Skyrocketing construction costs mean that some school projects in the $350 million bond proposal that voters approved in 2016 may need to be delayed.
Officials with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools told the school board in a workshop recently that the sale of bonds will fall about $34 million short of covering all the work on the project list.
“We have a $34 million problem if we continue with all the projects we have in the bond,” said Nick Seeba, the director of facilities and construction for the school district.
Two of the eight remaining projects are most at risk for postponement, according to Darrell Walker, the assistant superintendent of operations for the school district.
Those projects are an addition at Ward Elementary School in southwest Forsyth County and a new middle school in the Smith Farm area, in the southeast part of the county.
Combined, those two projects were estimated to cost about $38 million, but with inflation factored in, the costs for the two projects has ballooned to about $47 million, according to school district figures.
 

Arizona schools are entitled to get their day in court on their claim the state has shorted them by billions of dollars.
In a ruling released Wednesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin rejected arguments by state officials and Republican legislative leaders that he has no right to rule on the legality of the formula they use to finance new schools and repairs for existing schools.
Martin said it’s clearly within the purview of the courts to determine if the state is complying with the constitutional requirements to maintain a “general and uniform’’ school system.
The judge also rejected arguments that he cannot review the claims first filed five years ago because the state has made adjustments to its capital funding system.
“Accepting defendants’ arguments based on mootness would preclude courts from ever deciding whether Arizona’s capital finance system complies with the constitution,’’ Martin wrote.
“Because a case of this complexity always will span multiple years — and multiple legislative sessions — the Legislature can always pass some new law that nibbles around the edges of the system, and claim that the case is moot and unripe,’’ he wrote. “Not surprisingly, Arizona law does not support such a contention.’’
There was no immediate comment from legislative leaders.
The lawsuit, filed in 2017 by a coalition of public schools and education organizations, contends lawmakers have been shorting schools each year for the capital funds to which state law says they are entitled.
The cumulative loss to schools from failure of legislators to obey the funding formula is now close to $6 billion, Danny Adelman of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said Wednesday.
The issue’s roots date back to 1994.
 

The Jeffco school district is preparing to make recommendations this fall to close multiple elementary schools, kicking off its long-term plan to downsize its number of schools.

Jeffco district leaders say 49, or 58% of district elementary schools, currently have fewer than 250 students, and/or use less than 60% building capacity. Six elementary schools, in six different areas of the district, have fewer than 200 students, and also utilize less than 60% of their building’s capacity.

“While we have a large issue in this district, there are a few schools that are really facing dire situations with how small they are going into next school year and we must confront those,” said Lisa Relou, Jeffco’s chief of strategy and communications, who is overseeing the plan’s creation.

Five faucets at Lincoln School in Ashland still produce water with unacceptably high levels of lead, and district officials will work over the summer to address the issue, Ashland schools Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove said Thursday.

Bogdanove made those developments known in an online message to families and staff of the facility after receiving a second report June 7 from a local firm that tested the water.

A May 9 report from the Medford-based Neilson Research Corporation revealed 12 of the 60 faucets in the school had lead above levels deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The next step is to replace the fixtures and shut-off valves on all the affected faucets, and retest,” Bogdanove said.

Jun. 13—After years of neglecting its buildings and being unable to afford repairs, the Scranton School District plans to invest $95 million through 2024.

Plans include a major renovation to West Scranton Intermediate School, repairs to heating and ventilation systems and upgrades to security. Federal COVID-19 funding will allow the district to borrow less money and help shorten the time frame for work.

District leaders, who received a feasibility study last year identifying $300 million in repairs and improvements needed, are optimistic of the progress made so far.

"Decades of neglect can't be fixed overnight," said school Director Ro Hume, chair of the board's operations committee. "Every step forward we take puts our kids in a warm, safe, dry environment. The better the environment, the research shows, the more learning can take place."

Last year I wrote a column about the Western Placer Unified School District, noting that the district and the city of Lincoln were two distinct organizations, each with its own governing board and finances. 
Western Placer Unified School District encompasses the city landmass plus adjacent areas around Lincoln. Both agencies share space in City Hall and both use each other’s facilities – parks, playgrounds and swimming pools – under a joint-use agreement that goes back many years.
Lincoln is, once again, among the state’s fastest growing cities. We’ve just passed 50,000 residents and, as reported in earlier columns, housing starts abound in all sectors of the city. More population = more students = more school facilities.
The district currently has 15 campuses - eight elementary, two middle school, two high schools (including the newly-opened Twelve Bridges High School), one continuation high school, one independent study school and one farm campus - for a total of 7,200 students. Over the next two decades, Western Placer Unified School District estimates, there will be 17,280 new housing units added within its boundaries and that growth will add approximately 10,000 new students to the district.
 

