RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A top administrator in Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s office asked the city’s independent auditor in January to consider making changes to a 2020 audit on school construction costs.

Nearly two months after the auditor declined, the city administrator sent him a text saying that the audit was “being used to beat us over the head on false premises.”

The messages that Richmond’s Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders sent to the city’s independent auditor Louis Lassiter, revealed through a public record request and first reported by Virginia Public Media, came amid debates between Stoney’s administration, the city council and school board over the construction of a new George Wythe High School.

The 2020 audit showed that Richmond had higher construction costs for two elementary schools compared to the state average and ones in Chesterfield County.

Saunders sent Lassiter an email on Jan. 26, more than two years after the audit was released, asking if his team would consider updating their findings by including other schools in the area using new data from the Virginia Department of Education.

"In most school districts, the second-largest yearly expense after salaries is the energy bill."
That's a quote from Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking earlier this month at an elementary school in Washington, D.C.
She was announcing a new, multibillion-dollar federal push to renovate public schools in ways that are healthier both for children and the planet – and often, that save money too.
The funds are spread across several different agencies and programs. The White House released a toolkit with details:
Heating and cooling upgrades: studies show that schools are on deck to spend $9.7 billion of American Rescue Plan funds to upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems – something that became top of mind to curb the spread of COVID-19. More efficient HVAC systems could lower energy costs and emissions.
Cleaner transportation: a $5 billion rebate program from the Environmental Protection Agency that replaces old, mostly diesel-fueled buses. Half the money is specifically for electric buses.
Carbon-free commuting: some of the $90 billion in the Department of Transportation's highway safety funds can be used to help with route planning so more students can walk or bike to school. 
Lower power costs, more light: a $500 million Department of Energy grant program, paid for by the infrastructure law, can be used for things like LED lights, better insulation, and solar panels.
 

Today the U.S. Department of Education named the 2022 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees. Across the country there are 27 schools, five districts, and four postsecondary institutions that are recognized. These honorees employ innovative practices and policies to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective sustainability education.

Could your school be the next U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School? Check out these spotlights from the 2022 honorees: 

Environmental education and sustainability changes at Crellin Elementary School (CES) began when the school community found historic mining contaminants in the creek behind the school. Not only was CES able to remedy the pollution, but it increased the overall health of the riparian area while creating an outdoor classroom. The environmental education laboratory is an outdoor classroom where students participate in hands-on activities using the wetland, boardwalk, hemlock forest, vernal ponds, meadows, orchard, and adjacent creek. CES’s agriculture program features barns with sheep and hens, with a solar panel to maximize hens’ egg production through daylight provision. The greenhouse employs hydroponics systems. CES has made efficiency upgrades, including building automation, interior and exterior LED lights, double-paned windows, HVAC, and building envelope, leading to an immediate decrease in energy usage. Low-flow fixtures reduce domestic water consumption and rain barrels provide water for gardens and barn animals.   

DUBLIN — The Dublin Unified School District (DUSD) Board of Trustees approved a new, facilities master plan (FMP) during its regular meeting on Tuesday, April 12.

The FMP — which provides a blueprint to address the changing facility needs of the school district — was approved 3-2, with trustees Dan Cherrier and Gabi Blackman casting the dissenting votes. The two expressed concerns with the changes to the plan since its last version was presented in February.

Staff explained that the FMP allocates funds to the improvements but doesn’t nail down site plan details. The new FMP permits upgrades across school sites and the district office, including the completion of Emerald High School, a new middle school at Dublin Crossings, upgrades and improvements at Murray and Dougherty elementary schools, modernizations at Dublin Elementary School, and overall improvements in safety and technology.

Noting the plan’s approval to be a “great step in the right direction,” DUSD Public Information Officer Chip Dehnert said city’s growth over the recent decades presented a challenge in building the facilities necessary to provide students with the best educational experience possible. The previous plan was finalized in 2016 and needed to be updated.

“This plan is a reflection of Dublin as it currently exists and the expected growth we have. It is a much more accurate reflection of our needs and therefore, a better guide for future development than the previous plan,” he said.

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) - The School District of La Crosse is holding a pair of public community listening sessions to discuss long-term facility planning for the district.

