Flint Community Schools’ Aug. 25, 2021, board of education meeting heard parents’ push back against a weeklong closure of the schools for “heat days.” This was the third time the district had closed classrooms in the three weeks since summer vacation, effectively exceeding the district’s allotted snow days for the year by Aug. 23.

While the Flint district may have been the first to close for excessive heat this year, it has not been the only one in the state. Detroit announced a half-day closure in anticipation of near-record high temperatures in May, and Dearborn Public Schools joined in the following month.

“On high temperature days such as today, without AC, hot classrooms and schools can lead to students overheating, sweating, and generally being irritated,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti of the Detroit Public Schools Community District said in a statement released to Chalkbeat Detroit. “This leads to students not being able to focus on learning, which can lead to behavior issues.”

A 2018 Harvard study suggested American students score lower on standardized tests when they are subjected to high temperatures in the classroom. The study concluded that air conditioning enhances students’ learning potential significantly.

DANVILLE, Va. (WSET) — The numbers are in for a huge renovation project at Danville Public Schools.

It's going to cost $141.5 million to improve and renovate school buildings over the next four years.

Superintendent Dr. Angela Hairston gave this update to school board members at Thursday's meeting.

The majority of the money to fund the project is coming from the 1% percent sales tax referendum Danville voters approved last fall.

Idaho likely has a record budget surplus, and some education leaders say it’s time for a big change.

They’d like to see legislators use some of the money to repair or replace aging and overcrowded schools.

The history isn’t encouraging. Legislators have long resisted the idea of using state dollars for buildings — putting the responsibility, and the out-of-pocket cost, on the shoulders of local property taxpayers.

But education lobbyists hope two factors will change the conversation this time around.

The first factor is the surplus itself. Based on projections, Idaho ended the 2021-22 budget year on June 30 with a $1.3 billion surplus. The final numbers are expected next week.

The second factor is a scathing January report from the Legislature’s research arm, the Office of Performance Evaluations. The report said it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to bring Idaho’s schools to “good” condition. But researchers were hesitant to put a price tag to the maintenance backlog, because the Legislature hasn’t bothered to ask for a statewide school buildings assessment since 1993.

Big surplus, meet big problem. Big problem, meet big surplus.

But only if lawmakers are willing to make a historic shift in how they view the state’s obligation to education.

“This is a golden opportunity,” said Rod Gramer, CEO of Idaho Business for Education. “I know it’s controversial, but what better time to start tackling that problem?”

The D.C. public school system would have to report to lawmakers the percentage of doors in each school building that properly lock and the working status of every air conditioning and heating system ahead of the upcoming academic year, under a bill approved unanimously this week by the 13-member D.C. Council.

Council members said they wanted to avoid a repeat of last August, when teachers and parents returned to classrooms and reportedly complained to their representatives of broken HVAC systems and other faulty equipment. After the school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., this spring renewed discussions about school safety, some teachers and parents in the District reported that locks on building and classroom doors were broken.

The legislation would also require traditional public and charter schools to report the percentage of students who have not received the routine immunizations required to attend schools. Many families missed doctor appointments during the pandemic and about a quarter of students are not up to date on their non-coronavirus vaccines, according to city officials.

MILO — Following last month’s affirmative 182-131 referendum vote, SAD 41 will soon start an approximate $935,000 Revolving Renovation Fund project for the upgrades to the air system at the Milo Elementary School. 
The project would be funded in large part through the Maine Department of Education’s Revolving Renovation Fund, and a request for proposals will be sent out soon.
“Tonight the board has to approve what the public approved,” Superintendent Michael Wright said during a school board meeting at the Penquis Valley School on July 13. The directors signed the paperwork for the Revolving Renovation Fund as well as the approved $10,818,490 2022-23 budget.
Under the Revolving Renovation Fund, 70 percent of costs are forgiven and SAD 41 would pay back 30 percent interest-free over 10 years (a $670,000/$280,000 split). This would equal about $28,000 annually to be paid by the district for a decade, and would be built into future budgets.
SAD 41 has utilized the school Revolving Renovation Fund in years past. In 2017, SAD 41 residents approved an approximate $474,000 loan for a sprinkler system and elevator at Penquis Valley.
“We can take other monies and apply them in different places,” Wright said last month, mentioning that COVID-related grants are being used for various purposes across the SAD 41 schools.
Business Manager Heidi Sisco said COVID-19 funds cannot be used to pay for part of the 30 percent portion of Revolving Renovation Fund monies.
 

