NEW ZION, S.C. (WIS) - On Wednesday the South Carolina Department of Education announced more than $80 million in state funds will be going toward two rural counties to help upgrade aging infrastructure.
Clarendon County School District and Lee County School District will each receive $42 million.
The funds are part of $140 million set aside in this year’s budget to renovate what the State Department of Education deems “disadvantaged schools.” Some federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds are also included in this allocation.
Spearman said this is a historic day for South Carolina, and particularly for Clarendon County schools.
Clarendon County previously had three school districts, which have been consolidated into one district for the 2022-2023 school year.
More than $3 million in state funds went to the county to complete the consolidation.
According to Spearman, they were often competing for resources and personnel.
 

Following the disclosure of a federal investigation into Connecticut’s school construction program this spring, state officials vowed to restore trust in the system by reviewing four years’ worth of state-funded building projects.
Yet despite repeated promises from members of Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to promptly deliver those audit results, nothing has been shared with state lawmakers or the public.
And state officials now say the team of independent auditors that was hired in March won’t be finished with its work until June 2023 — delaying any insight into the multibillion-dollar program that local districts rely on to finance school construction and renovation.
Kevin Kelly, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, said he was deeply frustrated at the lack of communication from state officials, after they committed to transparency.
“We don’t even get a status report,” he said. “They just clam up on us.”
Federal investigators first subpoenaed the state for records related to the school construction program in October 2021, and they focused their requests on several contractors and Konstantinos Diamantis, who led the school building program for more than six years prior to his exit from state government last fall.
The investigators followed up that initial request this spring by demanding records from at least four municipalities that undertook school construction projects in recent years.
Nobody has been charged to this point as part of the federal investigation. But when news of the criminal probe broke in February, several school superintendents and local elected officials came forward to announce that they felt pressured to choose specific construction contractors for their school building projects.
 

Lending an ear, being patient with kids’ emotions, and ensuring kids don’t feel they’re at fault: Offering support like that will help children cope with school closures, according to Jeffco parents who have already been through them. 
“I was trying to let him know, ‘we know you don’t like change but this new school is going to become home,’” Jamie Camp said she told her third grader as his school, Fitzmorris Elementary, faced closure in spring 2021 and he would have to move to a new school. “Be patient. They’re going to lash out. Our son did. That’s just them trying to process.”
The Jeffco school district is preparing to help thousands of students say goodbye to their elementary schools at the end of this school year. The board in November is expected to approve a recommendation to close 16 schools, nearly one in five of its elementaries.
In the past two years, the district suddenly closed two small elementary schools that leaders said were no longer sustainable. Now, in a more comprehensive plan, district leaders want to provide more advance notice as they reduce the number of small schools. 
Chalkbeat talked to parents of children who attended the two previously closed schools about what worked, what didn’t work, and what advice they had for families facing closures now. Below read their thoughts, and answers to questions on parents’ minds. 
Why does the district close schools?
Jeffco, like many other districts, has had fewer and fewer students for many years. That has left many schools with very few students. School districts, and in turn schools, get state funding based on enrollment. Most of the schools recommended for closure have either fewer than 220 students or use less than 45% of their building’s space. The district says it provides these schools more money than their per-student allocation, but they still can’t offer the same programs that bigger schools with more students can afford. 

Following the disclosure of a federal investigation into Connecticut’s school construction program this spring, state officials vowed to restore trust in the system by reviewing four years’ worth of state-funded building projects.
Yet despite repeated promises from members of Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to promptly deliver those audit results, nothing has been shared with state lawmakers or the public.
And state officials now say the team of independent auditors that was hired in March won’t be finished with its work until June 2023 — delaying any insight into the multibillion-dollar program that local districts rely on to finance school construction and renovation.
Kevin Kelly, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, said he was deeply frustrated at the lack of communication from state officials, after they committed to transparency.

Although the majority of Maryland’s public school buildings are adequate for educational use, some still have problems with deteriorated roads and walkways, fire and safety systems and interior lighting.