The upcoming sessions will highlight the District’s declining student population, aging facilities and work done on budgeting and operations to manage persistent shortfalls in funding.

According to the District’s information page for facility planning, annual enrollment in the school district has declined by over 1,400 students in the past 20 years. The District cited lower birth rates over the past 30 years as a cause of the decline, and noted that each student brings in about $11,300 in revenue. In addition, La Crosse administrators expect the enrollment to continue to decline for at least the next five to 10 years. The most recent publicly-available open enrollment figures also show the school district losing more students to transfers than it is bringing in since 2018-19, with 2019-2020 seeing a net loss of 34 students to open enrollment transfer.

Aging facilities are also a concern of the School District of La Crosse, according to the District’s facility planning page. Some of the 15 buildings in operation are over 80 years old, with millions of dollars each year budgeted for maintenance and updates to keep the schools in compliance with federal and state standards. The District also said that La Crosse is the smallest school district in Wisconsin with two high schools, and that districts of its size typically have 10 or 11 buildings, not 15. The average age of the buildings used by the school district is 60 years.

HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Howard County leaders are making an investment in school construction to relieve classroom capacity and overcrowding.
County officials announced on Tuesday the details of a record school construction investment will create an additional 2,400 spaces for students by 2023.
overcrowded schools a thing of the past
Howard County working to make overcrowded schools a thing of the past
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By: WMAR StaffPosted at 4:09 PM, Apr 19, 2022 and last updated 5:54 PM, Apr 19, 2022
HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Howard County leaders are making an investment in school construction to relieve classroom capacity and overcrowding.
County officials announced on Tuesday the details of a record school construction investment will create an additional 2,400 spaces for students by 2023.
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County Executive Calvin Ball’s proposed budget contains $105.9 million for school construction, the most in at least the past 20 years.
The funding provides all the construction resources requested by the Board of Education and HCPSS, including the completion of High School #13 in Jessup, the Talbott Springs Elementary replacement, and the renovation and addition at Hammond High.
“Howard County is a premier place to live and grow, which is why families choose to raise their children here,” said County Executive Calvin Ball. “Through responsible management and strong partnerships, we can now invest more than $105 million in school construction during the next year, the highest amount in more than two decades. We are building facilities that will foster excellent environments for teaching and learning.”
The investment also includes over $30 million in total funding for systemic renovations, including:
 

When it came time for Halifax County School Board to consider approval of its capital improvement plan when they met Monday evening, it prompted school board members to ask about the future of some elementary schools.
In August of last year, the board mulled an idea to close Clays Mill Elementary, Meadville Elementary and Sinai Elementary as a way to help fund increases to teacher pay and the new Halifax County High School.
A series of public hearings were held in the fall on the matter, but the board made no decisions regarding the elementary schools.
The capital improvement plan they approved Monday evening includes a schedule of tasks the maintenance department hopes to complete within the next five years.
Included in the schedule for fiscal year 2023 are HVAC upgrades to Clays Mill Elementary School at a cost of $650,000, curtain replacement at Clays Mill Elementary School for approximately $7,500, partial roof replacement for $25,000 and curtain replacement at Sinai Elementary School for $10,000.
 

The last of Ohio County Schools' three construction projects, totaling $11 million, should be complete by this summer, according to Seth Southard, district superintendent.

The projects included an addition at Wayland Elementary School that was finished in August. The addition has four classrooms, two for both preschool and kindergarten. The total cost of the Wayland addition was $1.5 million.

When Wayland was built in 1996, the district opted to keep the Wayland Preschool at its former location, at 110 Frederica St. in Hartford. The former Wayland school became the Render Education Center, which is where the district's alternative learning and day treatment programs are located. The Cliff Hagan Boys and Girls Club of Ohio County Extension also operates from the facility.

Southard said having the Wayland preschool a part of the elementary has provided a "more fluid transition" for preschool students and staff members. At its former location, students had to walk outside the building and into the Render Center to have meals. Having the preschool in-house at the elementary has been better for students.

