WASHINGTON — A D.C. rec center playground used by a nearby elementary school was closed Thursday after elevated levels of lead were discovered. 
In an email, DC Public Schools alerted parents that one of the playgrounds at Parkview Rec Center tested high for lead and it had been closed. The playground, attached to Bruce-Monroe Elementary School, sits on rubber mats.
Lead can result in health and growth problems if ingested by children. The District said it will power-wash the contamination away, but scientists WUSA9 talked with say that is not enough.
DCPS said it found the lead by washing off the playground and testing the runoff water during a routine test. Lead levels were 470 parts per million, above the federally “allowed minimum” of 400 parts per million. 
"It would be nice if they put in materials in the first place that didn’t have lead, that they used safe building materials," said Teresa Ellis who was picking up her child at Bruce-Monroe Elementary. "We want safe playgrounds for our children, for all the children in D.C. and all the different parts of D.C."
DCPS has consistently blamed the source of the lead on what it calls “the surrounding environment,” including cars and construction. That playground is on a higher grade than the surrounding road.
 

BILLINGS - Montana ranked in the top 10 in the nation for growth in 2022 adding 17,000 residents just last year.
With that in mind - a newly formed parent group is pitching the idea of a brand new high school - and it's gaining a lot of interest.
Board members and superintendents from four school districts met at Elysian school on Wednesday.
Survey results show good support, and they talked about the challenges and what it's going to take to move forward with the idea.
school
Billings school boards considering new high school
School survey.jpg
By: David JayPosted at 11:24 PM, Feb 15, 2023 and last updated 1:00 PM, Feb 16, 2023
BILLINGS - Montana ranked in the top 10 in the nation for growth in 2022 adding 17,000 residents just last year.
With that in mind - a newly formed parent group is pitching the idea of a brand new high school - and it's gaining a lot of interest.
Board members and superintendents from four school districts met at Elysian school on Wednesday.
Survey results show good support, and they talked about the challenges and what it's going to take to move forward with the idea.
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Many parents like the small elementary and middle schools and want their children to have that closeness with their classmates to continue in high school.
"We like being the Ellder Grove Outlaws," said Michael Laird, a parent of Elder Grove students. "We love that community. We kind of have that identity for my wife and I that would be something we would be willing to give up and to work towards having that high school."
 

The Kingston City School District (KCSD) is reassessing its facilities needs after learning that the cost of a five-year capital plan has risen from an estimated $107.1 million in 2020 to around $162.1 million today. 

The KCSD Board of Education heard a presentation earlier this month, led by Armand Quadrini, managing principal of KSQ Design, the New York City and Tulsa, Oklahoma-based architecture firm that’s had a decades-long relationship with the district. Much of those plans were centered on air-conditioning and other ventilation upgrades, and Quadrini explained that due to a variety of reasons, the estimates in the original five-year plan had risen by around $55 million once costs were adjusted to reflect 2023 market conditions. 

“A lot of the cost increases occurred in the mechanical and electrical areas,” Quadrini said. “It’s been super difficult to get air handling units and equipment associated with mechanical systems. Not only is the pricing going up but it takes a long time to get that equipment, so that expanded construction schedules.”

The plans cover both of the district’s middle schools and all seven of its elementary schools, but does not include Kingston High School, or the former Meagher and Anna Devine elementary schools. Kingston High underwent a recently completed comprehensive renovation that came in around $16.5 million under its $137.5 million budget. Meagher was also thoroughly spruced up recently when it was converted into a pre-kindergarten hub and district headquarters, and Anna Devine is currently being leased to BOCES for use in its Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning program for special education students. 

Baldwin County Schools is close to completing $341.4 million in new construction projects in an astonishing reversal of fortunes nearly eight years after a previous school construction program was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.
The current program, called “Pay As You Go,” will finance an additional $94 million in projects that could be under construction by fall.
It’s a program paid for largely with cash and without long-term bonding and no new taxes. It has added around 1.5 million new square feet in school construction, also a remarkable feat when considering no new construction occurred within the county school system between 2009-2015.
The program was praised on Tuesday during a school board meeting while the newest slate of projects was unveiled. The school system is expected, by later this spring, to unveil a separate list of projects that include new athletic fields and fine arts venues.
“I don’t think people really understand how blessed this system is,” said Eddie Tyler, the superintendent of the Baldwin County School System that is Alabama’s 3rd largest school district behind Mobile and Jefferson County schools.
 

