Ontario School Safety (OSS) is considering legal action to force the provincial government to improve indoor air quality in schools and on school buses. They issued the threat after claiming multiple attempts to discuss this issue directly with the Ford government were ignored, the group said.
“Ontario’s provincial government has failed its general duty to provide a safe, stable, and healthy working environment for children and youth, their caregivers, the education system and all Ontario communities,” reads the statement from OSS, which advocates for safe, in-person education for all students in Ontario.
Concerns about indoor air quality at schools rose to the fore during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and were reinforced earlier this month when wildfires briefly filled Ontario skies with dangerous amounts of smoke.
Poor indoor air quality results in the spread of airborne illnesses like COVID-19, and failing to provide clean air in schools and on buses goes against provincial Occupational Health and Safety recommendations, the statement said.
Canada’s National Observer reached out to Ontario’s Ministry of Education for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
 

The Omaha public school district is close to finishing an 18-month-long project that plans for the future of all 108 of its buildings.
The plan, which outlines each building’s maintenance and renovation needs over the next 20 years, amounts to a projected $2.29 billion in projects. While it still needs its finishing touches, school board members were able to get the first look at the plan during a workshop earlier this month.
“The intent of our facilities assessment is to catalog, identify our needs and look at them to plan for years ahead. Much like a homeowner would plan for a kitchen remodel or a bathroom remodel,” said Charles Wakefield, chief operations officer. “Our team walked every piece of our buildings — all 108 sites — looking at everything from above the roof to mechanical closets and looking at the windows.”
Wakefield said the district’s team of architects and OPS staff took photos of each item in every building, cataloged its condition and assessed the cost of replacement or renovation for the next five to 20 years. Each school has thousands of lines of data in the facilities assessment.
 

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio ISD Board of Trustees approved a resolution Tuesday night that calls for a “rightsizing” study that may result in the restructuring and closing of schools.
According to a news release, the study is being conducted for the purpose of supporting thriving schools, classrooms, students, teachers, and school leaders.
“Rightsizing presents a unique opportunity to elevate the standard of education in our community,” SAISD Superintendent Dr. Jaime Aquino said. “Matching our school capacity with enrollment numbers will ensure that our schools are well-resourced and equitable, providing a robust learning environment for all our students.”
Aquino said the decision to conduct the study comes due to SAISD steadily losing enrollment for more than 20 years, which has led to under-enrolled schools and academic and financial program inequities.
 

Crumbling wheelchair ramps. Closets converted into classrooms. Make-shift room dividers.
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer’s February ruling declaring the state’s education funding system unconstitutional painted a vivid picture — in words and photographs — of the challenges facing educators as they toil in a historically underfunded system.
Across its sprawling 786-pages, the Cohn Jubelirer ruling devoted nearly 10 pages to the condition of school facilities throughout the state. She also noted testimony from the plaintiffs in the case, who described leaking roofs, a lack of heating and air conditioning, and the need for mold and asbestos abatement.
“One teacher testified that “in [her] first grade classroom[,] you could see the sky. There was a hole in the ceiling . . . that you could literally look up and see the sky.”
Now policymakers have been tasked with literally filling that hole. 
“It is not enough that the facilities in which students learn are ‘generally safe’ as Legislative Respondents contend,” Cohn Jubelirer wrote in her ruling, concluding that school facilities need to be “safe and adequate.”
As state officials and lawmakers begin the herculean task of fixing the funding system for the commonwealth’s public schools, tackling how best to fund badly needed school facility maintenance, repair, and construction projects will be a major focus. 
 

K-12 school districts were graded on the condition of their facilities in 2021, and the results were less than flattering. 
“The 2021 infrastructure report card graded U.S. school facilities to be in D plus condition,” says Sarah Zaleski, program manager of the schools and nonprofits program at the Department of Energy (DOE).  
Federal funding for school districts is rare, but the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) changed that, directing $500 million in grant money as part of a $370 billion commitment for energy-saving projects and to fight climate change. 
Despite the influx of BIL money, state and local governments aren’t always in position to fund school districts at levels to keep their buildings running at peak efficiency, so any extra money that’s added to the coffers to help with costly upgrades for systems such as HVAC and lighting is welcomed. 

