An effort in the Virginia House of Delegates to give all localities the ability — via a voter referendum — to increase the local sales tax in order to pay for school construction projects was stopped in a subcommittee meeting Friday morning.
The subcommittee voted 5-3 all three times to lay on the table all three bills relating to the issue. A similar bill carried by Del. Dave LaRock, R-Loudon County, was struck from the agenda at the start of the meeting.
Similar legislation cleared the Virginia Senate earlier this week, meaning the overall push isn’t dead, yet.
Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, sponsored a Charlottesville-specific bill as well as one that would’ve given all the localities the authorization to ask voters for approval.
“We’ll have another chance when the Senate bills come over to the House,” Hudson said after the meeting. “That means Virginians whose Delegates’ blocked this bill need to make their voices heard if they want the vote to change.”
 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — To retrofit California’s crumbling classrooms, a new state audit released Thursday predicts voters will have to approve over $7.4 billion in bonds to pay for overdue safety and technological upgrades at K-12 schools.

The state auditor foresees a continued flood of funding requests over the next five years from the state’s over 10,500 schools. To meet the growing need, the report says lawmakers will have to rely on voters to clear the backlog and keep the state’s decades-old modernization program solvent.

Created in 1998, the School Facilities Program is tasked with getting out program funds to schools looking to do things like fix plumbing, improve air conditioning systems or finish technological updates. Bond funding can only be used on classrooms or other school structures older than 20 years and applicants must front at least 40% of the cost.

Schools have turned to the program with increasing regularity in recent years and the state began receiving requests it couldn’t fulfill in 2019. In less than three years, auditors claim the backlog has grown to $1.7 billion.

Last April, Miami Dade County Public Schools adopted a resolution calling for the use of 100% clean energy by 2030. Seven months later, monopoly utilities began pushing for state legislation that would destroy opportunities for rooftop solar. State lawmakers are debating this issue right now — and our schools’ precious resources hang in the balance.
Florida schools spend over a half billion dollars each year on electricity. Energy costs are their second-biggest expense. In Miami-Dade, the school district is one of the top five energy consumers.
Schools can no longer afford to ignore the energy-producing potential of their spacious rooftops. Fully transitioning to rooftop solar by 2030, combined with simple energy-efficiency strategies, could save Miami-Dade schools $100 million every year, as one example.
The bill, SB 1024/HB 741, filed by Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Lawrence McClure, would destroy the immense benefits that rooftop solar offers all Floridians. That’s because it would effectively eliminate net metering — a vital policy to rooftop solar that exists in almost every state.
 

OAKLAND, Calif. - The Oakland Unified School District is considering as many as 13 schools to close permanently at the end of this school year, although the list, and decision to close any schools, is still tentative, according to the Oakland Unified School District. 
On the potential chopping block are predominantly elementary schools, according to a preliminary list provided to KTVU by OUSD school board director Mike Hutchinson. More schools could close or merge the year after.
A spokesperson for OUSD noted that the final list, which may be trimmed down, won't be public until the end of the week. 
Additionally, the reason for drawing up a list of schools to consider closing or merging came from a Jan. 12 Board of Education decision, which tasked the OUSD superintendent and staff with creating a consolidation plan. All of it is tentative for now.
The Board of Education will hear a presentation on Monday with full details on the proposal to eliminate certain schools. The board will vote on the proposal in a special meeting Feb. 8. 
Hutchinson is asking why these decisions are being made so quickly.
"There's a real question about why these schools, why now, and how is this proper during a pandemic with no community engagement at all?"
 

GREENWICH — Parents across town put up a united front when it comes to proposed spending on capital school projects: They want funding for work at Old Greenwich School, Julian Curtiss School and Central Middle School without any delays.
Speakers who support the Board of Education’s $30.3 million capital budget request dominated a public hearing before the Board of Estimate & Taxation’s Budget Committee on Tuesday night.
“The issues surrounding the school buildings are not being ignored — they’re being acknowledged and then dismissed,” said Bob Chaney, who has children at Central and Julian Curtiss.
“This indifference to what is happening to the students at our public schools in unacceptable and, quite frankly, embarrassing,” he said. “There should be a sense of pride in our public schools and a desire to want the schools to be the best Greenwich can offer.”
The proposed capital budget includes long-sought design funds for Old Greenwich and Julian Curtiss. The work had initially been budgeted at $1.8 million per school, but Board of Education Chair Kathleen Stowe said the requests were revised down to $1.5 million each.
The school board is also seeking $250,000 for a study to evaluate the structural integrity of Central. Concerns about the building have grown over the past year; meters have been installed to detect any problems with the building.
 