When a May 12 derecho hit South Dakota, with storms including an EF-2 tornado that descended on the southern edge of Castlewood, the town's school was badly damaged.

The elementary portion of the school sustained damage in the storm as the roof was ripped off, walls fell down, debris scattered around the school grounds and a bus shed was destroyed.

Twenty South Dakota National Guard officers were reportedly deployed to Castlewood after the storm to help with recovery efforts.

More:With no gyms due to tornado, Castlewood athletes find new ways to prepare for next season

As classes are slated to begin in Castlewood in six weeks, the school board and administration have come up with a solution to half the school being unusable: a mobile unit.

Eight classrooms and four offices are in the new mobile unit the district has purchased for $984,938 from Texas. Each classroom has its own bathroom and storage, Superintendent Peter Books said of the 9,000-square-foot unit.

The federal government contributes roughly 8 percent of the $795 billion that annually goes toward educating the nation’s 50 million children. In many cases, however, the federal share falls short of its self-imposed targets, shortchanging schools on everything from high-need students and special education to facilities and school meals.

This shortfall will persist without more vigorous and reliable federal intervention, argue the authors of a new report on funding sources for K-12 schools.

Instead of asking school districts to rely on volatile state and local revenue, they say, the federal government needs to dramatically step up its investment in K-12 education and proactively establish funding programs that help schools during economic downturns.

EATONTOWN — This summer, the Eatontown Public Schools will begin construction as part of an Energy Savings Improvement Plan (ESIP) project.
The total cost of the project, approximately $5 million, will be funded through energy cost savings, according to a press release from the school district.
District administrators said the project will not have an impact on taxpayers. They said the work will result in more efficient and reliable heating, cooling and ventilation in all of the district’s classrooms and offices.
The ESIP project will be financed using savings in energy costs from the installation of solar panels and lighting upgrades, according to the press release.
District administrators said the money saved from these improvements will be invested in replacing all of the rooftop heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units in the district, which will provide new and more reliable HVAC systems and lead to further improvements of the district’s energy efficiency.
 

As workers lay the foundation of Nashua’s newest middle school this week, Alderman Richard Dowd is keeping a close eye on the cost of what will in a few years become the Brian S. McCarthy Middle School.

Dowd, who chairs the committee of aldermen and school board members overseeing the Gate City’s major school construction, said he is wary of surprises at the McCarthy school site and the expansion of Pennichuck Middle School.

“Right now it looks good,” he said. “We always have to be careful of the unknown unknowns, everything from cost increases of products, to we open up a wall and, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to do something else.’ ”

Money the school board and the city have set aside for unexpected expenses and “escalation,” or the expected annual cost increases on a project, are holding for now, Dowd said, though it’s possible Nashua will have to find additional funds if the projects hit any unexpected snags.

Supply chain issues, difficulty hiring and the rising cost of land and petroleum have pushed construction costs to stratospheric highs this year. The school renovations and building projects that come in a flurry during the summer are getting more expensive too.

Concord hopes that when the time comes to build its own new middle school in a few years, the market will have settled.

CHESTERFIELD — New Hingham Regional Elementary School is close to fully upgrading its lighting to LEDs, a move that Principal Jesse McMillan said will yield immediate savings for the school.

The upgrade is being done as part of Eversource’s Municipal Partnership program. The $74,000 upgrade includes both lighting in and outside of the school, and $18,000 is coming from Eversource. The rest is being paid for by money the school received from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

This money was awarded to New Hingham because it was one of the school’s that suffered at least a 10% drop in enrollment in the pandemic. New Hingham received $62,236 as a result, and McMillan and the School Committee determined it would be best used for capital improvements.

