CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids schools starting this week are getting upgrades to some heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems intended to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

Technology called needlepoint bi-polar ionization is being added to some schools’ heating, ventilation and air cooling systems to help filter particles out of the air, including viruses like COVID-19, bacteria, mold, dust, dander and smoke. The district did not identify which schools are adding the technology.

The project is being paid for from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Total cost of the equipment is approximately $1.6 million and the cost of installation will be about $600,000, said Jonathan Galbraith, the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s buildings and grounds manager. The district received $32.4 million from the U.S. Department of Education and American Rescue Plan to help offset costs during the pandemic.

Air quality has been a topic of conversation since the start of the pandemic because COVID-19 can be transmitted through the air. Needlepoint bi-polar ionization is possibly one way to combat the virus. Another mitigation strategy is to wear masks.

Cedar Rapids schools reinstated a mask mandate for all students, staff and visitors Sept. 15. Masks also are required for Cedar Rapids-based day care programs, with masks encouraged during school activities beyond the school day.

Cedar Rapids school officials will consider ending the district’s mask requirement for students, staff and visitors if the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the county and schools decreases.

UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- The city's known as the concrete jungle. But it's also becoming known for the scaffolding that surrounds that concrete. If you lined up all of the sidewalk sheds in the city, they'd stretch to more than 340 miles.
No one knows that better than the parents at P.S. 333 on W. 93rd Street on the city's Upper West Side.
"It's an eyesore," said Gui Stampur, a parent of a son in kindergarten. "It's dangerous and it's really unfair."
It's a beautiful landmark school that was built 80 years ago, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it now. The entire building is covered in scaffolding, boards and netting.
"You really can't see a single inch of the school building itself," said Olivia Greer, who has two children who attend the school.
"It took a year and 46 days to build the Empire State building, it has taken over seven years to fix the roof and the facade, it's unacceptable," said Stampur.
They're not just concerned about how it looks. They're most concerned about safety.
"We hear terrifying stories of what happens in New York sometimes of bricks falling off of buildings and you've got 700 kids here," said Greer.
While the city does not have information available about how many buildings have scaffolding, it does track how many buildings have sidewalk sheds.
7 On Your Side Investigates found more than 9,000 buildings have sidewalk sheds in the New York City area.
 

GARFIELD, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy today announced on Friday that $75 million in funding will be distributed to school districts across the state to help meet emergent and capital maintenance needs, as well as address COVID-19 concerns to help schools ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for students. Because every school district in New Jersey will receive funding, the projects will also support good-paying union jobs in all corners of the state.

"In order to ensure New Jersey remains the number one school system in the nation, we must ensure our schools have the tools they need for students to succeed," said Governor Murphy. "The funds we are announcing today are critical for making sure our schools remain safe and welcoming spaces for our kids and educators and for ensuring that our school buildings can meet the needs of the future. I am also proud to say that these projects will support union jobs throughout New Jersey."

Continuing its 10 year focus of providing solar power projects to Vermont schools, Norwich Solar is pleased to announce that the Danville School, Cabot High School and Twinfield Union School will be receiving Net Metering Credits from a 500 kilowatt solar project built next to the Danville School. The solar project will further enable the schools’ support of renewable energy and associated educational opportunities for students. Danville resident Doug LaMothe is hosting the array. Installation of the project will be completed this year.

The schools are enrolled as customers of the project through a Net Metering Agreement. This agreement provides the schools long-term savings with no upfront costs or operational obligations. The net metering credits generated will be applied to the three schools’ Green Mountain Power electric bills each month, and will save approximately $500,000 in electricity costs over the 25 years.

Mark Tucker, Superintendent at the Caledonia Central Supervisory Union stated, “Danville, Cabot and Twinfield Schools are pleased to be in partnership with Norwich Solar and to be sharing the output of a solar farm with their sister schools in Caledonia Central SU. All three schools had looked into solar as an energy source in the past. Those past investigations had always floundered when it came to answering the question of siting: ‘Which part of the campus was best suited for a solar array? Should we put it on the school roof? Can we put it on the roof?’ Net metering resolved the siting question for us. When presented with the opportunity to garner the financial benefits of solar by participating in a planned solar farm to be built in Danville, with no upfront investment to the school districts, the respective Boards all saw this as a deal too good to pass up. We look forward to the Danville Solar project coming online so we can start saving money on the electricity costs in these three Districts, savings that will be passed on directly to our taxpayers in the form of reduced energy costs for the three schools.”