That’s the finding of The Interagency Commission on School Construction, which approved the final draft of a fiscal year 2022 maintenance report this month.

The report assessed 265 schools that were chosen based on their being unevaluated for the last six fiscal years, being at least three years old or, or never being reviewed. There are more than 1,360 active public schools statewide.

About 189 schools were rated as adequate which is defined as “maintenance is sufficient to achieve the life of each system within the facility and, with appropriate capital spending and renewal, the total expected lifespan.”

Twenty-two schools received a “good” rating for buildings that will likely extend beyond the life of expectancy. A “superior” rating was elusive in 2022.

Approximately 52 schools from the report were classified as “not adequate.” Two schools — one each in Allegany and Prince George’s counties — were classified as poor, which means those buildings show evidence of significant or extensive corrosion or leaks, inconsistent custodial or maintenance practices, or extensive repairs or replacement needed.

As part of a larger project to address overcrowding in some of New Jersey’s poorest school districts, state officials approved two new schools in Newark, a district that’s dealt with rundown buildings for decades. 

The Schools Development Authority (SDA) granted two new pre-K through eighth grade schools in Newark, along with 14 other projects across the state, according to a press release issued by the agency last Thursday. The project is part of the SDA’s 2022 Capital Plan, which includes 16 projects that will address overcrowding and infrastructure needs.

“The Board’s approval of these projects, identified in the SDA’s Statewide Strategic Plan as priority projects, will significantly reduce District-wide overcrowding and facility deficiencies that impact thousands of students statewide,” said SDA chairman Robert Nixon. “These projects will deliver thousands of new or replacement student seats in state-of-the-art facilities that will foster learning and student achievement.” 

The average Newark school building was built more than 90 years ago, more than twice the national average, with many suffering from leaky roofs, outdated boilers, and dilapidated restrooms. Rundown buildings can dampen students’ enthusiasm for school and, in some cases, impair their learning. 

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The Rapid City Area Schools district had to close some of its school doors last week due to high temperatures making it dangerous for some students to be in the building. This raised some eyebrows and brought into question faults in various school buildings in the district.

While the age of several different school buildings in the RCAS district started to show last week, the lack of air conditioning in the buildings was the cherry on top for the community. Plenty of members from the area shared their thoughts on social media on what they thought about the situation.

But as easy as it would be to recommend the installation of an HVAC system to solve the A/C problem, school officials say this is not the case. The district must first carefully inspect the building thoroughly before even considering the allocations of resources.

“You can be looking at several hundreds of thousands of dollars to several millions of dollars just depending on the footprint of the building. Again, what type of system the building currently has and whether or not a system could be retrofitted to fit into that current system,” said RCAS Director of Business and Support Services Coy Sasse.

At least 13 California school districts in six counties have closed schools this week because they are either in the path of a wildfire or smoke from a fire has made it unhealthy to hold classes.

 The school closures have impacted more than 90,500 students in 119 schools, according to Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School District Association.

Seven of those districts are in Riverside County where the Fairview Fire has burned more than 27,000 acres and is only 5% contained.

Two school districts – Temecula Valley Unified and Hemet Unified – are threatened by the fire, while Nuview Union School District, Romoland Elementary School District, Menifee Union School District, Paris Elementary School District and Paris Union High School District are closed because of poor air quality, according to Kindra Britt, director of Communications for the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association.

The Riverside County closures are impacting 66,239 students at 106 schools, Britt said.

To make matters worse, parts of the county may be subject to public power shutoffs because of  Tropical Storm Kay, which is expected to move into the area today. The storm could bring heavy rains, high winds and the possibility of flash floods.

School leaders also are concerned that the heavy rain, following a fire, may cause mudslides, Britt said.

School buildings across America are crumbling. According to a 2020 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), 54 percent of U.S. school districts need to update or completely replace multiple building systems in their schools.1 This crisis has only deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in the face of record-breaking extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.