The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) Thursday announced the approval of $55,643,416 for the district’s projected pre-K through 12 building. The total cost of the project is estimated at $63.23 million, with a local share of $7,587,738.

The project had been in the planning phases prior to COVID-19. At that point, the state put the funding for such projects on hold.

Crestview voters passed the 2.84 mill levy for the new construction in May of 2019, which was to cover $5.2 million of the $43 million project. The Ohio Schools Facility Construction Commission was to cover 88 percent of the project.

As the pandemic began, Crestview continued to work with architects from Holabird and Root and BSHM to design the project. A new waterline to the school was built and now brings the school water from New Waterford.

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- According to The Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo will be joining four other Colorado cities in suing the state over a recent law that pertains to school construction projects.

The law restricts a city's authority to collect taxes on school construction projects. This includes the building materials used in these projects.

According to Pueblo Mayor, Nick Gradisar, the city could lose up to 4 million dollars in tax revenue.

The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) granted awards to seven Maryland public school districts through its Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Decarbonizing Public Schools program, totaling more than $700,000.

The grants will help finance projects “reducing greenhouse gas emissions and overall lifecycle costs while planning the development of high-performance schools.” Two categories of projects were awarded: energy data management and net zero energy school planning.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Gov. David Ige signed five education bills Thursday that will fund ambitions of higher quality learning environments for both traditional and non-traditional students.
“Collectively, these measures empower our public schools’ focus on workforce development and ensure that schools have the resources to provide a healthy and safe learning environment,” Ige said.
House Bill 2000 will direct $200 million to the School Facilities Authority for the construction of preschool facilities in fiscal year 2022 to 2023.
This is the largest investment into public preschools in the state’s history, Ige said.
The bill will seek to build and improve on facility conditions for eligible children of public preschools.
Senate Bill 2182 will establish a school garden coordinator position within the Department of Education.
The state hopes that building on Hawaii’s farm-to-school programs will influence improvements on student health, the agricultural workforce and farm-based education.
Senate Bill 2818 will establish a summer learning coordinator position within the DOE.
 

Jul. 7—This story has been updated from its original version to correct the name of the Moscow elementary school that could be replaced.

The Moscow School District envisions one day building two new school facilities and it is hoping to receive financial assistance from the Idaho government to achieve that goal.

Moscow School District Superintendent Greg Bailey discussed this Wednesday during a monthly meeting with local county, city and education officials.

Bailey said the school board is working on submitting a resolution to the state asking the governor to spend some of Idaho's $1.3 billion in surplus money to fund K-12 facilities.

Bailey said he is hoping the school can use state money to eventually build two new school buildings to replace Russell Elementary and Moscow High School.

Russell Elementary, built in 1926, is the oldest school in Moscow. Bailey said remodeling the existing building would be too expensive. Moscow High School is not big enough to meet the education or parking needs of its students, he said.

Having additional funding from the state may help the school district avoid having to ask voters to pass a bond to fund the new facilities.

"It's such a hard scenario in the state of Idaho to pass a bond because you have not only a super majority, but the state doesn't help support the funding," he said.

If two new school facilities are built, they would likely be located on the edge of town where there is enough land to accommodate them. Bailey said that by his estimate, the district would need 60 acres to accommodate the schools.

"We really feel good about our community's support," he said. "This community's been great to us, but we're also saying that we've got to find some different ways to get some of this funding done."

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – The Illinois State Board of Education has distributed the fiscal year 2022 School Maintenance Grants, totaling $30 million in state funding, to over 600 eligible applicants.

According to the ISBE, grantees will be able to use the money to improve and maintain education infrastructure throughout the state of Illinois.  

The School Maintenance Grant Program is a dollar-for-dollar state matching grant open to school districts, cooperative high schools, vocational centers, and special education cooperatives.

Eligible applicants are able to receive up to $50,000 to put toward completing proposed maintenance projects. 

