When it was time to put down roots and buy a home for their family, Bay Area residents Mandeep Kaur and Jimmy Singh decided it was time to leave their cramped apartment in Fremont and purchase a home in the San Joaquin Valley.
They landed in Patterson, a small but rapidly growing town of 24,000 off the Interstate 5 freeway. The development they moved into in February is so new that not all the homes on their street have been finished.
Their new home, which, with two stories and a backyard, has plenty of room for their 6-year-old and baby. They like Patterson’s small-town feel.
“There are better schools,” Singh said. “It’s a nice community, not as hectic.”
Patterson is 75 miles from Oakland, which puts it at the outer rim of Bay Area bedroom communities. Singh is freed from the daily commute as the owner of a trucking business who works from home — an increasing trend among recent transplants.
For decades, the San Joaquin Valley has been a destination for young families seeking affordable housing. Enrollment in the San Joaquin Valley grew 24.5% before the pandemic, and it dipped only 1.1% since 2019.
“We’re very lucky,” said George Bradley, director of research and planning at the Kern High School District. “The alternative is that you’re shrinking.”
The big questions about enrollment in the San Joaquin Valley have been about where new schools will be built, how they will be funded and what to do with the surge of students on campus in the meantime.
 

VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Valley City school board continues to move cautiously on whether the district should build a new school or repair their existing facilities.

During a public meeting on May 16th, superintendent Josh Johnson said the district it facing some tough decisions due to aging buildings and facility maintenance upgrade needs. He said the district it looking at the most cost-effective option for all school district stakeholders.

Johnson said under one option, the cost to build a new grade 7-12 structure is estimated at $55 million. He said the school district has $3 million in COVID dollars to use for a new building. He said if there was a referendum vote and it passed, the maximum allowed would be $40 million, but, he said the district would still be $12 million short for that proposed construction project.

During the meeting, someone asked if the remaining money could be made up using dollars from the state Legacy Fund. Rep. Dwight Kiefert said it was unlikely that lawmakers would reach a two-thirds majority to free up funding for school district building projects, being there are other needs for those dollars across the state.

Johnson was asked about the school district’s priority for a new heating and cooling system, he had this response.

Johnson talked about how the school district can use their existing $3.8 million in COVID funding and the timeline.

Johnson believes transferring existing technologies and furniture would not be a cost effective issue, if the school district built a new structure.

Beaverton School District voters approved a $723 million bond to replace Beaverton High and Raleigh Hills K-8 school and carry out deferred maintenance and seismic upgrades throughout the district.
To pay for it, property taxes will increase by 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, resulting in a $709 school construction-related tax bill for the owner of the typical home, assessed at $303,000. If voters had rejected the bonds, the tax rate would instead have fallen 41 cents per $1,000, yielding a $509 tax bill for school construction debt on such a home.
Preliminary results as of 1 a.m. Wednesday showed 54% of Beaverton School District voters approving the bond and 46% rejecting it.
There was no organized opposition to the bond. Proponents raised $150,000 for brochures, online ads and other promotional efforts. Lead funders were Pacific Office Automation, at $25,000, and Nike, with $20,000. Three other donors -- food company executive Patricia Reser, law firm Miller Nash and construction company Kirby Nagelhout -- each gave $15,000.
By far the largest outlay from the bond, $253 million, will be to build a new Beaverton High on the campus that is home to the school, which was built in 1916 and has been expanded many times over the years. It’s the only high school in the district with a seismic rating indicating it would be at risk of partial or full collapse during an earthquake, district officials say. It also needs $53 million worth of repairs, which the district now won’t have to pay for.
 

As the Philadelphia district aims to tell the public how it is managing its aging infrastructure, parents and community leaders remain concerned about possible school closures, lack of enrollment data, and transparency when it comes to school building maintenance and safety.

The district is in the middle of public engagement about its long-term plan to improve school facilities. During this round of talks, which will take place over Zoom, the district’s facilities planning team is providing an overview of the process, including project goals and data collected from the district. These sessions began May 10 and are open to the public. Additional sessions are scheduled for May 18, 19, 24, and 25. To participate, residents can register online. 