With many of its classrooms still unchanged in the six decades since opening as a high school, Northwest Suburban High School District 214's Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights is undergoing nearly $15 million in renovations.
The work will support the district's specialized educational programs and central office staff.
The phased project broke ground June 1 and begins with a major redo of classrooms in the three-story north wing building at 2121 S. Goebbert Road, from demolition to new walls, paint, lighting, heating and cooling system updates, and technology wiring, district officials said.
Construction crews also will be building out a 420-square-foot security vestibule at the northern entrance, and a 5,680-square-foot addition within an interior building courtyard will be used as a new staff training facility.
District spokeswoman Stephanie Kim said the multipurpose space also will be for student and community use, providing a gathering spot for a variety of events, classes, meetings, professional development and rentals. This past school year, the district had about 8,000 events scheduled at Forest View, Kim said.
 

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Plans to replace the contaminated high school in Vermont’s largest city may have to be modified because the cost is $60 million higher than what the district can afford.
The Burlington School District has given the city a $150 million bond limit to pay for the construction of a new Burlington High School and Burlington Technical Center but the project is estimated to cost the district $210 million, the Burlington Free Press reported.
In March 2021, students were moved into a retrofitted former downtown Macy's department store about six months after school administrators closed the existing school because toxic industrial chemicals known as PCBs were found in the building and soil during renovations.
Last week, Superintendent Tom Flanagan and the school commissioners discussed options to address the $60 million gap, including finding more funding sources and altering the design.
The board picked the design after hearing from the community. Construction is expected to cost $181.3 million and be completed in fall 2025, if voters approve it in November. Another $29 million is estimated to be needed to remediate and remove the existing building.
 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia School Building Authority handed down more than $9 million in grant awards under two separate programs in a meeting that took place Monday in Charleston.

According to information from the SBA, Cabell, Pocahontas, Putnam, Raleigh and Wayne counties were all awarded $1 million each for projects under the SBA’s MIP (Major Improvement Projects) grant program.

Each county has pledged local funds to go with the $1 million awards.

Wayne County plans improvements for Wayne Middle School. The total project is $1.7 million. Poca High School in Putnam County will get a $1.4 million addition focused on career readiness.

Nicholas County Schools has just two years to complete federally backed construction projects or risk owing millions to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

During the flooding disaster of 2016, Richwood Middle School, Richwood High School, and Summersville Middle School in Nicholas County were severely damaged.

Four years later, in 2020, FEMA awarded the West Virginia School Building Authority with a grant of $131 million to replace the schools in Nicholas County.

More than $17 million of that has been spent as of June 13, 2022. The county is negotiating a construction contract that fits within the current budget.

Construction was delayed because of increased costs due to COVID-19.

“We, by our estimations, are around 25 to 35 percent over our budgeted amount,” David L. Roach, Executive Director of the West Virginia School Building Authority, said.

Unless someone has a spare $25 billion (with a “b”) hanging around, the Virginia School Boards Association plans to move forward with efforts to change the way the state funds construction of educational facilities.

That $25 billion is the estimated cost of bringing all of the commonwealth’s school infastructure up to modern standards, given that there are about 1,000 aged facilities and more than half of the commonwealth’s school buildings are at least 50 years old.

On June 2, the Virginia School Boards Association’s board of directors established a task force that will push federal, state and local leaders to provide the support needed to upgrade facilities.

“As we seek to have the best schools for our children, our facilities are a critical element,” said Teddy Martin II, president of the association.

Rydell Davis’ mother would often wipe black soot from the bedroom window of his childhood home. He grew up in Tyler Court, a street over from Interstate 81 where cars, trucks, and other motor vehicles polluted the air with toxins, causing him, and others around him, to develop asthma. But he didn’t understand that the proximity of the highway was the reason; not until he moved away.
“I began to see that my asthma got better when we moved to another side of town,” Davis said. “I always thought asthma was something that naturally happened, but as I got older and started doing my own research I was like, ‘wow, maybe the highway did play a major role in my development of asthma.’”
The negative health impacts of highways prompted state legislators to pass the Schools Impacted by Gross Highways Act last week. The law prohibits construction of schools within 600 feet of a highway.
Car exhaust is the cause of 4 million new cases of childhood asthma worldwide each year, according to a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health.
 