Research has shown the impact opening and closing schools can have in a community, an impact not always clear when school boards are faced with difficult decisions.
In many city districts, closures of some aging buildings have been followed by the opening of new facilities.
AL.com took a look at what happened between the start of the 2015-16 school year and the 2020-21 school year -- the latest year for which we have full enrollment information--to see just what happened with schools across the state. During those years, 49 new schools have opened, including some charter and virtual programs, and 48 buildings have closed.
Sumter County, in Alabama’s Black Belt, closed one of its schools two years ago, leaving a total of four schools -- three K-8 and one high school -- to serve the entire county. The district’s enrollment dropped 31% -- from 1,600 to 1,100 -- between the 2015-16 and 2020-21 school years. A public charter school opened in 2018 and enrolled just under 500 students last year.
 

The Capital Improvement Project, or CIP, grant priority lists are used by the governor and the legislature to figure out school construction and major maintenance projects for capital budget funding.

Department Facilities Manager, Tim Mearig, said that the department ranks the priority list using a set of evaluation criteria categories that are outlined in statute to help them figure how to rank projects.

"So it gives us certain parameters under which we can evaluate projects, the application itself that is used is set by the bond reimbursement and grant review committee, that is a statutory appointed committee that has responsibility for the CIP application, and that committee has defined a set of evaluation criteria that are used in assessing every application that's received, there is 16 different criteria, not all of which will apply to every project, but that can be used as they as they apply."

He said the criteria staff use is evaluative, an example he provided was that if there is an emergency nature to a particular project then that is evaluatively assessed. There are also calculated scores, like the age of the facility.

Mearig said some of the more common project requests from schools were for roofs.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — District 186 school board members will be briefed Monday on the ongoing investigation into a stabbing at Lanphier High School.
A 15-year-old girl was arrested after reportedly stabbing 18-year-old Pierre Scott Jr. to death outside the school on Wednesday.
The district is now evaluating its security protocols.
District officials say they were already making security upgrades before the stabbing happened, but this highlighted the need for better short-term safety measures.
“I feel as though when I send my child to school, I should feel like she’s safe and protected there,” said Noah Lane, whose daughter is a freshman at Lanphier High School.
Lane says his daughter was shocked and upset after a Wednesday stabbing left a Lanphier student dead.
“Education, obviously, is the set we’re in, but we have to ensure that everyone feels safe,” said Anthony Mares, District 186’s school board president.
Mares says the district is now evaluating extra security measures they can take, but he says their effort to increase safety was underway even before the stabbing.
“We’ve added staff, we’ve added security cameras, in some cases we’ve added double entrances, maybe even triple entrances, so security has always been a top priority,” Mares explained.
The high schools are set to undergo massive renovations as part of the district’s Facilities Master Plan, meaning now is an ideal time to consider metal detectors, but board member Micah Miller says that can’t be the whole solution.
 

HOBOKEN, NJ — A proposed new Hoboken High School building that was announced by the Board of Education a week ago Monday will cost as much as $241 million to build, NJ.com said in a story Monday.
Get a free morning newsletter with news in Hoboken: https://patch.com/subscribe
As first reported in Patch last week, the school board expects to bring their plans for the proposed school before the Hoboken Planning Board next month. The funding may come up for a public referendum on Jan. 25. 
NJ.com reported Monday that the school will be built at 1000 Jefferson St., the site of the current athletic field used by Hoboken High School. A new athletic field will be constructed on top of that new building. The new building will also contain a rooftop athletic field, an ice rink, and the long-promised city pool.
The current Hoboken High School building on Clinton Street would become the city's new middle school, NJ.com said. And the existing middle school, now held in a 110-year-old former high school in the center of town, would be turned into an elementary school. Read more about the plans in NJ.com here.
 

After a year of being cooped up in their Philly rowhome, Cameron and Brianna Stevens decided to buy a house on three acres in Delaware County.
“I wanted to raise our kids in an environment that was healthier and calmer and peaceful,” Brianna Stevens said.
The couple is expecting their first child.
So, when they heard that a new elementary school was being proposed right across the street, they saw that as a positive.
“We were like, 'Oh yeah, that's great.' You know, that's convenient. That's nice,” she said.
That is, until they learned about the two gas transmission pipelines running through a corner of the proposed school property.
The Rose Tree Media School District wants to build a new elementary school on a 36-acre plot in Edgmont to address a growing population. And so far, the district has paid $1.25 million for one parcel on the 1500 block of Middletown Road and is currently under agreement with the owner of the second parcel next to it.
Community meetings about the project have addressed a number of concerns from traffic to noise and lights. But the two 20-inch parallel gas transmission pipelines that traverse the eastern corners of the property have been of little discussion.
“I can't imagine what's worse than a pipeline being on the property that you're choosing to build a school,” Stevens said.
If the Rose Tree Media plan does come to fruition, it wouldn’t be the only school with gas transmission pipelines running by the property -- or with other pipelines in close proximity.
The NBC10 Investigators mapped out all schools and pipelines in the Southeast Pennsylvania region. And we found that dozens of schools in our region sit near hazardous pipelines.
 