BOISE, Idaho — Some education leaders and lobbyists are advocating for a new way to fund school construction costs.
It's an issue that's been a conversation topic among education leaders and lawmakers since the '90s. Through this funding method, a fee would be collected from new development and given to public school districts to fund new school buildings.
Education advocates say this would mean growth pays for growth.
Population Growth Impacts Public School Enrollment
Before the pandemic slowed in-person enrollment at many public schools, the West Ada School District was adding an average of 655 students per year.
fund school construction costs


Idaho State Capitol
By: Anna AzallionPosted at 1:59 PM, Jan 26, 2022 and last updated 8:06 AM, Jan 31, 2022
BOISE, Idaho — Some education leaders and lobbyists are advocating for a new way to fund school construction costs.
It's an issue that's been a conversation topic among education leaders and lawmakers since the '90s. Through this funding method, a fee would be collected from new development and given to public school districts to fund new school buildings.
Education advocates say this would mean growth pays for growth.
Population Growth Impacts Public School Enrollment
Before the pandemic slowed in-person enrollment at many public schools, the West Ada School District was adding an average of 655 students per year.
Recent Stories from kivitv.com
“We’re growing in Star, we’re growing in south Meridian and we have some spots in Eagle that are definitely growing,” said Marci Horner, the planning and development administrator for the West Ada School District.
This growth impacts every area of life, including public school enrollment.
 

The Baltimore City school board voted Tuesday night to close three public schools during summer 2023, citing low enrollment numbers and deteriorating buildings, despite calls from community members to keep them open.
The vote means the school system will close Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary on Eutaw Place in West Baltimore, Steuart Hill Academic Academy in Union Square in the Central Southwest area of the city and New Era Academy, a high school in South Baltimore, after the 2022-23 academic year. The only board member to oppose all three closures was Durryle Brooks.
The school board voted unanimously to develop a strategic plan that will look at long-term enrollment and school closures.
A fourth school that was being considered for closure, Dr. Bernard Harris Elementary School in East Baltimore’s Oliver neighborhood, will remain open, city schools CEO Sonja Santelises said.
 

NEW JERSEY - Hoboken voters overwhelmingly rejected a costly high school project on Tuesday.  There were about twice as many no votes as yes votes for the new school.
Heated meetings, social media brawls, a flood of op-eds, and more have seemingly dominated the city over the weeks leading up to the vote.
The school board proposed erecting a new high school where the current school’s football field sits and building a new field on its rooftop. It would come with other sports facilities like an ice rink and a swimming pool.  As well as new classrooms, science labs, art studios, an auditorium, a black box theater, and more.
"We’re seeing this huge wave come, we need to address enrollment at all levels," said BOE President Sharon Angley.
But the project would have cost $241-million-dollars which becomes $331-million when you include interest payments paid for by the taxpayers of Hoboken.
The plan was to raise property taxes by about 6% to pay for the project.
 

Newly dubbed Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the district has started to make good on its proposed Reimagine 901 plan's facilities changes unveiled last spring, with the first major facility changes receiving required board vote Tuesday. 

Shady Grove and Alton Elementary Schools will both close at the end of the school year, impacting about 600 students and their families and teachers. Other schools will relocate to new buildings. 

Board members voted unanimously to change the name of the district and close and merge its schools as part of a consent agenda with more than 30 items. There was no board discussion during the business meeting. 

The district's plan, unveiled last April, includes the school facilities plan as well as an academic plan, both impacted by the district's infusion of hundreds of millions of federal funding in the three rounds of COVID-19 stimulus. 

As the president, federal lawmakers, and critical media coverage ramp up pressure on schools to quickly spend the $195 billion in federal pandemic aid they received in 2020 and 2021, school administrators are pushing back with an unexpected message: We need more time.

A coalition of nearly three dozen school, health, and environmental advocacy groups, led by AASA, the School Superintendents’ Association, last week sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona asking the department to consider extending the deadline for spending COVID relief funds on construction and capital improvements projects.

The current deadline for spending all of the COVID relief funds is September 2024—more than four years after the pandemic began taking a toll on school operations and causing all manner of disruption for students and staff alike. Congress approved the aid in three waves in March 2020, December 2020, and March 2021.

CRESSKILL — Since a flood ravaged the middle and high school building, causing over $20 million in damage, parents and students have fought for two things: swift repairs and a return to in-person instruction.

The fate of both is on the line Tuesday. That's when residents will vote on a $21 million spending proposal for repairs  — 75% of which will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And Tuesday night, the Northvale zoning board will determine if students can return to classrooms. 

Since September about 1,000 middle and high school students have been learning remotely the majority of the week. Two grades attend in person once every four days on a rotating schedule at the St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church school in Cresskill.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on the Cresskill middle and high school building, which sits in a flood zone on Lincoln Drive. Several feet of water rose above the auditorium stage, destroying it and the gymnasium, the media center, desks and chairs.