In addition, as part of that plan, all district school buildings will be evaluated over the next 12 months, with the goal of creating recommendations for each building.

To identify problems with school buildings and identify recommendations to address them, the district also launched a $1.3 million Facilities Planning Process last month. School officials unveiled a website with an interactive map that the community could use to access information about each school building’s condition, as well as facility assessments conducted by third-party industry professionals. 

Penn Hills School Board voted to approve two bids to improve the Penn Hills High School and Elementary School infrastructure at a special voting meeting on May 10.

The cost of the bids amounts to a combined total of $2,281,200 and was based on the recommendations of Dodson Engineering Inc., an engineering firm located in Pittsburgh. It is a division of Remington and Vernick Engineers.

The first bid was for heating, cooling and air conditioning modifications at the two schools and is from RB Mechanical, a South Hills-based HVAC that is family-owned and has been in business for 16-years. The HVAC bid is the more expensive of the two, costing $1,501,200.

By spring of 2021, Rashelle Chase-Miller knew she'd have to make some hard decisions.
Schools in Portland, Oregon—including her son Leo's charter—were reopening in-person. But Chase-Miller, herself born and raised in the City of Roses, had reservations. For decades, she'd watched the schools—especially in her historically Black neighborhood—fall into disrepair.
In particular, she worried about ventilation. Vigorous air flow and filtration are crucial for preventing outbreaks of the COVID-19 virus. Yet, an August 2021 inspection by the city's schools found every assessed facility had at least one room with inadequate ventilation.
Chase-Miller had another reason to be worried: Leo, who is 9 years old, has cerebral palsy and asthma. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that puts him at higher risk of severe COVID. Leo catching the virus would also put her elderly parents, who live close by and are both older than 65, at risk. Not to mention, her 4-year-old daughter Luna, who is too young to be vaccinated.
"For families like mine," Chase-Miller told ABC News, "ventilation in school is a huge deal."

The U.S. Department of Education will consider requests from school districts for an 18-month extension on spending COVID-19 emergency funds under the American Rescue Plan beyond the Sept. 30, 2024, obligation deadline, according to a May 13 letter from the department to AASA, The School Superintendents Association. 
The two-page letter said that while the obligation deadline — when a district commits to use of certain funds — is based on statutory and regulatory requirements, the department can approve spending extension requests for properly obligated funds. Approvals would be based on specific facts and circumstances, and longer extensions may be considered for “extraordinary circumstances.”
School system officials and education advocacy groups, such as AASA, have raised concerns that a tight spending timeline for ARP — plus other circumstances such as supply chain challenges, inflation and labor shortages — make it harder for districts to use ARP funds for needed facility improvements.

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature passed six bills that invest $220 million in education, with $200 million appropriated for the goal of expanding preschool access to all 3- and 4-year olds by 2032.

The $220 million is in addition to the $2.4 billion in the Department of Education’s most recent budget. The bills were sent to Gov. David Ige for his consideration.

The biggest chunk of the additional funding is for the education portion of HB 2000. It appropriates $200 million to the School Facilities Authority to expand access to pre-kindergarten for eligible children. The funds may be used to construct new school facilities; renovate, improve and expand existing school facilities to increase pre-kindergarten student capacity; and any other costs to increase pre-kindergarten student capacity within the state.

In 2020, the legislature passed Act 46, which created a goal to expand preschool access to all 3- and 4-year olds by 2032. But there were two issues with meeting that goal: lack of preschool facilities and lack of a qualified workforce.

“Making big change such as providing preschool access for 3- and 4-year old keiki takes time,” said Rep. Justin Woodson, Chair of the House Committee on Education. “Last year, we adopted HB 1362 to create a stipend program for UH students to become early childhood educators. This year, HB 2000 provides an appropriation of $200 million to create appropriate spaces for these keiki to learn effectively. This investment lays the foundation for Hawaii’s children to succeed.”