A majority of our nation’s school buildings are at least 50 years old. Think about that: the classrooms and other school facilities where our kids spend hours on end, five days a week, are in desperate need of renovations to deal with issues like leaking roofs, broken air-conditioning, mold or mildew issues, and poor air quality.

Here in New York City, the situation is even more dire: the average age of our school buildings is 70 years old.

This is a crisis for our students, and it’s especially acute in communities of color that have endured generations of underinvestment. The environment in which our students learn affects everything from their test scores to their health and well-being. Old, deteriorating school buildings rely on outdated equipment, pumping tons of carbon emissions into the air. Taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars in energy costs, which nationwide represent the second-highest costs for schools after personnel. We need to get this under control before it’s too late.

Fortunately, earlier this week, the White House announced the Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure, a $500 million grant program that will allow states and cities to invest in green retrofits that improve energy efficiency, air quality, and health outcomes for students across the country. Importantly, these projects will create hundreds of thousands of new, good union jobs across the country, building a pipeline between public schools and union careers that will support strong communities and a just economy for all.

FARMINGTON -- The Farmington School Board and school administrators gathered April 8 with school staff and those from the community to celebrate the groundbreaking of the district's new solar arrays.
Located adjacent to Farmington High School on Arkansas 170, the 499-kilowatt array is one of three arrays that will help the district accomplish its goals to operate sustainably and create savings for salary initiatives.
Another array is under construction behind Williams Elementary in Farmington and the third array is part of a 100-acre cooperative installation in Booneville that will serve the city of Booneville and the Farmington and Fayetteville school districts, according to Adam Ness, chief of staff with Entegrity.
In 2021, the Farmington School District partnered with the Arkansas Energy Office to implement an energy savings performance contract, wherein a state-approved company implements energy-efficient upgrades that pay for themselves. The School Board chose Entegrity to audit their facilities and implement a tailored scope of work to include LED lighting, solar energy installations, water conservation measures, new HVAC equipment, HVAC tune-ups, controls upgrades and emergency power generation.
Currently halfway through completion, the project is guaranteed by Entegrity to produce savings of nearly $300,000 annually and more than $6 million over the project's lifetime.
Superintendent Jon Laffoon stated, "This project will bring positive outcomes to our School District and our community for decades to come."
 

The short documentary video opens with a high school student explaining how human waste flows up from the ground and floods an area where he and his friends eat lunch.

In the eight-minute video with background music and captions of key quotes, students at Druid Hills High School use iPhones to document the classrooms, hallways and bathrooms that are crumbling around them.

In several scenes, plaster is falling off walls, and water is dripping around electrical outlets in one area. So much water has leaked into the weight room that it oozes up from the floor when a student steps on it. Another student demonstrates how one of the holes in a ceiling is so large that he can put his entire hand through it.

“You can tell someone about the conditions but when you visually see it, it’s a lot more impactful,” sophomore Harley Martz, one of the students who produced the video, told The Associated Press in an interview. “Some of the things we pointed out in the video are very undeniable.”

The Wake County school system could up the number of major renovations over the next seven years by cutting back on the number of new schools that will be built. The school board’s facilities committee backed a plan this week to include eight major school renovations and four new schools to the district’s rolling, seven-year building program. The new plan was presented after board members expressed concerns with prior options to fund seven new schools but only five major renovations in the next seven years. “Whatever schools get on the list today are going to need renovations,” said board member Jim Martin, chair of the facilities committee. “The schools that don’t get on the list are going to need renovations. If we’re not doing four to five a year, we’re falling behind.”
Under the new plan, major renovations will be done at North Garner Middle; Lockhart Elementary in Knightdale; Briarcliff Elementary in Cary; Brentwood Elementary, Athens Drive High, Washington Elementary and Ligon Middle in Raleigh; and Zebulon Middle.
The plan’s four new schools are a small high school in West Cary or Morrisville, an elementary school in Wendell or Zebulon, an elementary school on Poole Road in eastern Raleigh and an elementary school in northeastern Raleigh. But the plan is to permanently relocate Wendell Elementary’s students and staff to the new eastern Wake elementary school. The full school board will vote on the plan Tuesday to send to the Wake County Board of Commissioners. COUNTY DEBT LIMIT Funding for the district’s building program comes from a combination of bonds approved by voters and others approved only by the commissioners. Commissioners are expected to place the next school construction bond referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot.
 