This year, DC will review the school boundaries that determine where students get a guaranteed seat, and make recommendations on whether assignment policies should change based on a variety of equity measures.

The District will look at factors such as overcrowding, the number of spaces for at-risk students and out-of-boundary students at highly sought-after schools, access to specialized programming, and whether students can get to their desired school safely and affordably. This year’s assessment is the first in a decade and only the second since 1968; they’re now slated to happen every ten years.

The previous review process in 2014 was a complicated one, as it had to contend with dramatic changes to public education following the closure of over one in 10 DC public schools — mostly in low-income neighborhoods — and the large-scale introduction of charter schools. Experts say the mass closures of under-enrolled schools disrupted feeder patterns (the path a student takes from elementary to high school) and provoked anxiety about uncertain school assignments.

With this work in the rearview mirror, advocates hope equity has a chance to take a front seat.

CHELSEA, Manhattan (PIX11) — An empty building in Chelsea is filled with history.
The structure on West 17th Street dates back to the mid-1850s and a time in New York City when schools were segregated. It was known as “Colored School Number 4,” and it was staffed by African American teachers.
Eric K. Washington is fighting to make sure the story is not forgotten. 
“Throughout most of the 19th Century, public schools in the city were segregated,” Washington said.
In 2018, he filed a formal request with the Landmarks Preservation Commission. He had been working on a book about someone who attended the school.
“There are woefully too few sites that document the African-American experience,” he said.
This is the last school building of its kind. New York City still owns it.
Washington was on a building tour with City Councilmember Erik Botcher in December. He said there was some water damage inside. The building has been remodeled, but many original details remain visible.
This week, the landmarks commission voted to begin the first step to landmarking the property. A public hearing will be scheduled next.
Washington hopes to see a museum and community center at the former schoolhouse.
 

New Jersey has some of the most solar powered schools in the U.S., according to data from Generation 180, a nonprofit organization that compiles data on clean energy
At least 662 New Jersey schools have installed solar panels as of 2022, the data showed. Only California, with 2,819 schools with solar had more.
“California and New Jersey together account for more than HALF of the solar capacity installed on nationwide K-12 schools,” Tish Tablan, program director at Generation 180 told NJ Advance Media in an email.
From 2018 to 2022, solar installations in New Jersey K-12 schools has grown by nearly 50 percent, Tablan said.
Of the schools who’ve chosen to add solar, 59 percent have a higher numbers of children from low-income families, Tablan said.
Newark Public School district started installing solar panels at some of its schools in 2021. At that time, the federal Infrastructure Recovery Act solar incentives were not yet available, according to Rodney Williams, director of sustainability for the district.

When Taí Alex showed up at Burroughs Elementary School in Brookland earlier this month to drop off her four-year-old daughter, she got some bad news: A gas leak had closed the school for the day. The same happened the day after.

And it wasn’t the first time.

“There’s been a lot of emergency things that have affected the school’s ability to stay open,” says Alex, citing a burst pipe that flooded some classrooms, boiler issues that have impacted the building’s heating system, and other issues that have bedeviled the 101-year-old building.

“Burroughs is a fantastic school,” she says. “There’s a reason why parents are so engaged. It’s just the building maintenance issues we’re having.”

And it’s much the same situation at Whittier Elementary School in Takoma — built in 1926 — where for months parents, students, and staff have been contending with repeated maintenance issues that have shuttered the school and fixes that are often derided as mere Band-Aids. In November, they protested outside the school. In January, a sewage pump in a pre-kindergarten classroom broke; on the Facebook page of the school’s parent-teacher organization, one parent complained that it smelled like the “inside of a rectum.”

“I’ve been a parent there for almost about five years, and there’s not been a year where there hasn’t been something major going on,” says Alicia Bolton, the vice-president of the Whittier PTO and parent of two children at the school, in kindergarten and third grade. “For too long the school has been ignored.”

Yet there may be no satisfying and quick solution for either school.

When districts put bonds on the ballot in hopes of financing one or more new schools, the chances of voter approval in Idaho are 50/50: a coin toss. 

If districts lose, the problems that sparked the ballot initiative — overcrowding, outdated schools, safety concerns — don’t go away. 