American 4-year-olds in western Japan will be able to go to school this fall as part of a new plan that could eventually benefit 6,100 children across the Department of Defense Education Activity, according to school officials.
M.C. Perry Primary School in Iwakuni is first in line to offer universal prekindergarten to U.S. military families stationed overseas, DODEA said.
All eligible “military-connected” children at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni who turn 4 on or before Sept. 1 may enroll in prekindergarten, according to a June 6 announcement posted on the school’s website.
The announcement says school begins at 7:55 a.m. Monday to Friday and students are dismissed at 1:30 p.m. every day except Thursday, when the day ends at 1:15 p.m. Education, health, nutrition, family involvement and social services comprise the program, according to the school’s website.
DODEA now is awaiting funding approval to expand its preschool offerings.
President Joe Biden’s proposed 2024 budget includes $66.4 million in universal prekindergarten funds for students in 60 military communities served by DODEA schools worldwide, agency spokesman Will Griffin said in an email earlier this month.
 

The Colorado Board of Education approved $180 million in grants across the state from a prioritized list of 17 Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) school construction projects.

Board members approved the grants during their monthly meeting last week.

Lawmakers enacted the “Building Excellent Schools Today Act” or “BEST” in 2008 to address the limited capacity many Colorado schools have to replace aging facilities.

Since 2008, BEST has contributed more than $3.5 billion in grants — which are designed to improve health, safety, security and technology in Colorado’s public schools.

More than half of the grants will be funded, in part, by the Colorado State Land Board, marijuana excise tax, the Colorado Lottery and earned interest. Projects include roof replacements, fire alarms and security upgrades as well as other major renovations.

Exterior improvements are being considered at several Greensburg Salem school facilities, but district officials are just starting to come to grips with potential longer-term building needs.

Building improvements are of particular importance to a district parent and teacher, who voiced to the school board concerns about Nicely Elementary School, where she works.

Teacher Kristin Dinkel, who has three children enrolled in the district, told the board about outdated desks and floors that have begun to slope at the single-story school.

"Our kids deserve better," she said. "I want to see things happening."

"Let's look at the things we know aren't going away, and let's start to put some things in for the aesthetics and the amenities for the kids," Superintendent Ken Bissell said concerning district facilities. "Let's start with that, and in the background, we need to look at the bigger picture of longer-­term (projects)."

District officials said Greensburg Salem is moving forward with planned projects at Offutt Field, the high school and middle school while new air conditioning units and chillers needed at the high school and Nicely and Metzgar elementary schools could be a year away.

As their schools struggle with water leaks, crumbling sidewalks and sinking floors, members of the Hamilton County Board of Education have deep apprehensions about ceding control of $6 million that was reserved in their proposed budget for needed building repairs.
"This is not a compromise," school board member Ben Connor, D-Chattanooga, said during a meeting Thursday evening. "Compromises are when equal parties come together and they make a plan based on a discussion, and after that discussion, they come to an agreement. Compromises don't have ultimatums. They don't have threats. This is a political stickup. It's a political heist, and it was done on purpose."
Amid a windfall in new revenue under the state's new school funding formula, the Hamilton County Board of Education intended to increase its spending on deferred maintenance from $2 million to $8 million in the proposed budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1.
However, the board voted 8-2 on a last-minute resolution Thursday to reduce the amount back to $2 million in favor of the county using that $6 million for a more substantial bond issuance — something county leaders say could actually allow them to complete building repairs at a quicker clip. Members Karitsa Jones, D-Chattanooga, and Larry Grohn, R-East Ridge, voted against the measure.
 

Campbell County school board members made it clear this week that the condition of the Campbell County High School building itself is “unacceptable” and needs to become a higher priority for the state.
Campbell County school board chairwoman Anne Ochs said the onus is on the state legislators to “advocate for our students and county.”
“Our high-mindedness by not pushing our legislators to get involved in this process has been huge because that has not always been the case around the state,” Ochs said. “If you have a powerful legislator who is in charge of certain committees, their facilities seem to get built and get built very well.
“I am asking our legislators in Campbell County to support our schools. We have to do something about Campbell County High School.”
The high school faces several expensive issues that remain in need of funds. The sewage and plumbing at the school at times closes bathrooms due to back ups in the pipelines. Part of the school doesn’t have any fire sprinklers in the hallways.
Campbell County has sent more than $1 billion to the state for what is used for maintenance of school buildings statewide since 1984 and around $120 million this year. Ochs said those dollars would go a long way toward fixing or replacing the issues at CCHS and that she wants to see more equity in the allocation of those funds.
 

