About half of Montana schools that had tested their water by mid-February under a new state rule had high levels of lead, according to state data. But the full picture isn’t clear because less than half of the state’s school buildings had provided water samples six weeks after the deadline.
For many schools with high lead levels, finding the money to fix the problem will be a challenge. The options aren’t great. They can compete for a dwindling pool of state money, seek federal aid passed last year, or add the repairs to their long lists of capital improvement projects and pay for the work themselves.
“We prioritized emergency needs and then will follow up with the next-most-serious thing,” said Brian Patrick, Great Falls Public Schools’ director of business services and operations. “Obviously, this is something we want to get addressed right away. We want safe water for our kids.”
Lead, a toxic metal long known to cause lasting organ and nervous system damage, can make its way into drinking water through pipes and fixtures. Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can slow development and cause learning, speech and behavioral problems. Although federal rules require that community water sources be tested for lead, schools have largely been free from that oversight and can decline to be tested.
 

COVINGTON COUNTY, Miss. (WHLT) – The Covington County School District (CCSD) approved the use of the Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) program to create efficiency upgrades.
The school district will also use allocations from the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund to create improvements to schools.
CCSD is partnering with Entegrity to complete the upgrades. In December 2021, the School Board approved the decision to replace 95% of the district’s HVAC systems, to install LED lighting and to implement 439 ionization units to reduce the spread of COVID. CCSD leaders said the upgrades will create a guaranteed $135,000 in savings each year.
Additionally, five of the district’s unconditioned gyms will receive new HVAC systems, window upgrades and ionization units.
 

New roofs, windows, doors among the projects proposed at several schools
Officials in Springfield, Massachusetts will seek state funding next month for major repair projects at several school buildings.

Applications will be sent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority requesting state funds to pay for improvements to 10 Springfield schools – work that includes new roofs, replacement windows and doors, additional classroom space, and HVAC system upgrades.

The city is also looking for funds to study replacing three elementary schools with new buildings.

Over the last decade or so, Springfield has received about $700 million from the MSBA to upgrade or replace dozens of school buildings – some that were constructed in the 19th Century, said Pat Sullivan, the city’s director of buildings.

“It’s really remarkable what we have gotten done with this program,” he said.

Three brand new schools have been built. Construction is underway on a new elementary school in the Mason Square neighborhood.

The school building improvements have coincided with a leap in academic performance by Springfield Public School students. In a city with a high rate of childhood asthma it is important to have schools that are clean with good air quality, said Sullivan.

“It means kids are in the classroom longer, they’re not leaving because of an asthma attack,” he said. “If you maintain your buildings, it is going to have a ripple effect for a good outcome for the kids’ education and I think that is what we are achieving with this program.”

There is no dollar amount attached to the proposals submitted to the MSBA. Each project is evaluated on its merits and if approved then a budget for it is worked out.

Springfield has been successful in getting 3-4 projects per year greenlighted by the MSBA, said Pete Garvey, the city’s director of Capital Asset Management and Construction.

“There (were) 74 selected out of over 200 submissions (statewide for funding) in the last round, so we are doing pretty good in terms of getting our fair share,” Garvey said.

He said the state funds typically cover between 60-80 percent of the total cost of a school repair or replacement project and the city borrows to cover the rest.

A House of Delegates subcommittee rejected pleas on Friday from local government officials, parents and a 4th-grade student from rural Prince Edward County to let them help themselves by allowing voters to impose a 1% sales tax to pay for badly needed school repairs and construction.
The same House Finance subcommittee already had killed bills delegates proposed to expand an option that nine local school divisions had received in past years to impose a local sales tax for school modernization. Prince Edward was among the localities denied the option in late January.
It was the Senate's turn on Friday to watch many of the same proposals die - for Isle of Wight County, Charlottesville and other localities across the state looking for an alternative to huge hikes in their real estate taxes or loans they say they can't afford to repay.
"All we are asking for is a fair chance to improve our school," said Eliza Pope, a fourth-grade student at Prince Edward Elementary School near Farmville.
The three bills died on identical 4-3, party-line votes, as the House and Senate prepare to negotiate a potential budget solution that won't obligate the state to pay for billions of dollars in local school construction or raise taxes in a year when Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made tax cuts a top priority.
"We're trying to return extra tax dollars to people at a time that it's really needed," said Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford, the subcommittee chair. "It seems counter-productive to turn around and ask for more."

DUBLIN, CA — After more than two years debate punctuated by several revisions, Dublin school board members Tuesday night delayed final approval of the district's Master Facilities Plan, an aggressive program for rehabilitating and expanding deteriorating school buildings and constructing new ones that will ultimately cost taxpayers more than $1 billion.