MUNCIE, Ind. — One Muncie school is undergoing an $8 million renovation, pivoting away from an open-concept school plan toward a more traditional classroom design.
Even before the changes are done, the improvements are helping teachers feel more safe.
With students home for summer, construction workers fill East Washington Academy. The school's interior is getting a complete makeover.
Friday morning, teachers Courtney Williams and Angela Butler walked through the new classrooms to check on construction with Principal Sarah Anglin at their side. The teachers said they're already in awe of the changes.
"It is so weird to walk through it now, because you've seen it in the old way and now you're seeing the renovations and it's just unbelievable," said Williams, a third grade high ability teacher at East Washington Academy.
The school's previous open-concept plan was popular in the '80s but ended up being problematic for many schools. The lack of walls and doors make for a loud setting, hard for students to concentrate. But safety is also at the top of everyone's minds.
"Our walls were partial walls around the building and then our side wall that went out to the hallway was just simply cabinets that weren't up to the ceiling and you could hear everything going on in the hallways if someone was passing by," said Angela Butler, a master teacher at East Washington Academy.
“That was definitely a concern, safety, but also just the noise level and the distractions that you’re constantly hearing throughout the building. So the renovation that we’re going through is definitely going to help with so much of that,” Williams said.
 

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - As the Saluda County School District educates future generation of Tigers, schools like Saluda Elementary are hampered by aging infrastructure of the past.
For starters, there’s the tight cafeteria that can barely squeeze in five classes at lunchtime, the wires held up by zip ties in the hallways, and the boiler rooms that flood with a good rain.
The oldest part of the building went up in 1950, and staff say it is well past its prime.
“The infrastructure is to the point now that it’s almost impossible to upgrade our facilities to be cost-effective right now,” Saluda Superintendent Dr. Harvey Livingston said.
But in Saluda County, the tax base isn’t there to afford major renovations and construction, a problem that plagues school districts in South Carolina’s poorer, rural areas.
“A millage tax in some of our poorest counties only brings in $20,000, and in our richest counties, it brings in $2 million,” South Carolina Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said. “So you can tell how difficult it is to build a school.”
Now the state Department of Education is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help these schools out.
The department worked with the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office to rank every school district based on need, using their per capita incomes, index of tax-paying ability of the school district, and index of tax-paying ability of the county.
 

Peetz School District has been awarded a $23.2 million Building Excellent Schools Today grant for the renovation and improvements to its preschool through 12th grade building, the largest grant awarded to any school district this year. It was one of 40 construction grants approved by the Colorado State Board of Education at its monthly board meeting Wednesday and Thursday, in Estes Park.

Approximately $96 million of the 2022-23 BEST grant awards will be funded through cash provided by income earned from the Colorado State Land Board, marijuana excise taxes, spillover from the Colorado Lottery and interest earned on the assistance fund. Applicants will contribute approximately $63 million in matching funds, which will ultimately amount to $159 million in total project costs. Some projects are contingent upon the approval of bond elections by school district voters.

Peetz’s project is contingent on an $11.8 million local match that must be approved by voters. The district sought a $12 million bond in the November 2021 election, but the proposal failed in a close vote with 141 against it and 121 in favor. Immediately after the election, the district made it known that they would still be pursuing a BEST grant with the intention of going back to voters this November in hopes of securing a bond.

New Orleans’ public school district isn’t bringing in enough money to maintain aging school buildings that weren’t rebuilt or renovated following Hurricane Katrina, officials said Tuesday.

On top of that, the school system is also facing rising insurance costs amid an increase in unexpected hurricane or weather-related expenses.

District operations officer Tiffany Delcour said while the district has taken steps to cut costs and will continue to do so, they still need to generate additional funding.

“It was assumed that the district would find alternative pots of capital funding dollars to really deal with the half of the portfolio that did not have significant investment post-Katrina,” Delcour told board members as part of her monthly capital and facilities update. “I think we’re basically showing that it’s time to do that.”

Delcour said the gap between available funds to repair pre-Katrina buildings over the next 10-years and anticipated need is roughly $136 million.