Oceanview Middle School students will soon move to Southern High School as Guam Department of Education acting Superintendent Judi Won Pat has advised the schools’ principals to get together to discuss the summer move.
On Wednesday, Won Pat reported to Guam Education Board members that she had toured Oceanview, which won't be opening next school year as a result of the state of the facility. But after touring the Hågat middle school, Won Pat alluded to a concern Oceanview parents had foreseen months ago — the possibility of no return or a delayed return to the middle school campus.
“When I looked at the buildings and asked (GDOE) Facilities and Maintenance to get a quotation to be able to build a full wing, (it) would actually cost us about $7 million to $9 million,” Won Pat said.
The plan in place since November 2022 has been to move Oceanview students, faculty and staff to Southern High, to allow the issues at the middle school to be addressed during the upcoming school year.
 

The systems cooling and cleaning air inside Cesar Batalla School in Bridgeport are on the verge of complete failure, with temperatures sometimes getting so hot they’re considered unsafe and students must be sent home.
At Bethel High School, classrooms have no air ventilation system at all. Teachers rely on open windows and fans.
And in Brownwin Lakowski’s third grade classroom at Newfield Elementary School in Stamford, the HVAC system regularly breaks, leaving students and staff, particularly those with asthma, to suffer.
Just this past month, temperatures in Lakowski’s classroom reached 85 degrees one day. At other times, she said the school's air ventilation system was unable to filter smoke from wildfires in Canada that made its way into the building, causing some schoolchildren to cough.
“Part of having good air quality is having the windows open, but if the windows are open, the rooms get hotter – so it becomes a vicious cycle,” said Lakowski.
 

Ten years ago, the Chicago Board of Education and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided to close nearly 50 public schools, mainly on the South and West sides of the city.
One of those schools was Delano Elementary in Garfield Park. Issues arose when those students had to then attend school with students at Melody Elementary.
“I thought it was erroneous for them to take these two schools that have been adversaries for almost 40 to 50 years and put them in the same school,” said Reginald Akkeem Berry Sr., founder of Saving Our Sons Ministries. “That was just, again, set up for failure.”
Berry said his organization had to step in to help mediate when the school closed.
Andrew Carr was a guidance counselor at Delano Elementary. He also had a grandchild who was a student there when the mass school closures happened.
“The lasting impact is that children, they don’t trust the school system,” Carr said. “Then them, as parents, they reject the things that’s happening in the school and they feel like they don’t have a say-so in it, they don’t have a voice in what’s going on and they kind of give up.”
Dwayne Truss was an organizer on the West Side at the time and later served as a CPS board member from 2019 to 2022. He said the school closings failed to consider the connections that families had to their neighborhood schools.
In Austin, four elementary schools closed: Armstrong, Emmet, Key and May. 
Ten years later, Armstrong remains vacant. May’s building was taken over by its receiving school, Leland Elementary. In the last year, Key reopened as the Field School, a private Christian elementary school, while the site of Emmet will house a new workforce development hub called the Aspire Center.
 

Big changes are coming to energy consumption at Jersey City schools. Last night, the Board of Education approved an Energy Savings Improvement Plan, or “ESIP,” that is expected to be the largest such project in New Jersey history.

The ESIP, as presented to the Board at Monday’s caucus, is widespread and designed to increase student productivity in the classroom and save money in the budget for re-allocation. Priorities in the ESIP include new HVAC equipment for eight schools, boiler replacements, roof restorations for 21 schools, and district-wide interior and exterior LED lighting. There will also be a new unified energy management system across the district and increased use of renewable solar energy.

In addition to energy conservation measures, there are also educational programs provided, such as working with the district to incorporate lessons about energy conservation across grade levels. There will also be a program specifically tailored to increasing the number of women in STEM/STEAM, engineering, and construction industries.

Dare County Schools is pleased to announce that three schools in the district will receive NC GreenPower’s grant award for the Solar+ Schools program.

Cape Hatteras Secondary School, First Flight Elementary, and Manteo Middle School will receive a solar educational package that includes a 20-kilowatt (kW) solar array, STEM curricula, teacher training and more.

New for 2023, the program awardees will receive a grant to pay for all of the project’s construction costs, expected to be approximately $55,000-$75,000.

The included weather station and data monitoring will incorporate live information from the array into classrooms. Teachers will be able to compare different weather scenarios and involve students in reading and interpreting the energy data.