A school’s local planning committee (LPC) is responsible for the development of a school system’s district facilities plan (DFP). A committee is created every four years to do so in accordance to Kentucky Revised Statues.
The LPC isn’t discussed much until it is asked to consider something like a significant building or renovation project within a school. Two local planning committees have been brought in beyond the regular assessment and approval of the DFP. Ashland Independent gathered it’s LPC to discuss a new technical center, which was approved by both the LPC and the local board of education.
Carter County is in the process of discussing renovations and grant money dedicated to East Carter High School along with renovation needs at the district technical center or a new single campus high school that would consolidate both high schools and provide access to a new technical center all on the same property.
The LPC is one of three primary boards or committees that have a say in the process of capital construction. The local planning committee, the local board of education and the Kentucky Department of Education all have a role in the process.
“(The LPC) are charged with reviewing the properties, the facilities of the district, their condition, whether or not they are satisfying the needs of the students in the community,” said Ashland Director of Student Achievement Richard Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer explained the committee considers if builds have enough space, too much space and the cost of operating those buildings. The LPC also considers the district’s financial status and enrollment trends and “long range forecasts for population changes,” he said.
Oppenheimer said information is gathered from architects, financial advisors and more to determine building goals and feasibility in the district.

Throughout the first year of his presidency, Joe Biden has regularly highlighted the need for investing in school infrastructure. From speeches referencing the lack of safe drinking water and ventilation to the pollution produced by school buses, the subject has been consistently present in the administration’s remarks. The American Society of Civil Engineers echoed these concerns in its release of the nation’s infrastructure report card earlier this year, grading public school facilities with a D+.
This post describes recent developments in the administration’s school infrastructure proposals, highlights areas of underinvestment, and summarizes recent research on how some of these failings might impact students.
On Nov. 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, with total investments of $1.2 trillion over 10 years (including $550 billion in new spending). The package covers $284 billion in new funds directed toward transportation needs, such as roads, bridges, public transport, railroads, and electric vehicles. The remaining $266 billion in new investments focus on core infrastructure—ranging from improving the power grid, broadband access, and water systems to environmental resiliency and remediation.
But there is one notable category that is missing in the newly minted infrastructure legislation: schools.
In early versions of Biden’s infrastructure plan, the White House outlined a $100 billion investment for “school construction and modernization.” In September 2021, the proposed investment slipped to $82 billion; by late October, all language referencing school investment was removed from the plan. This left many educators, families, and advocates who were previously hopeful about the potential investment disappointed—especially those suffering from the consequences of failing and dangerous school infrastructure.
 

A new building management system proposed for Mattituck Junior-Senior High School would allow for better temperature control to create more efficiency.

Superintendent Shawn Petretti discussed the system as part of a five-year plan for upgrades to the district’s facilities at a “roundtable of shareholders” last Wednesday. 

“Right now, if you teach in junior high, or are students in junior high, you know it’s either really, really hot, or it’s really, really cold,” Mr. Petretti said.

The building management system would control the temperature throughout the building and in individual classrooms. Its installation would “create efficiency, comfort and control of temperatures in the junior high classrooms,” according to a five-year facilities plan report handed out at the meeting. 

The system would cost about $110,000, according to the report, and the money would come from the district’s annual budget.

Mr. Petretti said two items were pressing. The first was to address the junior high boilers. The plan calls for replacing burners as opposed to the entire boiler, he said.

The other would address a safety concern for track and field athletes. A sunken track curbing where the pole vault is located would be repaired before the outdoor spring season begins, according to the report. The sunken curbing is a safety concern, Mr. Petretti said.

OSWEGO — Oswego City School District administrators and board of education members are considering a proposed $4.6 million energy efficiency project that would bring upgrades to lighting fixtures, building insulation, and other mechanical and building-control software enhancements.

The 18-year project — devised by Siemens Building Technologies engineers based on Oswego City School District (OCSD) building evaluations, as well as the district’s periodic building condition survey — could result in energy and operational savings of up to $5.86 million over that time frame, according to John Partsch, a senior account executive with the company. 

Partsch and Siemens engineer Christopher Gump presented the project to board of education members at a Tuesday meeting. The review of the district’s energy efficiency is part of the district’s overall efficiency evaluations, which also feature inquiries into educational program offerings, transportation efficiency and financial efficiency.

As proposed, the energy performance contract would reflect a lease-purchase agreement. Partsch noted that the final cost for the project, including what he called a “conservative” interest rate of 3.5 percent, would total $6.7 million over the 18-year timeline.

“It is really a high estimate, but not really knowing where inflation is going and where the market is now, we would like to be conservative for now,” Partsch said of the interest rate. “This is not a hard number.”