GARFIELD – As part of his commitment to ensuring a high-quality education for every student in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy today announced that $75 million in funding will be distributed to school districts across the state to help meet emergent and capital maintenance needs, as well as address COVID-19 concerns to help schools ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for students. Because every school district in New Jersey will receive funding, the projects will also support good-paying union jobs in all corners of the state.

“In order to ensure New Jersey remains the number one school system in the nation, we must ensure our schools have the tools they need for students to succeed,” said Governor Murphy. “The funds we are announcing today are critical for making sure our schools remain safe and welcoming spaces for our kids and educators and for ensuring that our school buildings can meet the needs of the future. I am also proud to say that these projects will support union jobs throughout New Jersey.”

All school districts will receive a portion of the $75 million, which will be administered by the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA). Of the $75 million, $50 million will be distributed to New Jersey’s 31 SDA districts and $25 million will be distributed to regular operating districts.

Governor Murphy was joined by Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillian and Manuel M. Da Silva, Chief Executive Officer of the SDA. The Governor made today’s announcement during a visit to the Garfield School District, which will receive $853,224.

“School districts share our goal of providing students with healthy and safe learning spaces, which is especially crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Acting Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan. “I commend Governor Murphy and the School Development Authority for the foresight in making this a priority in the budget.” 

“We are committed to ensuring that New Jersey’s educational facilities best support the needs of students through healthy and safe learning environments,” said Schools Department Authority CEO Manuel Da Silva. “We are excited to continue our work through the administration of this grant program for ROD and SDA school districts, allowing them to make important and necessary improvements to their school facilities.” 

“Today's announcement begins to move us in the right direction and sends the signal that New Jersey is paying attention to our schools’ outdated infrastructure,” said Senator Teresa Ruiz, chair of the Senate Education Committee. “While this will address some immediate projects, there is still much to be done to ensure all our students have a safe, suitable learning environment. We must understand that there is an immense need where school infrastructure is concerned. Therefore, there must also be discussion about investment in tangible short-term and long-term solutions.” 

“Our students, even those from low-income or working-class neighborhoods, deserve the same opportunities, facilities and first-class classrooms that more affluent districts take for granted. Our parents need to be able not to worry about whether their child is getting an equal opportunity to achieve as their peers in other parts of the state,” said Senator Nellie Pou. “Indeed, the maintenance and, where needed, construction of new buildings, classrooms, chemistry labs, band rooms, audio visual studios or athletic facilities should be the same for every child in New Jersey, in order that we as a state live up to the letter and spirit of the words and the promise in our state Constitution, ‘provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient’ education for every child in the state.”

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Rochester-area state lawmakers announced $473 million in funding to update, upgrade, and modernize facilities within the Rochester City School District Friday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed the Rochester School Modernization Program (RSMP) legislation into law, and state officials say it will be a nearly a billion-dollar investment to promote “an engaging, safe and improved environment for student learning in Rochester.”

Officials say this legislation will “increase access to equitable resources for RCSD students as well as create 1,000s of construction and infrastructure jobs in the region.”

“State-of-the-art learning spaces for our students, parents and facilities,” said RCSD Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small. “There are so many moments that give joy to a superintendent, seeing a scholar graduate, a kindergarten walk into the school for the first time. But when you have spaces that are new, engaging and exciting that further amplifies those feelings, not for me but for them.”

School Board President Van White also spoke saying to get to this point— phase III– took a massive effort with many people playing roles and advocating for this law to get signed. 

“When these school buildings re-open, countless students will begin an exciting new phase of their education because this phase, like the previous phase, will provide our students with access to safer, efficient, and more effective learning environments,” said School Board President Van White.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The original version of President Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure plan included $100 billion to modernize schools. That investment was scrapped during negotiations leaving states and schools to look for funding on their own.