So district leaders make do with their cracked foundations and outdoor food storage. They might seek creative but short-term solutions, like redrawn boundaries or modular classrooms. Hallways, principal’s offices and lunchrooms might become classrooms. 

Or leaders might hang their hopes on a new solution: a plant facilities levy. 

The plant facilities levy’s voter approval thresholds — which can be as low as 55% — make them attractive, but there are drawbacks. Districts might have to downsize their project list or eschew state financial help if they opt for this route. 

School leaders are already familiar with plant facilities levies; they’re often used for repairs, maintenance, or upgrades. But when it comes to new construction, these ballot measures are a relatively new option, one districts have historically been reluctant to pursue due to murky legality. But that changed when a 2015 Idaho Supreme Court decision upheld the practice. 

For some districts, it’s now the most enticing and likely path to new schools. 

CROMWELL — The Town Council voted to allow the Middle School Building Committee to proceed with the $58.6 million school project while expressing concerns about the budget being $21 million over what voters approved at referendum.
The committee’s website offers a breakdown: $17.2 million for construction and $3.8 million for other “soft” costs.
Council members will revisit the issue in April or May, when the next estimate is received.
The new middle school is “desperately needed,” Superintendent of Schools Enza Macri said Friday. “The current facility doesn’t have the educational space or layout to support a STEAM curriculum. This is significant when we think about preparing students adequately for high school and beyond.”
Voters passed the ballot measure June 14, 2022, by a vote of 970 to 231.
“I’m sure there’s nobody who wants to go back twice,” Mayor Steve Fortenbach said. If project costs exceed even $1 over $56 million, he added the question whether to spend more must again be put to voters.
 

Not far from the intersection of Routes 9 and 192 in Wesley, you’ll come to a winding dirt road that disappears into a dense forest. Follow it and you’ll find yourself in what might feel like an episode of Little House on the Prairie. Deep in the woods, surrounded by nothing except blue skies above the whining pines, is the town’s humble schoolhouse. One class. One teacher. Four students. 

Yet, remarkably, just like the TV episode when the fictional town of Walnut Grove was leveled and all that remained was its little one-room schoolhouse, Wesley’s little school is still standing — despite several contentious battles over the years to close its doors for good. 

“The school is all we have left,” said former student, parent, and resident Julie Smith. Choking back tears she added, “We wouldn’t have a community, we’d lose it.”

Last March, the three-member Wesley school board made the controversial decision to close the school after watching enrollment plummet from an historic high of about 25 students in its heyday. Once a thriving logging town of 5,000, all that remains is one school, a convenience store, a church, a museum, a Wyman’s storage facility and 114 residents. Nonetheless, the sharply divided community reversed the board’s decision at a public referendum in May, voting 39 to 24 in favor of saving the town’s only school, despite an enrollment at that time of merely eight students. 

So the school reopened in the fall — by then with only four students.

“You just don’t know what the magic number is enrollment-wise before they close it,” said the school principal, Mitchell Look.

Wesley isn’t the only town facing the tough choice of whether to close its struggling school and send students to neighboring schools. According to Maine Department of Education data released this week, of Washington County’s 34 schools, 20 have enrollments below 100 students, including two high schools. Ten schools have enrollments under 50. The number of low enrollment schools in both categories is up from the previous year.

DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson may have been right to persuade his colleagues to use the 2023 Budget Support Act to mandate a DC Public Schools (DCPS) boundary study — but not so much on his narrow perspective on its scope. The resulting document and recommendations must be delivered this year. 
“We need to address school boundaries. Some jurisdictions do it on a regular basis,” he told me during a telephone interview last week. A predictable schedule is a way to make the process less “traumatic” than it’s been in the past, he suggested.
DCPS operates chiefly through a system of neighborhood schools, most with specific geographic boundaries. Associated with those designations are “feeder patterns,” pathways that help direct the flow of students as they progress from elementary to middle school and then on to high school. By law, students have a right to attend any K-12 school within their boundary and feeder pathway. District charter schools are exempted from that law, however.
The DCPS boundary process was supposed to ensure adequate, predictable enrollment at each facility and yield an equitable public education system. It hasn’t, however.
Some schools are overcrowded; others are underpopulated, explained Mendelson, citing as an example Plummer Elementary in Ward 7. He said it has a “catchment of 1,300 but only has an enrollment of 300. Do we keep the boundaries?”
 