We are very excited to be able to install larger systems for the first time and save schools even more on their energy bills. Removing the fundraising burden and simplifying the application process has been well received by our applicants and enabled additional schools to consider installing solar,” said Vicky McCann, vice president of NC GreenPower. “We are proud to continue educating younger generations about solar energy. By the end of next year, we will have reached more than 62,000 students across North Carolina.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (ErieNewsNow) - Many schools in Pennsylvania are decades, if not over a century, old. Hazardous school conditions are a growing concern among district officials, families and state lawmakers.
This week, Democrats and advocates pushed for more funding to address Pennsylvania's aging education infrastructure in the state’s budget. 
“We want a world class education system and in order to do that, the first thing you need to do is make sure that you have world class facilities for our students,” said Rep. Bob Merski (D-Erie). 
How to keep Pennsylvania's youngest residents safe and healthy in aging schools – that's what Democratic lawmakers like Merski are emphasizing. 
“Schools that have asbestos, schools that have leaky roofs, mold,” said Merski. 
Merski, a former educator, knows firsthand the hazards and challenges for thousands of students and teachers. 
“In my own experience in the Erie School District, I've taught in buildings that are over 100 years old. I've taught in buildings with leaky roofs. There were buckets on the floor at times until they could get up there and patch it,” said Merski. 
New technology and innovative learning tools are placing additional strain on aging infrastructure. 
“The educational technology has changed. So things that you don't see in the building, the wiring, the electricity, those things need to be upgraded to handle all of the new computers and all of the new wireless technology,” said Merski. 
With a few weeks until the budget deadline, House Democrats and advocates are calling for a boost to make classrooms safer. 
 

Key pieces of the Hawaii Department of Education’s newly approved six-year strategic plan will be delayed or deferred due to a $43 million budget shortfall.

The cuts will be felt despite a potential last minute injection of $55 million in discretionary funds for the department from Gov. Josh Green. That measure is still awaiting his signature.

The full extent of the budget gap dominated the state Board of Education meeting Thursday.

The department is still assessing where to make the cuts, but did not make a representative available for comment.

The strategic plan, only approved in February, was designed to revamp the public school system’s curriculum, teacher recruitment strategies and to update facilities.

A variety of line items did not make the cut in the Legislature’s approved budget, including funding for parts of the weighted student formula — the department’s mechanism for funding schools — secondary mathematics initiatives and English learner programs.

STOCKTON - A report released this week by a civil grand jury in San Joaquin County said more could be done to keep schools in the county safe after examining 14 public schools and the county's Office of Education.

A civil grand jury is a panel convened in each county around the state annually to investigate and report on local government operations.

According to the San Joaquin County jury's report, a more unified approach to safety should be undertaken in local schools.
"Safety planning often consists of a patchwork of policies and procedures and many of the Comprehensive School Safety Plans (CSSPs) required by law are boilerplate documents that are rarely specific to school sites," stated the report.

A CSSP is a safety plan required by state law for each school-site operating K-12 grades.

The jury found that although the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) and all of the districts had their safety plans approved, only a few appeared to have been drafted to address issues that were unique to a specific school site.

Questions are mounting after the price tag to fix Newark public schools more than doubled in the past five months from $1 billion to $2.5 billion, a mushrooming bill that the city’s Superintendent says city residents will have to pay.
 
But elected officials and experts say the Superintendent shouldn’t be looking to city residents at all. 

The Newark public schools should “go after” the New Jersey Department of Education and the School Development Authority “instead of shifting the burden to local taxpayers and we will support them if they do so,” said Education Law Center senior attorney Theresa Luhm. “This situation speaks to the urgent need for the legislature to put additional money into the school construction program in this year’s budget.

The School Development Authority “fell woefully short on what was anticipated and no real explanation was given to voters across the state,” said Mayor Ras Baraka when asked about the superintendent’s plans. “The SDA owes us more schools.” 

HARRISBURG, Pa. - When school started at Francis Raub Middle School last August, Peggy Repasch complained the lack of air conditioning in the building put her daughter Zoey’s health at risk.

Raub was built in 1923 and doesn’t have central air or heat.

Zoey has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that can cause thick, sticky mucus in the airways and also cause those afflicted to sweat high amounts of salt out of their bodies, prompting dehydration.

House Democrats and education advocates call for more school construction funding from the state
They are proposing $350 million dollars for facilities
Some Allentown School District buildings date back about 100 years
“The heat takes a lot out of you,” Repasch said. “How are these children learning in this heat?”

House Democrats and education advocates say those kinds of conditions need to be addressed across the state immediately.