Next week, California will jumpstart a seven-year initiative to convert potentially thousands of schools into full-service, parent-focused community schools. 
Approved a year ago by the Legislature, the $3 billion California Community Schools Partnership Program will be the nation’s most ambitious effort to create schools serving multiple health and learning needs of children. Community schools have come to be known as schools with “wraparound services.” The underlying assumption is that a holistic approach to education, particularly in low-income areas with unmet basic needs, creates the best conditions for children to thrive emotionally and academically.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to increase the community schools program by $1.5 billion – 50% – in his revised 2022-23 state budget, which he released on May 13. 
At its meeting next Wednesday, the State Board of Education is expected to approve $635 million in planning and implementation grants for 265 school districts, county offices of education and charter schools.
On the recommendation of the California Department of Education, 192 districts, county offices of education and charter schools will receive $200,000 two-year planning grants in the first round.
The other 73 districts, with at least some existing community schools, will receive implementation grants covering 444 schools; each school will receive over five years between $712,500 for schools with fewer than 150 students to $2.375 million for schools with more than 2,000 students. Schools serving at least 80% low-income children will receive priority funding.
 

Mayor Michelle Wu pledged Thursday to spend $2 billion to overhaul Boston’s deteriorating school facilities, under an ambitious effort that would begin with 14 new school buildings or major renovations.
Wu billed the proposal as a “Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools” and promised to greatly accelerate the pace of construction in a school system that has built fewer than a dozen new schools over the last 40 years, and where some buildings date to the 1800s. In many schools, the clanking of steam radiators distracts students, learning spaces are devoid of sunlight and fresh air, and water fountains lack drinkable water.
“These improvements are long overdue, decades overdue in many cases, and we’re often seeing the consequences of deferred maintenance,” Wu said outside the McKinley Elementary School in the South End.
“Our young people see that every day in the feelings they have when they enter buildings where you can see water stains on the ceiling tiles, or shades that don’t properly work, or windows that are sticky to open,” Wu said. “And we’re seeing that has built and reinforces mistrust between the city and the community we are here to serve.”
The ultimate goal is to ensure that every school community will be in an upgraded building. But that could involve some difficult decisions about combining schools in a district where many families like the intimacy of small schools, even if it comes at the expense of art, music, or gym. That dynamic has sometimes made it difficult for administrators to win support for large-scale projects.
The new building plan comes as BPS is grappling with a decline in enrollment and is under pressure from some elected officials and fiscal watchdogs to close buildings. Current enrollment is about 49,000, down about 8,000 students over the past decade.
 

CARAWAY, Ark. (KAIT) - A school district has “flipped the switch” in new efforts to reduce costs and become energy efficient.

The Riverside School District celebrated its newly active solar array on Tuesday. The panels are located on-site at East Elementary School.

The project was a partnership between Little Rock-based Entegrity, who together designed and installed the array that would offset 95% of Riverside’s total consumption and save them about $1.5 million over the project’s lifetime, according to a news release.

“By deciding to build a solar array, we have found a way to reduce facility costs while being good stewards,” Superintendent Jeff Priest said. “Having this array on school grounds provides students and faculty access to unique learning opportunities and garners the importance of promoting energy efficiency in our community.”

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids Community School District is considering going to voters in March 2023 to approve a general obligation bond referendum to finance $323 million in secondary school building projects.
One consideration is consolidating the district’s six middle schools into four. Another is creating a new central aquatic center instead of upgrading the three separate swimming pools at Jefferson, Kennedy and Washington high schools, said Susan Bowersox, with OPN Architects, who presented an update on secondary schools facility needs assessment during a school board meeting Monday.
Renovated middle schools could have between 900 and 1,200 students, an increase of the between 500 to 800 students now at each middle school. New middle and high school buildings are also on the table.
“Do we talk about new construction versus major renovations?” Bowersox said. “When you talk about renovating a 100-year-old building to prepare it for the future, those are not small renovations.”
The school board last year approved an agreement between the district and OPN Architects to study secondary schools for a facility needs assessment, including the district’s six middle schools, three high schools and its alternative high school, Metro.
Final recommendations on the secondary facilities master plan will be presented to the school board this fall. The district had planned to present a facilities master plan recommendation for secondary schools this month, but more time is needed, Bowersox said.
Proposed construction projects to secondary schools include upgraded athletic facilities, upgraded music rooms, more space in nursing and counseling offices, flexible classroom spaces and furniture, collaboration spaces for students and staff, single-occupany restrooms, LED lighting, floor and ceiling replacements, upgraded kitchen equipment and technology upgrades.
District board documents included facility needs at McKinley STEAM Academy, Taft Middle School and Washington High School.
McKinley STEAM Academy could see a new 400-meter running track, new football and soccer fields, three new tennis courts, a new accessible competition gym and new boys’ and girls’ locker rooms.
 