WILLIAMSBURG — By Friday morning, the old schoolhouse had been laid on steel I-beams and jacked 7 feet in the air. The only thing left to do was turn on the Mack truck’s engine and start the journey.
More than two hours later, the building arrived at its new home at the intersection of Francis and Nassau streets, where Colonial Williamsburg will put it on public display.
It’s been 20 years since a professor at the College of William & Mary discovered its historical significance — that it’s likely the oldest building in the country dedicated to the education of Black children.
The university sold the building to Colonial Williamsburg, and in the past two years the two organizations have studied the school’s history.
On Friday, the 263-year-old Bray School started a new chapter.
Around 2003, Terry Meyers, a retired English professor at William & Mary, realized a small, white, two-story building on campus had historical significance.
It was the home of the Williamsburg Bray School, an institution where free and enslaved Black students were taught reading, Christianity and to embrace life as slaves.
The building had been hiding in plain sight. Its roof line had been altered, extensions had been added and it had been moved a few hundred feet down the road. But the original structure was still there.
In 2021, scientific testing confirmed Meyers’ discovery. The building was erected in 1760.
To see it lifted off the ground and transported Friday was “astonishing to me,” Meyers said. “It’s very emotional.”
Workers spent the last two years stripping it down to its original core, removing the pipes, doors and walls that had been added on.
 

Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved an annual update to the capital improvement program (CIP) that includes continuing work on upgrading school facilities across the County, the building of three new elementary schools, and acquiring land to be used for a new high school during the School Board meeting on Thursday evening.

The new elementary schools and acquisition of land for a new high school will address current and projected overcrowding.

Other projects in the FY 2024-28 Capital Improvement Program (CIP)  include three new and/or repurposed school facilities, the renovation of 25 schools in the renovation queue, and the relocation of modular buildings. Timelines for capital projects will be posted on project web pages on the FCPS website.

“The CIP is more than a plan for building and renovating our schools,” said Dr. Michelle C. Reid, Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools. “It expresses our values and priorities, chief of which is providing equitable access to high-quality public school environments for all students.” 

The Fairfax County School Board adopted amendments to the CIP. One amendment is for staff to do a full scoping to determine if a boundary change, program change, or both are options to reduce capacity issues at Kent Gardens Elementary School. A second is to reallocate funding for the design and planning of an Early Childhood Education Center in the Route 1 area.

The board will consider follow on actions to the CIP at the next meeting on February 23.

It is not inevitable that the Idaho Legislature will invite a school funding lawsuit, but legislators appear at the present time to be heading toward provoking legal action. Three factors will play into a decision as to whether or not to sue the State for violating provisions of the Idaho Constitution: (1)  whether the Legislature continues to disregard its constitutional duty to “maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools,” which means adequately funding the instructional side of the public school system; (2) whether the Legislature complies with the Idaho Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling that the State has the primary responsibility for building, equipping and maintaining school facilities; and (3) whether the Legislature violates Idaho’s strong prohibition against using taxpayer money to support religious schooling.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- Hands were raised and many questions and concerns were brought up by South Bend Schools’ parents and faculty at Tuesday’s community meeting to discuss the Facilities Long-Term Master Plan.

There are three different proposals to ‘rightsize’ South Bend schools; all three scenarios involve consolidating and even vacating some schools.

This has some South Bend teachers wondering what this means for the future of their jobs.

“My jobs at stake, my kid’s future is at stake, where does that go from here?”’ asks Erica Andis, 5th grade teacher at Swanson Traditional School and parent to Riley High School student.

Although the Master Plan details that all teachers should expect to keep their roles within the district, educators like Andis argue it would still be a big adjustment.

“We signed up for this program, we’ve been teaching this program for 11 years, for me, longer for others, where do we go? Can we stay together?”’ asks Andis.

Parents also weighed in at the meeting, bringing up concerns about magnet programs, and what would happen to those if a school were converted or vacated. Andis worries her sophomore at Riley High School won’t be able to graduate from the Career and Technical Education Program if it’s converted into a middle school.