In a narrow 3-2 vote, the board sent the plan back for additional revisions. When it's ultimately approved the document will map the direction of modernization and expansion of existing facilities and construction of both a new high school and a future K-8 school to accommodate what is projected to be continuing growth in district enrollment through the end of the decade.

Overall, the master plan includes scores of district-wide improvement projects impacting every school – ranging from addition of new classrooms and expansion of athletic facilities to a number of heating, ventilation and air conditioning system upgrades. Some of those projects are already underway.

For the 2022-23 fiscal year, Montrose County School District applied for two BEST grants: one to complete the phased rollout of improved security features and the other to upgrade the ventilation systems at multiple schools.

The Building Excellent Schools Tomorrow program was established in 2008 and has helped to fund billions in important capital improvement projects around the state. The revenue for the program comes from a large chunk of proceeds from state lands, as well as marijuana excise taxes and lottery profits.

The grants do not cover the entire cost of the capital projects, but the matching percentages can vary by district and year. The proportion of grant funding to local funding is determined by a formula that takes a multitude of factors into account, such as the district’s median household income and any current mill levies, according to the Colorado Department of Education website.

With the increasing cost of energy, focusing on energy efficiency remains a priority for the North Branch Area School District.

During the North Branch Area School Board meeting Feb. 10, Superintendent Sara Paul described how the district continues to commit resources to district priorities.

“We have to constantly be looking at what’s happening behind the scenes in terms of how we’re maintaining and continuing to look at the needs of our facilities,” Paul said.

Director of Buildings and Grounds Art Tobin, described how it takes a team effort to maintain school facilities.

“It starts here. And it starts with the school board, it starts with my co-workers, we discuss and haggle back and forth,” Tobin said. “It starts with the workers, boots on the ground when we’re doing this, and it also starts with contractors. It’s not them against us; it’s a team that we’re looking at.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools expects to spend $114.2 million building new schools for Grace James Academy of Excellence, W.E.B. DuBois Academy and a 1,000-student middle school in west Louisville.
The three new schools were part of the district’s proposed $1.1 billion facilities plan scheduled for a public hearing 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at C.B. Young Jr. Service Center on Crittenden Drive.
Only JCPS employees attended Wednesday's hearing to receive public comments on the district's proposed facilities plan.
The new schools are among numerous projects slated to be scheduled for future construction within the 2022-23 biennium, though that is not guaranteed. The Jefferson County Board of Education approved the draft facilities plan during a Feb. 1 meeting.
JCPS Chief Operations Officer Chris Perkins said the "blueprint" gives a four-year look at its most pressing construction needs.
"It is a planning tool actually, and so the intent of it really is to identify facility needs holistically across the district to help us prioritize our planning," Perkins said after the brief hearing. "... These are our top priorities to make sure that we have not just adequate facilities but state-of-the-art, 21st century learning facilities for these schools, too."

Worthington Schools officials met Feb. 14 to begin determining financial considerations for phase 2 of the district’s master facilities plan.
The meeting was the first step toward implementing the proposed second phase, which will be focused on Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne high schools.
“We went into the financials of what that might look like,” said board President Amy Lloyd. “Now it’s really a matter of going through the finances and determining what’s best for the community in terms of what dollars might be put forward.”
Lloyd said preliminary estimates have the project costing approximately $217 million, which would be financed through a bond issue.
However, that total is a working figure, and the final cost of the project still must be determined.
Additional meetings are planned for the spring, when officials will determine the exact dollar amount of the project and the district’s next operating levy request, Lloyd said.
Although the scope of work required at Thomas Worthington largely is clear, some work at Worthington Kilbourne still is to be determined, she said.
“That will really drive what the total ask would be,” Lloyd said.
Significant renovations are planned at both schools, with most of it planned for Thomas.
 

Students and teachers are sounding off about current conditions at Park View High School in Sterling, Virginia.
They told school board members the school is in desperate need of repairs.
“Last week, there was a flood in a section of hallways which flooded some nearby classrooms,” said student Ibrahim Ahmad.
“We can’t keep painting a few walls and replacing a few tiles and acting like everything’s ok. It’s time we discuss a real renovation, one that gives our students a safe as efficient learning environment,” said teacher Sophie Fowler.
It comes at a time when the school is set to undergo a $42 million renovation.
The design phase is set to start in July with construction set to begin in July 2023.
 