Historically, public schools have been excluded from federal infrastructure legislation,2 despite representing the nation’s second-largest infrastructure sector.3 In one recent example—although funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) may be used to upgrade school facilities—the president’s requested $100 billion specifically designated for this purpose did not make it into the final version of the IIJA.4 So, while funds from the IIJA and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) are being used in part to improve school facilities—particularly for efforts related to school air quality, school buses, and energy efficiency—it is noticeably less than the outstanding needs.

As a result of decades of underfunding school infrastructure, national spending for K-12 school buildings falls short by an estimated $85 billion annually, as reported by a 2021 analysis from the 21st Century School Fund. Over the next decade, it would cost an estimated $1.1 trillion to modernize and replace obsolete school buildings and systems.5

Ten new school buildings opened across the city today, with four of them in Queens.

A new 646-seat middle school opened in East Elmhurst, with school buildings added to Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows, P.S. 131 in Jamaica, and P.S. 196 in College Point. There were two school buildings added in Brooklyn, two in Staten Island, one in Manhattan and one in the Bronx.

The new middle school in Queens is located at 111-12 Astoria Boulevard in East Elmhurst and has been named the Tommie L. Agee Educational Campus, I.S. 419, in honor of the Mets ballplayer.

The school building is five stories tall and includes 18 standard classrooms and two special education classrooms, as well as reading and speech resource rooms. The school also includes a District 75 program, which contains eight additional classrooms for students.

The school serves students from grades 6 to 8 and aims to help alleviate overcrowding in the district.

Meanwhile, a 555-seat 3-story annex has been added to Francis Lewis High School located at 174-25 59th Ave. The annex includes 18 standard classrooms for grades 9-12, a culinary arts kitchen/dining classroom, science lab with an adjacent science prep room and a greenhouse.

The School Construction Authority also opened a 384 seat, 3-story addition at P.S. 131 in Jamaica. The facility provides 15 standard classrooms and two special education classrooms for Pre-K-5. The addition also includes an art classroom, music classroom and dance studio.

A 250-seat addition has opened at P.S. 196 in College Point that provides 13 standard classrooms and one special education classroom for grades Pre-K-5.

The SCA also opened a high school building in Queens earlier this year—the 969-seat Academy of America Studies in Long Island City.

During Tuesday night’s meeting of the Stanly County Board of Education, board member Dr. Rufus Lefler, who sits on the board’s facilities committee, reported on items discussed at the committee’s Aug. 30 meeting, which centered on the physical condition of the county’s four high schools.
“Most of the high schools were built in 1962,” Lefler stated, “and most of them are nearly falling down.”
Lefler went on to state that the meeting included extensive discussion on needed repairs at the facilities.
He also noted that meetings with the Stanly County commissioners are planned over the next several months “so we can give them our long-term plan for the high schools.”
“Now, there are not labs or CTE (Career and Technical Education) offerings at all schools,” Lefler added, noting that the committee planned to address facility needs at the high schools initially.
“We would work down from there to the middle and elementary schools,” he said.
 

As Española school buildings age, members of the Española School Board will need to make difficult decisions about what to repair or rebuild entirely, according to the state authority that doles out funds for school facility projects. 

At a special school board meeting last Wednesday, members deliberated the status of several district schools and heard a presentation from the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority which serves as staff for the Public School Capital Outlay Council, the group that manages funding allocations for capital projects at schools requiring repairs and remodels.

School and state officials say decisions surrounding which buildings to address are further complicated by a 2018 legislation that changed the formula for how the state allocates project funding for districts. The local match for Española Public Schools is now 80 percent for projects deemed eligible for funds, a roughly 40 percent increase from before according to the authority.

“There’s absolutely no logical way that districts like ours would be able to do that,” Board President Jeremy Maestas said of the 80 percent match during the meeting.