WLOS — Every year North Carolinians spend millions on North Carolina Education Lottery tickets hoping for a winner.
For years, lottery advertising has featured school superintendents and leaders, expressing their gratitude, making it clear a portion of revenues made from the sales of those tickets go towards public education.
A News 13 investigation set out to find just what projects area school systems are using those funds for.
Education lottery ads highlight scholarships and millions in donations that go to help build schools. However, lottery officials confirm, there’s never been an ad campaign on projects such as the $250,000 weight room at Madison High School or the over $1 million recently spent on new turf projects in Haywood County, all paid for with lottery money.
News 13 found that many districts are also spending millions of lottery dollars towards athletic repair projects, from synthetic turf to tennis courts and swimming pools. All the projects are allowed according to state education reports.
Last October, Buncombe county’s School Board voted unanimously to use $875,000 in Education Lottery funds for new stadium and baseball field lights at AC Reynolds.
The North Carolina Athletic Association made a ruling that stadium lighting levels must meet their standards in order for a school to host a state playoff game," said Tim Fierle, facilities director for Buncombe schools. "ACRHS was scheduled to have its lights replaced with energy-efficient led lights. The schedule moved up due to this requirement.”
Whether it’s stadium lights or a new school roof, all lottery project requests must get approved by a school district’s county commission, and North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
A spokeswoman for DPI couldn’t provide any projects submitted by any district that had ever been turned down. “Rejections are very rare,” said Blair Rhoades, spokeswoman for DPI. “Districts contact our office on the front-end regarding eligibility or questions surrounding the application, this is typically a non-issue.”
 

SMITHFIELD – Improvements to the Boyle Athletic Complex will include $25,765 in upgrades to bring energy savings and Rhode Island Department of Education reimbursements to the district.
During the Jan. 12 Town Council meeting, the council approved entering a performance contract with Honeywell Energy Solutions for energy efficiency investments at Smithfield High School and Gallagher Middle School that will result in lower water and electricity usage.
In addition to adding Honeywell’s suggested work to the project, the Town Council approved the addition of removing and replacing HVAC units at SHS and GMS as part of the Boyle Athletic Complex upgrades, at a cost of $24,000.
Town Manager Randy Rossi explained that by combining both the HVAC units and Honeywell improvements with the Boyle Athletic Complex renovations, the projects will receive RIDE reimbursements in addition to energy savings.
“It increases reimbursement for the overall project. It’s important to include those items,” Rossi said to The Valley Breeze & Observer. “It gives us more bang for the buck.”
Honeywell’s John Bonavist explained that a preliminary report found capital improvement energy savings projects including HVAC, boiler upgrades, lighting and more.
 

If it wasn't for the parts shortage brought on by the pandemic, Morenci Area Schools would be further along in the district's project to install more energy-efficient lighting and heating and cooling equipment and it would be seeing lower utility bills.
Still, the district is expecting to complete the project by the end of 2022. The upgrades are expected to save more than $1.4 million in energy and operational costs over 10 years.
The $1.4 million in improvements are being funded by a state of Michigan energy bond, district general funds and federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. The ESSER funds are part of the federal COVID-19 relief funds approved by Congress in 2020. The bond has a 13-year payback schedule.
"The district is going to see those savings way past the payback schedule, so the general fund is going to be better because of it," district finance director Erica Metcalf said.
That will free up funds to pay for other things down the road.
The district had about $500,000 in general fund and ESSER funds to put toward the project and Metcalf worked with Standard & Poors to improve the district's bond rating, Superintendent Mike McAran said. Both helped lower the bond amount.
 

ENNIS, Mont. – Ballots will be mailed out today for Madison County’s Ennis School District voters which includes a 20-year, $59 million ask to address outdated facilities.

Ennis Schools Superintendent Casey Klasna said the funds will help replace their 50-plus-year-old high school, add an additional gym, administrative offices and improvements to the existing junior high school wing among other goals for the growing school district.

Klasna said the Ennis area is continuing to grow and can be seen in their student enrollment projections where enrollment has increased from 325 students in 2010 to now 411 students enrolled in the district and projections continue to predict an increase.

Three of Bowling Green’s school buildings will have air conditioning when classes resume next fall.

At Tuesday’s board of education meeting, members accepted a bid for the installation of air conditioning units at the high school as well as Conneaut and Kenwood elementaries.

The mini-split units will provide air conditioning to each classroom, but not ventilation. They can be moved if new facilities are built.

Earl Mechanical Services, Inc., Wauseon, presented the low bid of $3,308,700, which was was 17% less than what was estimated.

The bid included there alternatives: for earlier construction to start on the elementary schools in order to have some of the projected completed by the end of spring; the installation of double-wall construction; and the enclosure of the exterior refrigerant piping in metal.

“When we put this out to bid, the budget was for $4 million,” said Superintendent Francis Scruci. “We are really, really pleased this came in a $3.3 million.

“In this day and age, that’s really good news.”