The Tar Heel state could have made use of the investments. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction reported about $12.8 billion was needed in facility repairs. It’s almost $5 billion more than the needs in the previous 2015-16 report.

Schools around the Triangle had millions of dollars worth of needs with:

$1.1 billion needed in Wake County,
$589 million needed in Cumberland County,
$489 million needed in Durham County.
DPI’s Five-Year K-12 Facility Needs Report noted renovations of existing buildings were responsible for 44 percent of the need. It said much of the costs were a result of deferred maintenance.

Broken down by grade level, elementary schools were the most in need with $2.2 billion needed in repairs according to the report. High schools were in need of $1.9 billion in renovations.

Plumbing, HVAC and electrical needs accounted for almost a quarter of needed renovations at $1.4 billion.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Vermont health officials are changing guidelines on safe levels of PCBs in schools after learning that a certain amount of the toxic chemical is common in indoor environments.

This week health officials announced that polychlorinated biphenyls can be toxic to people if they surpass 100 nanograms per cubic meter in the air of buildings used by people ages seventh grade and up, 60 nanograms for elementary school students, and 30 nanograms for pre-kindergartners, WCAZ-TV reported.

Previous guidelines suggested that no more than 15 nanograms of PCBs per cubic meter in a building's air be permitted.

The school superintendents in upstate school districts who teach Native American children have joined forces to ask Gov. Kathy Hochul for a total of $60 million to pay for long-overdue maintenance for their school buildings.

One of the three schools on sovereign Native American territory is in the North Country, the Saint Regis Mohawk Elementary School in Akwesasne, near Massena.

The superintendents said the money the Native nation schools are allocated is far less than what other New York state public schools get. Dr. Stanley Harper is the superintendent of the Salmon River school district which includes the Saint Regis Mohawk school in Akwesasne near Massena.

Speaking from the elementary school auditorium stage last week, Harper said there’s no excuse for the way the state has treated the Native American schools.

“It’s wrong. It’s not fair. And by God, it’s wrong. And it’s wrong, that we were never provided the same resources to level the playing field for these students and to maintain these buildings,” he said.

The school leaders explained that other public schools in New York can raise money through a local referendum. But these schools are on Native territory and their buildings are owned by the state, not the local community. That means they must rely on funding in the state budget to maintain them.

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allocated over $24.4 million during October and November to repair and reinforce various schools in the South and West regions of Puerto Rico that experienced structural damage caused by the 2020 earthquakes. To date, over $142 million has been obligated to the Puerto Rico Department of Education for 115 permanent work projects that address damage related to the tremors.

Due to the amount of structural damage caused by the earthquakes, most of the allocated funds will be used for mitigation works such as installing supports and steel structural reinforcements to protect the buildings in case of a future seismic event.

"Investing in construction works related to education has a ripple effect in Puerto Rico's recovery. Although it's true that the construction industry plays a vital role in any country's economy, when the works relate to education, the impact is even greater because the education of children and youths is one of our most important assets, it is the future of Puerto Rico," said FEMA Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator for Puerto Rico, José G. Baquero.

The funds include nearly $1.2 million to repair the Segundo Ruiz Belvis elementary school -- built during the 1940's -- over $2.7 million for the Eugenio María de Hostos High School and nearly $3.9 million for the Dr. Pedro Perea Fajardo Vocational Superior Public School, all three located in Mayagüez. Between the three campuses there is an enrollment of approximately 1,870 students who will benefit from the reconstructed spaces.

"School infrastructure improvement work is at the top of our work agenda through our Reconstruction Office. We have moved forward with several auctions of these projects which will allow permanent improvements to begin at the schools. Our vision is to make school environments safe and comfortable in a way that facilitates better outcomes for our students," said the Acting Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Eliezer Ramos Parés.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The state cleared the way for Syracuse to begin its final phase of school renovations, which is expected to cost $300 million.
Ten schools will be renovated. This is the third phase in a plan to renovate all of the school district’s more than 30 buildings, at a cost of $750 million.
The renovations include:
Nottingham High School: $34 million. New school-based health center; auditorium renovations; classroom renovations; new sidewalks and paving; cafeteria, kitchen, and loading dock renovations; pool renovations; gym renovations; turf field and tack; roofing; complete mechanicals, electrical and plumbing renovations
Latin School: $22 million. Interior upgrades and ADA renovations in classrooms and bathrooms; sidewalk replacement and paving; courtyard upgrades; roof replacement; replace windows, exterior doors and masonry repairs; upgrade middle school science classrooms; gym upgrades; mechanical, electrical and plumbing; upgraded technology including white boards, wireless access points, data drops.
Corcoran High School: $30 million estimated total project cost. Complete classroom renovations; roofing replacement; auditorium renovations; gym and pool renovations; complete mechanical, plumbing and electrical renovations; kitchen and loading dock renovations.