The Detroit school board unanimously approved the district’s ambitious $700 million facility plan, setting up major renovations and rebuilds for school buildings across the city over the next half a decade.

The district will spend $281 million to rebuild five schools, $296 million to renovate buildings, and $128 million to reopen previously closed school buildings, expand pre-K, build additions onto existing schools, and demolish or sell some vacant buildings.

The major building changes would include:

Constructing new buildings on the current sites of Cody High School and Paul Robeson/Malcolm X Academy.
Reopening Paul Vetal Elementary, which closed in 2011, with an expanded pre-kindergarten program.
Building new additions at Charles Wright Academy, Communication and Media Arts High School, and John R. King Academy.
Closing Ann Arbor Trail Magnet Elementary-Middle School and Thurgood Marshall Elementary School by phasing out enrollment over the next several years.
Demolishing or selling active and closed school buildings, including Post Middle School, and Biddle and Larned elementary schools.

McClymonds High School will soon be getting a makeover. The West Oakland school, which has occupied the same campus since 1938, is set to receive $65 million over the next three years—part of a $735 million bond approved by Oakland voters in 2020 to modernize and upgrade Oakland Unified school sites. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024, but community members, school and district officials, and architects must first agree on a vision for the campus revamp. 

All those involved agree that the renovation of McClymonds’ campus, located on Myrtle and 26th streets, is long overdue. In addition to needed technology and seismic upgrades, there are environmental and safety concerns to address, including elevated lead levels in the plumbing infrastructure and carcinogens in the groundwater. School and community leaders are hopeful that a modernized campus will also attract more students to McClymonds, where enrollment in recent years has plummeted. 

While optimism about the project is high, there are concerns: Some community members worry the funds won’t be enough to realize all of the desired improvements, and that a renovated campus could catch the eye of charter schools looking to expand or relocate. And the level of community engagement in the planning process thus far hasn’t been what many had hoped.

“This is not going to be an easy process,” said VanCedric Williams, the school board director for District 3 where McClymonds is located. “We’re all in agreement that McClymonds deserves some new energy and some new designs. We’re going to continue to push through this conversation.”

SANDWICH – Residents in Sandwich approved a $13 million debt exclusion for school improvements at the annual town meeting on May 2.

The work would take place at Oak Ridge School, Forestdale School, and Sandwich High School. Kevin Lasit, Sandwich High’s Theater Company Director, asked people to support the article since the school’s facilities need critical improvements.  

“The roof continuously leaks when it rains or when the snow melts. During rehearsals we have about eight to ten large garbage cans that catch water,” Lasit said, citing one hazardous incident when water leaked onto the stage during a live performance.

The article, which would also include improvements to the town’s Human Services Building, passed at town meeting. It was then posed as a ballot question on Thursday, May 5, where voters approved the plan as well.

The state legislature passed a measure that'll provide additional funding for the Windermere Building Project, aimed at addressing crumbling foundation concerns.

The measure lawmakers passed pertains to the school construction portion of the budget implementation bill.

Ellington Public Schools said the new measure increases the reimbursement rate from 55.4% to 70%. This will provide the school district with just over $9 million additional dollars than expected.

This higher reimbursement rate is expected to save Ellington taxpayers money.

"As Board Chair and former Windermere parent, I am thrilled with the progress we have made on this project in shaping it for the community. We appreciate the leadership of Mr. Greenleaf, who has a unique and extensive skill set in school construction projects, and many others who have worked to proactively address our facilities and we appreciate the State’s recognition of this ongoing concern,” said Board of Education Chair Jennifer Dzen.