Harold Washington Elementary School in the Burnside neighborhood on the south side of Chicago got a new schoolyard in 2020. It features a running track, sports fields and playground equipment — but what Washington’s Principal Sherri Walker likes best are the little conversational groupings of rocks. “It’s so special for the older girls,” Walker says. “They don’t always want to play on the equipment or play sports — but they sit on those rocks and talk. It becomes a quiet space where they can sit and decompress.” In a year with so much stress and loss, especially in Chicago’s most underinvested neighborhoods, these spaces are invaluable.
Principal Walker’s schoolyard is part of a program called Space to Grow, which turns Chicago schoolyards into beautiful green spaces for play and learning using green stormwater infrastructure that also helps build climate resilience. The schoolyards include playground structures and sports fields, outdoor classrooms for nature-based learning, edible gardens and the conversation rocks or other quiet spaces the students at Washington like so much. Studies show that access to green space and outdoor play during the school day are associated with improved focus and academic performance. Daily connection with nature supports mental health. And, since Space to Grow schoolyards are also open to the community outside of school hours, the program’s benefits aren’t just limited to students.
It seems obvious that every student should have access to such a positive space, but there just isn’t enough money — or the will to prioritize spending — to replace the acres of asphalt that cover school grounds in many cities across the country. A 2021 report on the state of U.S. schools found that the country is underinvesting in school buildings and grounds to the tune of $85 billion per year. “Underinvestment in capital renewals of existing public schools as well as chronic underfunding of maintenance and repairs sadly remains the rule rather than the exception,” the report notes. And, as the report also points out, “inequity is hard-wired into public education infrastructure.” For example, in Chicago, the same Black and Latinx neighborhoods are subjected to the same type of disinvestment over and over again.
 

ST.PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Pinellas County school district officials and the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg will break ground on a new project Tuesday.
The district and the organization are joining forces to build a magnet middle school that will serve 600 students and the community as a YMCA center.
The shared campus will sit on the former site of Riviera Middle School, 62nd Avenue Northeast in St. Petersburg. It’s the first of its kind for the Tampa Bay area.
PCS sent the following quick facts about the $50 million project:
111,757 square foot two-story building shared by the middle school and YMCA sits on 19 acres
School includes 15 classrooms, an art room, family science lab, TV lab, music room and 4 Exceptional Student Education (ESE) rooms
YMCA will feature a fitness center with state-of-the-art cardio and strength equipment, three group exercise studios, a cycling studio, wellness terrace and a Kid Zone childcare center for Y members. Plus, a lap pool, splash pad and playground
Both facilities will share the media center, dining hall, gymnasium, family science lab, pool, sports field and garden
Students will attend school during the day and have access to the Y for Before-and-Afterschool Care
The project is expected to be complete for the 2024-2025 school year.
 

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A school plant facilities levy could soon be coming to residents in the Coeur d'Alene School District, as reported by our news partner, the Coeur d'Alene Press.
A swift timeline would be necessary to tackle a number of items on the district's deferred maintenance backlog, which is $25 million today and expected to grow to $68 million by 2027 if repairs are not made. The levy would establish a pool of funds for deferred maintenance projects and school safety needs, which at this time have no established funding source. Deferred maintenance includes air heating and cooling system upgrades, roof repairs, paving work, replacing hot water heaters, new carpeting, drinking fountains, alarm systems and security cameras.
"We are just struggling all around, not only with facilities but with staffing," Coeur d'Alene Superintendent Shon Hocker said Monday during the school board meeting.
He recommended the board immediately move forward with the facilities levy rather than wait because the district's maintenance and operations levy will be up for a vote in March.
"I don't think we should go to our community asking for both at the same time," he said. "I think that's a lot to bite off for any community member and I think we need to be more specific. I also think that, in good conscience to our community, we can address some of these safety and maintenance challenges in our community earlier rather than later."
 

In September of 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the allocation of $59 million to fund the Clean Green Schools Initiative. The program aims to advance clean energy efficiency solutions and clean energy to improve indoor air quality and reduce carbon emissions for schools designated as “high-need” by the New York State Education Department or schools located in disadvantaged communities. 

The initiative, to be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), offers a unique opportunity for designated underserved schools to improve their energy systems. In doing so, eligible schools will receive technical, financial, and human resource support to evaluate, plan for, and implement energy efficient solutions. In the long run, this will improve school environments and save money.

Program Breakdown:
The program is structured in two tracks – Track I for planning, Track II for installation.

The planning track provides funding for the evaluation, planning, and facilitation of energy reduction projects, clean energy projects, and indoor air quality projects. Schools may use Track I funding for professional services such as energy studies, on-site energy managers, and fiscal advisors. The services must be aimed at helping schools evaluate, plan and facilitate comprehensive energy reduction, decarbonization, environmental sustainability, and indoor air quality projects.  Track I funding may also be used towards planning a project associated with Track II. Participation in Track I is not a requirement for eligibility for Track II.