue streams, including $33 million of federal stimulus dollars.

In early April, students in Planada, Calif., finally returned to their classrooms.
It had been three months since the early January flood that sent putrid brown water — filled with floating rodents and sewage — crashing into Planada Elementary School, destroying 27 classrooms, ruining thousands of books, and causing more than $12 million in damage.
Hundreds of elementary school students and staff — many displaced after losing their homes in the deluge — crammed onto the middle school campus across town.
Classrooms were shared. Space was cramped.
Families craved normalcy in the impoverished Merced County farm town of 4,000, which was inundated after Miles Creek burst its bank and busted through levees.
Construction crews worked at Planada Elementary seven days a week, sunup to sundown, said Supt. José González. And when youngsters returned to newly built classrooms last month, the town counted it as a win.
But even as they celebrated, they wondered: What if — when the state’s massive snowpack melts this summer — the school floods again?
“That’s the million-dollar question I can’t answer,” González said with a sigh.
“We’re putting together contingency plans,” he said. “I wish I had preventative plans. But I don’t.”
California’s epic winter — with dozens of atmospheric-river-fueled storms, record-breaking snow in the Sierra Nevada, and prolonged flooding in the Central Valley — has wreaked havoc on small rural schools.
 

Behind Parkway South High School on Wednesday, students were playing kickball on what looked like a normal, grassy field. But hundreds of feet below ground, a geothermal plant was using the Earth’s temperature to heat and cool the school.

That system is not something you would find at most schools in the U.S. Its uniqueness brought Maria Vargas, the Department of Energy's director of its Better Buildings Initiative, this week to recognize the Parkway School District.

The geothermal plant is one of many sustainability efforts in Parkway, including solar panels, LED lights and even district-wide composting. The district has also replaced roofs and upgraded insulation to make sure Parkway South is as efficient as possible.

“I'm here to see firsthand what they're doing at the school district that allowed them to be so aggressive and successful in reducing energy waste,” Vargas said.

The Parkway School District has been working to improve energy efficiency for years. It became part of the federal Better Buildings Challenge and met its goal of 25% energy use reduction in 2020. Now the district has set a goal of an additional 35% reduction by 2035.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announces the Phase 1 Winners to share in the $4.5 million Energy Champions Leading the Advancement of Sustainable Schools Prize (Energy CLASS Prize), a competitive award promoting energy management in school districts across America. Twenty-five Local Education Agencies (LEAs) will each receive a $100,000 cash prize to establish, train, and support energy managers in their schools. These Energy Champions will develop projects and skills to lower energy costs, improve indoor air quality, and enhance learning environments in their communities. At the end of Phase 2, based on their performance, Phase 1 winners will be eligible for an extra $50,000 in funding. Energy CLASS Prize funds have the potential to impact over 700,000 students, in 1,300 schools, across 19 states. As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law advances the Department’s mission to streamline investments in clean energy workforce development, which is critical to the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050 while creating jobs, building a pipeline for young people, and supporting workers and communities across this nation. 

After the state released $75 million to pay for the construction of new preschool classrooms last week, the Hawaii Department of Education compiled a list showing where the money would be spent.
But Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke — who is spearheading the state’s $200 million preschool expansion plan — said the list isn’t accurate.
“Oh, no. So that was a preliminary list,” Luke said.
The list included $20 million for the Kamaile Academy in Waianae to build 10 new classrooms and $6 million for Kapaa Elementary School on Kauai.
Sources said some of the schools were already expecting the money. Gov. Josh Green even sent out letters to state lawmakers informing them about preschool expansions in their districts.
In one letter to state Sen. Angus McKelvey of Maui, Green wrote that McKelvey’s district will see a total of $5 million in preschool construction at Kihei and Princess Nahienaena elementary schools.
“This investment in our keiki addresses barriers to child care so prevalent in our islands,” he wrote.
 

Last week, the California Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in a very complex – but very important – case that had been percolating for more than a decade, dealing with how local school officials evade competitive bidding on construction projects.

The case began in 2010 when Fresno Unified School District persuaded its voters to approve a bond to build new schools and upgrade old ones. In 2011, the district sold more than $100 million in bonds from that issue and an earlier one, and in 2012 awarded a $36.7 million contract for a new middle school to Harris Construction Co.

The contract with Harris, which had been a major contributor to the bond issue campaign, was structured as a “lease-leaseback” deal in which the district leased the school site to Harris for a nominal sum, Harris built the school and the district then leased the completed facility from Harris.