Schools play an essential role in every childs’ beginning – a place that should encourage a love of learning, foster personal and educational growth, while providing a safe and healthy environment to do so. Studies show that students even learn better in an environment free from air pollution, yet many schools still use diesel-burning buses and outdated energy systems. Luckily, with new federal funding available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Investment Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA), there are now more funding opportunities than ever to update school transportation and energy systems, fostering the best learning environment possible for your students. Not only is this beneficial for the environment, but it will protect students from health risks while simultaneously saving your school district money. 

Installing Solar Panels

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides substantial funding of solar energy projects that can lower utility bills for school districts. Valuable savings that can be redirected to other school priorities. With the largest investment into clean energy and electrification ever seen in the country, the IRA makes going solar easier than ever, and for the first time, tax-exempt entities can directly take advantage of these incentives.  

Prior to the passage of the IRA, schools were unable to directly take advantage of federal tax credits to support installation of solar panels. Now, at least 30% of the cost of a solar project and installation can be covered by direct pay tax credits from the federal government through 2032. 

WASHINGTON — Burroughs Elementary School students are back in the classroom Monday after a gas leak sent them home Thursday and Friday.
Parents said these are persistent problems.
“In one month, we've now lost three days of in-person instruction due to, I guess, poorly maintained infrastructure," Mariana Gomez said.
She has two kids at Burroughs.
Most recently, the school's principal said in a letter to parents that malfunctioning boilers created a gas leak Thursday, causing carbon monoxide to permeate throughout the school.
Because of the leak, students and staff were also forced to learn from home Friday.
"Children have already suffered a great deal of learning loss. We cannot afford to be losing in-person instruction," Gomez said. "So if the building is not going to be safe, then we need to find a new site, and it needs to be local."
One parent shared a letter with WUSA 9 that the school sent Sunday evening. In it, the school's principal said that crews were able to make the necessary repairs over the weekend and that no carbon monoxide was detected any longer.
“I'm extremely frustrated because I feel like they're avoidable," Gomez said.
In the first email about the leak, the school's principal wrote, “While the safety of our students and staff remains paramount for us all, please accept our apologies for the unfortunate disruption to your family’s schedule and your child’s in-person learning experience."
Gomez said she believes the teachers and staff at Burroughs are doing their best, but she is not satisfied with the district's response.
She said this boiler room malfunction isn't the first issue so far this year.
“We had a boiler flood earlier in the year where we got a frantic phone call in the middle of the morning to come pick up our children. They had to leave; the building wasn't safe because there's been a flood," Gomez said.
 

Faced with millions in budget shortfalls and declining enrollment across the district, Seattle Public Schools is tiptoeing around the idea that it may have to close some schools in a few years. 

At a recent workshop, senior staff discussed the need to “consolidate into a system of well-resourced schools.” Staff layoffs could also be on the table.

The drops in enrollment mean resources for schools have been stretched thin. If SPS were to consolidate, staffers argue, students might get better access to specialized programs, social workers, specialists, school counselors and nurses — resources that students have continuously requested in the last school year.

None of Seattle’s 106 schools are on the chopping block for next year; the earliest closures could happen in 2024-25.

At least some board members think the district should be more clear about its intentions, even at this early stage. Board member Michelle Sarju pointed out not all families understand what school consolidation means, and argued during a recent board meeting that less jargon would create more transparency. 

Fred Podesta, the district’s interim deputy superintendent, said the phrase “was not meant to soft-pedal the fact that it’s likely a strategy [to balance the budget] would be closing some schools.” Podesta said the district believes that “consolidating into larger schools that have the resources they need is a good strategy whether you have money problems or not.”

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Some parents at Holtville High School are speaking out over the desperate need for renovations at the aging campus.
The majority of concerns surround the school’s athletic facilities. WSFA received some images from the inside of the school’s field house showing a bathroom without a door and a hole in the floor where a toilet used to be.
Other pictures showed what used to be a shower that coolers have occupied for game day and a small closet-sized room being used to wash all of the clothes in the athletic department.
“I don’t think that it’s asking too much to try to get some help to get those things taken care of,” said Kevin Chavis, President of the Football Booster Club.
Athletic Director Jason Franklin is aware of the concerns, but said there is simply not enough funding right now to make needed repairs.
“The area is just moving faster than funding’s allowing,” Franklin said. “It’s a struggle daily to make sure that we’re providing the best we can for our athletes.”
School Principal Kyle Futral says the 5A school has 550 kids and growing, and students are operating inside a building that’s nearly 100 years old.