Public School Facilities Authority executive director Martica Casias said eight other school districts will be presenting to the Public School Capital Outlay Oversight Task Force, which oversees the work of the council and the authority on September 20 to make a case for reconsidering the 2018 formula. 

Some districts are on the hook for over 90 percent of costs for capital projects, according to the authority, and not making funding requests for needed projects as a  result.

Ten Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools closed temporarily last week and shifted to remote learning due to high temperatures outside. All of those buildings have either no air conditioning, or only in parts of the building.

CMSD CEO Eric Gordon says the school district is looking to address the issue by using American Rescue Plan Act funding to buy portable air conditioning units for those buildings. He says it won’t be a quick or cheap fix, considering some buildings will need electrical rewiring to support powering those units.

The other fix could involve complete rebuilding or renovation of those buildings in the coming years, but that will be dependent on funding. Gordon said he was “very thankful” the school district did not have to use a “calamity day” this week, and instead could just move to remote learning because each student in the district has been provided with a computer.

But CMSD isn’t alone in dealing with high temperatures in the classroom. Every year, schools in Cleveland and across the country must either close or move to remote learning due to high temperatures making it difficult to learn.

More than a third of public schools in the U.S. reported having a fair or poor heating, cooling or ventilation system, according to a 2012-2013 report on school conditions from the National Center for Education Statistics. And the hotter it is in a classroom, the less students learn overall, and the worse people perform mentally in general.

CATHLAMET — A lawsuit to bolster how much state funding schools get to repair buildings and upgrade security is once again a priority for Wahkiakum School District officials, who are hoping other districts and allies will join them.
As many of the Wahkiakum school buildings continue to fall further into disrepair, the lawsuit, filed in December, claims the Legislature has an obligation to ensure all schools get equitable funding for building repairs regardless of average county income, Superintendent Brent Freeman said.
“There’s nothing about these buildings I don’t worry about,” Freeman said.
Whether building and security upgrades are included in all elements to be amply funded wasn’t immediately clear, Ahearne said.
In the years since McCleary, Freeman said what has became clear is that local taxpayers were burdened with the costs of getting better air quality systems, fixing faulty electrical wiring and upgrading roofs, floors and the like.
 

VENICE - Venice CUSD #3 was awarded $26 million in funding, provided by the Capital Development Board through an emergency school construction grant.
In September 2020, Venice Elementary School in Venice, Illinois was condemned due to structural issues. Students and staff attending Venice Elementary vacated the building, attending school virtually for the entire 2020-2021 school year.
“It was a difficult year,” stated Superintendent Cynthia Tolbert.
“We were not only dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and virtual learning, but the Board of Education was also trying to locate a temporary school to house students.” For the 2021-2022 school year, Venice Elementary school was in a temporary location at the Melvin Price Depot located in Granite City.
 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.  — The Grand Rapids Public Schools is brainstorming new ways to use under-used buildings, a project that the public is invited to weigh in on.
From September 13 to October 12, GRPS will be hosting eleven town hall meetings, all open to the public. Community members are invited to share their thoughts on the new facilities plan and to dialogue with district leaders.
community feedback in new facilities plan
GRPS Schools 
Photo by: FOX17
By: Hannah RiffellPosted at 8:48 PM, Sep 06, 2022 and last updated 9:04 PM, Sep 06, 2022
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.  — The Grand Rapids Public Schools is brainstorming new ways to use under-used buildings, a project that the public is invited to weigh in on.
From September 13 to October 12, GRPS will be hosting eleven town hall meetings, all open to the public. Community members are invited to share their thoughts on the new facilities plan and to dialogue with district leaders.
The Facilities Master Plan will allow the school system to optimize financial resources, says GRPS, since the space they currently have is more than what their student body needs.
The school stresses the importance of the Facilities Master Plan, saying that if the number of school buildings is pared down, the school will be better able to funnel taxpayer dollars to programs that benefit GRPS students.
“These are serious conversations that require the input of the community at large. The decisions we make with this Facilities Master Plan will improve education for our scholars today and well into the future,” GRPS Superintendent Dr. Leadriane Roby said. “This plan needs all hands on deck and this public engagement plan reflects our desire to get as many voices at the table as possible.”
 