The school district said the bill will make the project eligible for state funding. They're planning to submit an application to the Office of School Construction Grants and Review for consideration.

The project also gets to move forward six months earlier than previously anticipated because of this new measure.

Voters on Saturday approved all five propositions of a massive $315 million Galveston ISD bond package that will set the district up with new academic and athletic facilities, according to complete but unofficial results.

Along with building a new Ball High School and Kermit Courville Stadium, the bond package will set up the district for long-debated middle school realignment and prepare three buildings to accommodate the new campus system.

“It’s a resounding show of community support,” school board President Tony Brown said.

The bond package included five propositions: $233.9 million for a new Ball High School, buses and vans; $16 million for an aquatics center attached to the new Ball High School; $36.2 million for middle school renovations; $4.5 million in technology upgrades; and $24.3 million for a new Kermit Courville Stadium.

Voters resoundingly approved the new Ball High School, with 61 percent, 3,857, of the 6,327 ballots cast, according to complete but unofficial results.

More than 56 percent, 3,534, of the 6,295 voters approved the aquatics center that will be built in the new high school.

About 61 percent, 3,816, of the 6,264 voters approved the middle school renovations and 60.3 percent, 3,779, of the 6,264 votes approved the $4.5 million technology upgrades.

Compared to the other measures, the new stadium passed by a slimmer margin, with 52.8 percent, 3,284, of the 6,220 voters approving the measure.

ANDOVER, Kan. (KWCH) - Surveillance video released by Andover Public Schools on Thursday shows several angles of the damage created as a tornado barreled through town on Friday. The video, nearly four minutes long, offers multiple points of view from outside and inside the building.

At 1:17, 1:42 and 2:10, you can see the wind pick up single vehicles left in the parking lot and blow them away. Another camera inside the building shows the storm sweep through the lunchroom blowing around tables and debris, and blowing out the windows.

The district said that while the video may be difficult to watch, it’s a testament to storm shelters. Despite damage in the building, nothing inside the storm shelter was affected. Plus, officials said the video can help show the power of the storm and help make sense of what happened.

Poudre School District will finalize construction on Timnath Middle-High School this summer and conduct about 30 projects across 20 other locations.
Timnath Middle-High School is nearly done with construction, while Wellington Middle-High School recently finished. The final two new schools approved by voters in the 2016 bond are set to open on time — and be completed on budget — for students grades six through 10 in August. Both have the capacity to serve 1,500 students and can be expanded to serve 1,800 students. 
Back in 2016, the bond gave the district $375 million to address population growth occurring in the district and complete facility improvements on 50 existing schools. The bond funded construction of three new schools, an athletics complex at Timnath Middle-High and a new transportation facility. Voters also approved an $8 million mill levy override that year to address growth in PSD and fund the new schools' startup costs.
PSD Director of Construction Earl Smith said the two middle-high schools alone were a massive undertaking and that their developer told them “most school districts don't attempt one project of this size, let alone do two of them at the same time.”
Wellington Middle-High received its certificate of occupancy earlier this year and is in the process of moving in furniture and supplies for the upcoming year. The Wellington construction project was estimated to cost up to $130 million. 
 

State lawmakers are poised to enact a number of reforms to Connecticut’s school construction office as a federal investigation continues into the multibillion-dollar grant program.

Legislators in the House folded several changes to the program into the state’s annual budget bill, which they passed early Tuesday morning. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation Tuesday night.

The reforms tighten the bidding procedures for school construction contracts and set stricter deadlines for completing audits of school building projects.

The state Office of School Construction Grants and Review has been in the spotlight since February, when state officials revealed that a federal grand jury subpoenaed records related to the school grant program.

That subpoena — and similar summons that were sent to at least five municipalities — suggest that federal prosecutors are focused on investigating the work of former Office of Policy and Management deputy secretary Konstantinos Diamantis, who ran the school construction office for more than six years.

Diamantis, who previously served as a state Democratic lawmaker, was removed from both his state jobs last October.