On his first tour of Wilde Lake Middle School in Columbia, Christopher Rattay watched a fleet of solar cars whiz up and down the sixth-grade hallway. He would learn from the enthusiastic young operators that they were built for a class project. The new principal knew right away that Maryland’s first net zero energy school would be a wild ride, that the $34-million facility, which opened in 2017, had the potential to be something special, both as a learning laboratory and a model for school construction.
“The [building] itself is gorgeous and contributes to good health and a sense of emotional well-being,” said Rattay, who was struck by the “open spaces and natural light” in the halls, stairwells and classrooms.
“Net zero energy [means] any electricity we use is electricity that we produce, whether it’s our solar panels on the roof, or those on the grounds,” said school resource teacher Doug Spicher. He said the construction plan also called for 112 geothermal wells to heat and cool the building, a large array of light and water sensors and other conservation measures. Sunshades and coatings on the windows decrease the amount of sunlight that penetrates the building so school rooms don’t get sweltering hot or cold, Spicher said.
The new school, completed in 2017, is nearly 50% larger and uses 50% less energy than the building it replaced.
Wilde Lake can also serve 760 students, up from 500 at the previous building. Mariam Abimbola said she was “privileged” to be one of them. Now a junior, she said she made frequent stops at the energy kiosk in the front hall that streamed environmental data in real time.  “[The display] made you look at the electricity we were using, the electricity we were saving,” she said. “Before that we weren’t really conscious of our energy use, that we could really do better, and change our ways, at school and at home.”
 

A Bend-La Pine Schools committee charged with looking at facilities and the need for new schools says the district is good to go for the next decade, but after that community growth will likely send buildings beyond capacity.

“There are three elementary schools needed in the 2030’s over that decade, one middle school in 2030, 2036 and a new high school in the year 2040,” said Sites and Facilities Committee Chair Rick Hayes.

The Sites and Facilities Committee feels the district is currently set on existing facilities.

Though there is some concern over the lack of land for future projects that are needed.

“That’s because we just built a brand new high school and it takes a 50 acre site to do that,” said Mike Tiller with the  Sites and Facilities Committee. So, in our land inventory we don’t have that 50 acre site.”

With no immediate need for new schools in the next ten years the committee’s focus is on smaller district land use.

A 1-acre parcel next to Silver Rail Elementary, a nearly 2-acre parcel between Summit High and Pacific Crest Middle School and 12-acres north of High Desert Middle School, bring a few ideas to mind.

Paul Robeson High School has been lauded by Philadelphia School District, city, and national officials alike: singled out for a strong student body, dedicated faculty, and a principal named the country’s best.
But there’s a disconnect between the school and its building.
Robeson, at 41st and Ludlow in West Philadelphia, lacks any functional ventilation besides windows, and some are nailed shut or don’t open fully, staff say. Its electrical service is so outdated that the school can’t accommodate even window air-conditioning units in most rooms, and the fuse box must often be reset.
Parents, staff, and students gathered at district headquarters Tuesday to push the school system for a timeline for renovations for Robeson, which was built in 1960 as the Catto School.
Ciani Pagan, a Robeson junior, helped organize 250 students — nearly everyone at the small school — to sign a petition saying they “no longer feel safe at school.” Pagan said she’s tired of bathrooms that are often broken and classrooms that are so hot she’s gotten nosebleeds.
“Who would want to go to school there?” said Pagan.
Though it is not among the district’s oldest buildings — some school system structures date back to the 19th century — Robeson is in poor shape, said Dan Reyes, a teacher at the school.
 

ROBBINSVILLE, NJ - It's been years in the making, but construction is now underway to build solar panels at the Robbinsville Township High School and Pond Road Middle School that could save up to $100,000 in taxpayer dollars. 
In a conversation with TAPinto Hamilton/Robbinsville, School Superintendent Brian Betze said the District is moving quickly to finish construction in order to qualify for tax credits offered by the State of New Jersey. As a result, there is zero cost to the District he said. 
The District has experienced some delays in the project, the superintendent said, including steel shortages. 
Betze said creating these solar arrays are "pretty cutting edge" for school districts. Each of the arrays is a compilation of solar panels grouped together to generate electricity to the energy system that it is attached. In this case, the arrays will offset energy costs to the school district.
When the five-array set as well as new security cameras, lighting and paving is completed, parking will be available under the panels. 
During construction at the Robbinsbille High School, some students and faculty have needed to park at Pond and walk 0.4 miles to to their school. Betze himself has been doing the seven-minute walk including in some of those colder brisk days. 
 

The campus of East Ascension High School has seen big changes in recent years, but the most dramatic one will happen this summer when the half-century-old main school building is torn down to make way for a new one.
The two-story building, in the heart of Gonzales on East Worthey Road, opened in 1966. It has an outdated heating and air conditioning system running throughout the building that called for new construction from the ground up, said Jeff Parent, the school district's supervisor of planning and construction. 
The two-pipe system now in place uses the same piping for both hot water heating and chilled water cooling — and switching from one to the other is a slow process, Parent said.
"Today is a nice, mild day, but we needed heat in the early morning," he said on a recent day at the school. "By 10 a.m., we needed air-conditioning, and that turnover can take two to four hours." 
"Over the years, we've done a lot of things to reduce the time as much as we can," Parent said. The new construction will bring a four-pipe system that uses separate lines for hot and chilled water.
East Ascension High's future new main building, with administrative offices and classrooms, is a $27 million project, funded by a 2020 bond election. 
 

COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s poorest school districts will soon learn whether they’ll get a chunk of $138 million from the state — and if so, how much — for their construction needs that exceed many times that amount. 
While the money is the largest single-year sum the state has put toward K-12 construction in decades, it won’t go far in replacing or overhauling dilapidated buildings that often date to the 1950s, when the state’s inaugural sales tax funded hundreds of Black- and White-only schools in a failed effort to thwart desegregation.
South Carolina hasn’t embarked on a major school building project in rural swaths of the state since. 
With decisions still in motion, state Education Superintendent Molly Spearman is asking legislators for more — lots more — though not a specific amount. The state’s largest-ever surplus, coupled with federal COVID aid, provides a once-in-a-generation, or longer, opportunity to provide students in the poorest districts a safe, healthy place to learn, she said.   
“I can’t think of a better use of one-time money than this,” she told a House budget-writing panel. “Please put in as much money as you can because there’s tremendous need.”
 

BOISE — Legislation to forbid Idaho school districts or other local taxing districts from rerunning a bond election for 11 months after failing to reach the 66.67 percent supermajority passed the House on Thursday with bipartisan opposition, amid concerns it could make it even harder for Idaho to address a huge backlog of school facilities issues.
“It is definitely a policy change on how government does business,” Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, the bill’s sponsor, told the House, saying, “No means no.”
Scott said she wants to rein in “aggressive taxing districts” that she said are “trying to take advantage of the citizens.”
 

NEW YORK — New York City schools are harnessing solar technology to power buildings and engage students.
Solar panels blanket the rooftops of 60 public schools, providing clean energy for the city and giving students a chance to learn about climate change and renewable energy up close.
At Thomas Edison High School in Queens, a recently-completed solar installation generates enough electricity to meet 65% of the school’s energy consumption — while also providing a unique learning opportunity for students enrolled in the school’s solar energy vocational track.
“There’s a newfound interest in our curriculum,” said principal Moses Ojeda. “Now with the addition of solar panels, they [the students] start to see the relevance.”
The program at Edison is part of what officials at the city Education Department and Department of Citywide Administrative Services say has been a mutually beneficial partnership.
In 2016, the Administrative Services Department began surveying city-owned buildings to find spaces suitable for installing solar panels, with the goal of producing 100 megawatts per year of solar energy by 2025.
So far, the city has built solar panels on 110 buildings, including 60 schools, producing 16 megawatts of energy a year — enough to power 2,600 homes.
 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Rhode Island leaders held a news conference Wednesday to highlight school construction projects that have been completed with a taxpayer-approved bond as they ask voters to approve another one this fall.
The Statewide School Construction Bond approved by voters in 2018 provided $250 million in upfront “pay-as-you-go” funding to repair and replace crumbling school buildings across the state.
“The fact that we’ve allowed buildings to crumble is such a shame, but we’re not doing that any longer,” R.I. Department of Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said.
Infante-Green and Gov. Dan McKee on Wednesday released the 2022 School Building Authority (SBA) Report, Renewing the Dream, which they said describes the work being done to build high-quality facilities statewide.
Renewing the Dream is the SBA’s first report since 2017. Officials said it showcases 11 case studies on major renovations or full building replacements that have been completed, along with another six ongoing projects.
“We are continuing to make progress in providing every child in Rhode Island with modern school facilities where they can get an excellent education,” McKee said. “For too long, our funding structures have left our most at-need cities and towns behind, but our entire state team is working tirelessly to change that. Together, we can give every student in Rhode Island the world-class schools they deserve.”
 

School districts across the U.S. are renovating their buildings and upgrading dilapidated ventilation systems with the help of $190 billion of federal COVID relief.

But these improvements will take time, and some won’t be completed for years after the pandemic first disrupted schooling.

The improvements have gotten the blessing of the U.S. Department of Education, which has encouraged ventilation upgrades. And there’s good evidence that such projects will benefit students: Research has found a direct link between air quality and student success, and students in classrooms that aren’t air conditioned tend to learn less on hot days.

Still, the plans reveal an awkward reality: With limited options for spending a big, one-time chunk of money, school districts are using part of it for expensive facilities projects, which may have only a tenuous connection to the pandemic and will take years to complete.

Now, some school leaders want more time. The national school superintendents’ association and other groups recently asked the U.S. Department of Education for an extra two years to spend the money so construction projects can be planned and completed.

“I don’t necessarily think that facilities spending seems to be a bad way to spend it,” said American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Nat Malkus, who recently analyzed COVID relief dollars for schools. But, he added, “It’s certainly not under the original intent of the bill.”