“Lease-leaseback” arrangements have been common for years, providing a way for school systems to build new facilities without borrowing money themselves. Typically the “leaseback” runs for several decades, after which the district becomes the owner.

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s back to the drawing board for the Grand Haven Public School board after a $155 million bond proposal was rejected Tuesday by voters in Ottawa County.

The bond would have updated the infrastructure of 11 GHAPS facilities and funded the building of a new Lakeshore Middle School. The current middle school is 70 years old and is no longer efficient, according to Superintendent Scott Grimes.

“We just need to start addressing our aging buildings,” he said. “Our elementaries are going to be in this spot in 10 years. Our middle school is 70 years old. So it’s just something that we have to continuously keep out there, because the need isn’t going away.”

School-based health centers offer a broad range of health care supports for students that may otherwise be difficult to access in their communities. At the health centers, overseen by Public Health—Seattle & King County, students can get mental health care, immunizations, family planning, and other care in the context of a school environment. What began as a pilot program in Rainier Beach High School in 1989, has expanded to 36 school-based health centers across King County. 

New Orleans public school officials announced the completion of the largest school rebuilding program in U.S history.

A total of 89 public school buildings in New Orleans have since come into usage after the implementation of the School Facilities Master Plan (SFMP). Adopted in November 2008, 110 of New Orleans’ 126 public schools were severely damaged or destroyed.

Under the master plan, 32 new schools were constructed, while 17 schools were renovated. Thirty-one schools were refurbished, and there was preservation of nine schools. Former Louisiana State Superintendent Paul Pastorek launched the massive school rebuilding effort.

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Cynthia Velazquez parks her car outside Central Middle School as she waits for her child to be released from school.
Velazquez said there are a few things that have changed at the school since she graduated from the Galveston Independent School District, but the decades-old building where her child goes could use more improvements.
"I went to this school. I've been here all my life, so I was born here and raised here, and I went to all the schools, and they were all good," Velazquez told 13 Investigates. "They have been upgraded, but it still kind of looks the same."
Galveston ISD said it could make more updates to schools or even build new ones and give teachers raises if only it could keep all of the millions in property taxes residents pay specifically for education.
In Texas, districts can only keep a certain amount of local property taxes per student. The rest is "recaptured" and sent back to the state.
If a district, like Galveston ISD, collects more than the basic amount it is entitled to per student, they are required to send the extra property tax collections to the state. The state then redistributes those funds to other districts that don't collect enough in taxes locally to fund their own enrollment.
Advocates say it's a way to ensure every student receives the same amount of basic funding regardless of where they live.
 

Thousands of new homes are coming to Mountain View over the next decade as a result of state housing requirements and the city has spent recent years making extensive plans for this growth. What remains an open question is how local school districts will find the money to accommodate the expected influx of students.

With Google's massive, 7,000-unit project in North Bayshore on the horizon, tensions are rising. The city and school districts have had public disagreements over how many students will actually move into the new units, what the cost will be to educate them and who should foot the bill. District officials have warned that they may have to cover fields and blacktops with portable classroom buildings, impacting the community's access to this open space.

While local school districts aren't governed by the city -- they have their own elected boards -- they often have projects and priorities that overlap or conflict with the city of Mountain View's interests. City and school officials have long negotiated agreements on everything from community use of school fields to subsidized teacher housing to traffic safety.

Owyhee Combined School Vice Principal Lynn Manning-John stood on the Nevada Capitol lawn Thursday in front of her students — her "babies" — from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada, a community she grew up in and returned to after attending an East Coast college.

The students, many wearing ribbon skirts and shirts, carried signs with a common theme: "don't leave us behind." Among them was her daughter, a senior at the school who was recently admitted to Tufts University, an elite research institution in Boston.

"We have produced some phenomenal kids out of Owyhee," she said. "But I have to tell you, we do it in some really hard-to-describe conditions."

The Owyhee Combined School is located on the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada, along the Nevada-Idaho border. Built in the 1950s, the school serves about 300 students. Administrators and teachers at the school described bat feces dripping from the ceilings, and old equipment making it impossible to consistently regulate classroom temperatures, among other conditions that they said have not been addressed by the school district, despite maintenance requests.

“No other school in the state of Nevada would have that type of condition acceptable to students,” said Manning-John.