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (WBOY) — The Upshur County School District Thursday announced the approval of a Major Improvement Project for $882,625 in grant funding for additions and renovations for Tennerton Elementary School.

The money was given to Tennerton Elementary by the School Building Authority, as part of a Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan to address the school’s critical needs.

The main renovations will go toward student safety with a new fire sprinkler system and a brand new Safe Schools entry, which school officials say will prevent unauthorized access to the school building.

“Having that Safe Schools entry where we can allow people to come into the school in a safe manner, not just be open to the classrooms when you come in the entrance that’s really important to us,” said Upshur County Schools Superintendent Sara Lewis-Stankus.

Five Colorado cities, including Denver, filed a lawsuit against the state Thursday over a new law that exempts building materials used for public schools from sales taxes, arguing it would decrease their revenue base by millions of dollars. 

Denver, Boulder, Commerce City, Pueblo and Westminster sued in Denver District Court, challenging House Bill 1024, which Gov. Jared Polis signed into law in April. The bill, set to take effect on Aug. 10, extends an existing sales tax exemption for building materials used in public works projects to also apply to public school construction projects within home rule municipalities.

Home rule municipalities are self-governing localities with the power to make their own laws and avoid state interference in local issues. The lawsuit claims the bill violates the state constitution by imposing state control over the taxing authority of home rule municipalities.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Fifteen Alaska local governments are set to share around $300 million to pay for old school construction costs as part of the budget passed by the Alaska Legislature last month that was signed into law by Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Tuesday.
Before 2015, communities with a tax base would bond for the costs of building new schools, often over many years, and the state of Alaska would then pay for around 60-70% of that incurred debt. The state’s reimbursement was subject to appropriation as noted on the bonding proposals put out to voters.
The state’s fiscal crisis saw the state’s payments come under the chopping block. The Legislature implemented a moratorium on incurring new school construction costs until 2020, which was then extended until 2025.
In 2016, then Gov. Bill Walker vetoed 25% of the state’s annual contribution for school bond debt. Gov. Mike Dunleavy controversially vetoed 50% of the state’s payments each year between 2019 and 2021 as legislators grappled with a $1.6 billion deficit.
Nils Andreassen, executive director of the Alaska Municipal League, said those vetoes had a “drastic” effect on some small communities’ bottom lines that expected the state to pay its share.
“It meant that they had to pick this up on their own,” Andreassen said. “They drew down from savings, from their maintenance accounts. It meant that they weren’t able to fund their other priorities. It meant tax increases for some communities.”
An ongoing windfall from high oil prices has changed the state’s fiscal picture, turning a billion-dollar deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus. The Legislature appropriated roughly $300 million during the last legislative session to reimburse municipalities for school bond debt for this year, and each of the three years of Dunleavy’s vetoes.
“I don’t think we can underestimate how big a difference this is going to make for many of those communities,” Andreassen said.
 

Sometimes, in the middle of class, teachers at the To’Hajiilee Community School suddenly run out the door.
They run to their cars. This K-12 school in TóHajiilee, New Mexico, was built in a flood plain, and when the walls of water inevitably come rushing down from the nearby canyon, teachers’ cars can get washed away if they don’t move them to higher ground quickly enough. At least one teacher has already lost a car, and school officials are used to hurrying children onto a bus to shuttle them to safety.
The floods have been a problem for decades, well before the high school was abruptly vacated in March. Its foundation was crumbling apart as the building sank into mud. Walls had visible cracks. Water poured through the roof when it rained. The U.S. government deemed the building unsafe and shut it down for major repairs. The high school students are all remote now, with teachers, somehow, teaching classes virtually that previously involved hands-on work in chemistry labs, in culinary arts classes and in woodworking.
Virtual teaching only works if you can get online, though. Many of the kids in this community about 35 miles west of Albuquerque don’t have internet access. For that matter, they don’t have clean drinking water at home, either. To accommodate this, the school created a “learning hub” on site, which is just a room where students can come take virtual classes. A school counselor sits with them while they work on computers.