The topic of school closures dominated much of Wednesday’s Oakland Unified School District board meeting—the first to be held in person since December and since the school board voted in February to close or consolidate 11 schools over the next two years. Dozens of community members showed up to the meeting at La Escuelita, a bilingual K-8 school near Lake Merritt and one of the schools chosen to be downsized, with signs, posters, and banners to protest the plan.

“There is so much at stake because every single school site is the heart of a community,” said Kira Allen, whose mom worked at Kaiser Elementary for 25 years before it closed last year. “It is a beating heart for these families—for Parker, for Community Day, for La Escuelita. In the very building that we are in, these young children are fighting, and I ask you to stop pretending that [closures] don’t have lifelong effects, and I ask you to think with your heart instead of with your budget.”

TREASURE VALLEY, Idaho — It's no secret that Idaho is growing – bringing hordes of new families to the Treasure Valley and pushing some school facilities to their limit.
U.S. Census Data from 2020 reported a 17.3% increase in the Idaho population since 2010. Much of the growth is in Treasure Valley, Ada County, and the cities of Star and Meridian.
Now, schools must figure out how to accommodate the new wave of students while tending to the current infrastructure.
taxpayers
By: Madison HardyPosted at 9:38 AM, Apr 14, 2022 and last updated 11:44 AM, Apr 14, 2022
TREASURE VALLEY, Idaho — It's no secret that Idaho is growing – bringing hordes of new families to the Treasure Valley and pushing some school facilities to their limit.
U.S. Census Data from 2020 reported a 17.3% increase in the Idaho population since 2010. Much of the growth is in Treasure Valley, Ada County, and the cities of Star and Meridian.
Now, schools must figure out how to accommodate the new wave of students while tending to the current infrastructure.
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Scott Dorval's Idaho News 6 Forecast - Tuesday 5/3/22
A draft copy of the Nampa School District Facilities Master Plan states that 11 – of the approximately 30 – district buildings are in "critical" condition. Fourteen, the report reads, are considered "poor."
NSD executive director of operations, Peter Jurhs, said a facility FCI score (Facilities Condition Index) measures the level of risk if maintenance is deferred. According to the plan, a building with a more than 30% FCI score was labeled a "critical" condition.
 

OGDEN — Ogden School District is increasingly turning to renewable energy to power its facilities and save money.
The Ben Lomond High School Athletic Center, which opened in December 2020, is fitted with solar panels and data from the first year of operations shows the shift is paying off, district officials say. Data the district recently crunched shows power generated by the panels, located atop the new facility, offset nearly 97% of its power needs in its first year of operation, through November 2021, surpassing the goal of 92%.
“The system saved the district $10,000 in energy costs last summer alone indicating that the investment in solar energy will more than pay for itself in the future,” the district said in a statement.
Placement of the panels represents the extension of a standing Ogden School District energy-efficiency initiative that dates to 2007. The Mound Fort Junior High School Innovation Center, completed in 2019, was the first district facility fitted with solar panels and they were also placed on East Ridge Elementary, which opened last August. They’re to be placed on Polk and Liberty elementary schools, under construction but to open later this year for the 2022-2023 school year.
 

Norfolk City officials made public a major plan on Tuesday to rebuild five city schools over the next decade using local tax revenue from a new casino.

City officials don’t know the total cost of the project yet, but said they plan to take out at least $250 million in new debt for it. That money would be paid back — at least in part — by local tax revenue from the Headwaters Resort and Casino, a gaming facility set to open near Harbor Park in 2024, according to Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer.

“This is a generational change in the facilities of the Norfolk public school system, both through new construction, as well as massive modernization and renovation,” Filer said at a Tuesday city council meeting.

The five schools the city intends to replace or renovate are Maury High School, Booker T. Washington High School, Norview Elementary School, Jacox Elementary School and Granby Elementary School.

Maury High School would be first in line for replacement, with construction beginning as soon as 2025, Filer said.

The 1910-era Maury High School has dire infrastructure and repair needs. City and school officials have been discussing the need to replace the school since at least 2014.