Inside the school kitchen at Russell Elementary in South Los Angeles, it’s not unusual — even at 6:30 in the morning — for the air temperature to approach 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that’s when there’s not a heat wave outside.
With excessive heat warnings in effect to begin September, Reseda Charter High’s kitchen topped 95 degrees before 10 a.m. At Strathern Elementary, 115 degrees. Gompers Middle, 117 degrees. North Hollywood High, 121.7 degrees.
Los Angeles Unified School District policy calls for air conditioning in every classroom, but not in every building on campus — so in more than half (455) of the district’s kitchens, workers have to do without.
“Do we have to have them pass out with heatstroke before we do anything?” said Adriana Salazar Avila from Teamsters Local 572, the union for LAUSD’s food service managers. She’s collected at least two-dozen reports of high kitchen temperatures from her members.
What Are HVAC Conditions In Los Angeles Unified?
With California’s climate warming — and amid a global pandemic of an airborne pathogen — the current heat wave is only the latest event to highlight a generational problem facing many California schools: fixing inadequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
 

Every winter, parents cluster in the online forums of DC Urban Moms and Dads to strategize ways to game DC’s public school system. For many in this group of parents, this means landing a spot at one of the city’s top-performing schools, located overwhelmingly in the city’s northwest quadrant. Schools in the city’s predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods in the east and south of the city are rarely, if ever, mentioned.

A study of this elite maneuvering was published in a Brookings Center report last year, which analyzed a decade of exchanges on the forum and found that 13% of the conversations were about housing. A primary strategy promoted by parents was renting or purchasing a home — in some cases, a second home — within their desired school’s boundaries, typically in neighborhoods where homes go for, on average, well over $1 million.

The research confirmed what many already knew: housing inequality and education inequality in Washington, DC, are deeply intertwined and school boundaries (the lines that determine where a child gets a guaranteed public school spot based on their address) are a key to perpetuating this inequality.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KY — Storm preparedness is a new focus for the Marshall County Board of Education. The board unanimously voted to allow Paducah-based CMS Architects to design two storm shelters, which can be used by the community.

The designs will need to be approved by FEMA before the process can move along any further, and the Kentucky Department of Education will also need to allow the school system to build the new facilities. The goal of the shelters is to provide safe spaces for students, and the community, in the event of a tornado.

The impact of the December 2021 tornado outbreak can still be felt throughout the Local 6 region, especially in areas like Marshall County. Marshall County Schools Facility Director Jeff Stokes says building shelters addresses a specific need in the community.

"We just don't have any community-wide storm shelters that's available, and we applied through this grant, FEMA grant, for three different items to be selected. They've selected two of the three, and these are the two," Stokes says.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Multiple factors helped tank the Coeur d’Alene School District’s levy Tuesday at the polls, including an opposition campaign by the local Republican party, reports our partners from the Coeur d'Alene Press.
The school plant facilities levy, if passed by voters, would have provided the school district with an additional $8 million per year over 10 years to support safety and maintenance needs in school buildings.
It required a 55% supermajority to pass, but received just 50.27% of the votes in favor, which was slightly more than the nearly 50% who voted against the measure.
"The failure of the levy does not change the fact that the district has some security measures and deferred maintenance issues that need to be addressed," Coeur d'Alene School Board Vice Chair Casey Morrisroe told The Press on Wednesday. "We will need to look at other options."
If approved, the levy would have provided funding to address more than $25 million in deferred maintenance projects, ranging from aging heating and cooling systems, roofs, water heaters and flooring to sound systems, alarm systems, door locks and security cameras.
"It’s unfortunate that the levy did not pass as the safety, security and maintenance needs of our buildings and district remain the same," Board Chair Rebecca Smith said.