Washington lawmakers have known for years that few of the state’s public-school buildings meet earthquake safety standards.

A new report shows just how widespread the problem is and how that has overwhelmed many Washington school districts. State and federal lawmakers must step in to help.

State lawmakers can take an appropriate first step during this coming short session that starts in January by lowering the threshold for voters to approve school construction bonds to a simple majority. Since lawmakers raised the threshold to 60% more than 70 years ago, it’s been difficult for too many districts to get voter approval for building needs.

Although Washington has one of the highest risks of earthquake in the United States, most public-school students attend class in buildings that predate modern seismic safety standards. Ninety-three percent of 561 school buildings across the state surveyed in recent geological and engineering assessments received the lowest-possible rating — one star in the five-star rating scale developed by the U.S. Resiliency Council. According to that group of experts, an average building designed to meet modern building codes should expect to achieve a safety rating of three to four stars.

A Seattle Times investigation in 2016 found that 1 in 3 pupils enrolled in Washington schools — about 386,000 students at the time — lived in earthquake-prone areas and attended schools built before seismic construction standards were adopted statewide in 1975.

State law requires Alaska school districts to have a six-year capital plan; that includes major maintenance projects such as new roofs, large remodeling projects and new schools.
The Anchorage School District administration reports a maintenance backlog of about $800 million. For years before the 2018 earthquake, the Anchorage School Board had a formal policy to maximize the coverage of new bond funds, by prioritizing needed remodeling and roof replacements, rather than building new replacement schools.  
School board members were told that policy needed to be repealed to do the needed earthquake repairs, and the board did so. 
It appears that wasn’t all that was really intended by that policy repeal.
A newly proposed Six Year Capital Plan proposes bonding to tear down three existing elementary schools and replace them with three new schools at a total cost of close to $100 million. The three schools are Inlet View, Wonder Park, and Tudor Elementary. The first of these is Inlet View and the School Board is deciding, at the November 16 meeting, if it is on the 2022 School Bond. 
This comes at a time when over the past five years the ASD student population has dropped from about 50,000 to this year’s projected 42,800.    
Wonder Park is currently about 58 percent occupied and Tudor is at 70 percent occupancy. In 2020, Inlet View Elementary’s design costs was combined with the earthquake repair projects bond by a 4-3 Board vote. In the 1980-90s the District had proposed to close Inlet View. 
Inlet View absolutely needs at least a major remodel costing about $15-20 million but possibly more. The new school has a total price tag of over $30 million and seems to be growing.
 

Is asbestos remediation going on in your Philly school?

What's happening: The city launched a new interactive dashboard this week, and you can search all construction projects involving asbestos in the school district dating back to 2016.

Why it matters: School officials have struggled to protect children from environmental concerns, including asbestos and lead, that have long plagued district schools.

Inhaling or being exposed to asbestos can increase risks of developing health issues, including certain cancers.
State of play: The school district has an estimated $5 billion maintenance backlog, and the average age of Philly school buildings is more than 70 years old.

How it works: The dashboard maps asbestos remediation projects at specific schools and where the work was performed in them. It also tracks planned completion dates and other information.

The dashboard uses notification forms for asbestos projects through the Department of Public Health, which is updated daily.

Nov 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. jury on Wednesday ordered Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) to pay $62 million to students and others who say they were exposed to toxic chemicals made by the company's predecessor, Monsanto Co, in a school building in Washington state.
The verdict was the second against Bayer over polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington.
A trial involving three teachers ended in a $185 million verdict in July, including $135 million in punitive damages, which Bayer is appealing.
Bayer said it would challenge the verdict through post-trial motions, and that "undisputed evidence in this case does not support the conclusions that plaintiffs were exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs" at the school.
Nearly 200 people, including students, parents and staff, have sued Bayer over the alleged contamination resulting from exposure to PCBs found in fluorescent light ballasts at Sky Valley, and 19 more trials are scheduled.
The plaintiffs assert they suffered health problems, including asthma and cognitive impairment. Bayer has said the lighting components were produced decades ago by Monsanto customers and installed in the 1960s.