The estimated price tag is $180 million, Filer said.

A new report released Wednesday by the Vermont Agency of Education highlights the deteriorating conditions of Vermont’s decades-old school buildings — a situation that could force lawmakers and school officials to make difficult decisions in the future. 
That report, compiled by the French inspection and certification company Bureau Veritas, does not show in-depth information about any schools; instead, it is a precursor to a more thorough assessment that has not yet begun. 
But the data “indicate an aging portfolio of key systems across the state of Vermont,” the authors of the report wrote, raising the specter of increased construction and renovation costs in the future.  
With coffers full of federal pandemic aid last year, Vermont’s legislature passed a law directing the state Agency of Education to conduct a statewide study to determine how well the state’s school buildings were holding up. 
Now, the first phase of that study is complete. 
For about the past six months, Bureau Veritas has been gathering information from surveys sent to local school officials around the state. The data represents 305 public schools and 384 school buildings from every district and supervisory union in Vermont.
Those buildings are 61 years old on average, the study found, and have gone an average of 22 years without a major renovation.  
Of those 384 buildings, 196 were known to have hazardous materials present, according to survey results, while officials suspected their presence in another 52 buildings. The report did not specify which hazardous materials officials were asked about. 
Roughly 80 buildings had “Indoor Air Quality Issues” while about 50 had “Fire / Life Safety Issues,” although it’s unclear what those issues were. 
 

St. Johns County School administrators have taken zoning for the district's next K-8 school off the table.
The reason: Bids for the construction of "School NN" came in higher than the school board was comfortable with. The board voted to reject all three bids at this time, which means the school will most likely not open as slated in 2023-24 in the Shearwater development off County Road 210.
Nicole Cubbedge, the district's director for government and planning relations, said the district was already well ahead of its usual schedule in creating an attendance zone for the new school.
"Since now it may be a 2024 opening, it's too far out to realistically consider (enrollment) numbers," Cubbedge said.
The news was met with mixed feelings by parents of the Rivertown community who spoke out at Tuesday's workshop and school board meeting against several rezoning options that eventually will be affected by the opening of "School NN."
"It does make it so much harder; there's so much up in the air now," said Rivertown parent Stacy Dellone who has two students currently attending Freedom Crossing Academy.
 

DANBURY — Stokes County Board of Education members had a lot of numbers thrown at them during the Monday night meeting, as Finance Director Lanette Moore went through the proposed budget for the 2022-2023 school year.

All budget numbers will be pending approval from the County Commissioners.

First up was the Superintendent’s Proposed Current Expense budget for 2022-2023 school year, which totals $17.09 million, an increase of $2 million, or a 14.8%, from the previous year. Moore said the largest increase in salaries and benefits, which make up 55% of the budget.

Moore also went over a 22-item Superintendent’s Recommended Capital expense budget, the Athletic Grant budget and a 25-item “wish list” of additional capital items.

“I don’t see how you keep up with all those numbers,” Board Chair Von Robertson told Moore. “It’s enough to make your head swim.”

During the discussion, Facilities Director Ricky Goins expressed worry at the age of many of the system’s school facilities.

“Chillers,” a critical item used to utilize the power of outside air and water to maintain the target temperature at a constant level, so can be used to cool or heat, have 15 to 18 year life-cycle according to manufacturers, Goins said.

“We’ve got some that are 35 years old.” It cost $350,000 to replace a chiller at West Stokes a year ago, and Goins told the Board that there are four more than could go out at any time.

Durham’s public school system will begin using a new model for assigning students to schools in the 2023-24 school year, in an attempt to increase equity. On Tuesday, the district announced the new student assignment model through the Growing Together initiative. The current student assignment system was developed in 1992, when schools within the city’s limits merged with schools in the county. A student’s base school assignment is determined by where they currently live in Durham.
The new assignment model will rezone schools into five regions: Northern, Eastern, Central, Southeast and Southwest. The regions were created based on community infrastructure like highways, median household income, the percentage of people of color and the number of school-age children in the region, according to a news release. “We acknowledge that there are clear disparities between our schools,” Melody Marshall, director of student assignment, said in a school district video explaining the changes.