Across the country, more and more students are returning to their classrooms after what has been, for some, nearly a year of online learning. The school closures brought on by COVID-19 have underscored how critical the physical environment is to student well-being and educational success. And yet, for large populations of students—particularly those in communities with fewer resources and in Black, Latino, and other communities of color1—going back to school means going back to broken-down facilities with poor insulation and outdated ventilation systems.2
The deficiencies of school infrastructure have been exposed by the compounding crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the record-breaking extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. Last year, schools in Oregon burned in the worst wildfire season to date,3 and schools in Florida flooded after Tropical Storm Eta.4 In February, an extreme cold snap caused schools in Texas to freeze.5 According to a 2020 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 54 percent of U.S. school districts—a bulk of which primarily serve students of color—need to update or completely replace multiple building systems in their schools.6 Without the funds to do so, these districts are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and the exorbitant costs of rebuilding after it is too late. In 2016, for example, floods in West Virginia caused an estimated $130 million in damages to regional schools.7 In 2020, Hurricane Laura caused $300 million in damages to the Lake Charles public school system in Louisiana, with 74 of 76 schools in disrepair and more than half of the district’s 350 school buses inoperable.8
The urgency of investing in school infrastructure has never been greater, but, arguably, neither has the opportunity. The recent enactment of the American Rescue Plan by Congress—both through education funds and state and local fiscal recovery funds—will provide schools with an important down payment on the capital upgrades needed to address COVID-19.9 With this relief funding en route, Congress should shift to providing long-term funding to adequately and equitably update school infrastructure, equipping schools to withstand the disasters ahead and to participate in the clean energy transition.
In his American Jobs Plan, President Joe Biden called for the investment of $100 billion to upgrade and build new public schools.10 The prioritization of climate change throughout the plan underscores that this transformation of the public school system can and should work in tandem with the country’s transformation to a 100 percent clean future. By increasing spending on local school infrastructure needs, Congress would not only stimulate the economy but also advance climate change solutions and reduce the number of instructional days missed by students due to public health and environmental factors. Finally, federal school funds could begin to redress the deep infrastructure inequities that plague public school districts.
 

When Winslow Middle Schooler Richard Manuel changes classes, he likes to peek into the courtyard and check on his kids in the nursery.
Do they look happy? Do they have water? Are they fed? 
At just 13, Richard already has strong fatherly instincts — for a plant dad.
The seventh-grader is studying Environmental STEM at the middle school. His classmates have become mothers and fathers to the nature growing in two school courtyards. Soon, they'll be raising seedlings into thriving adult plants in a $300,000 grant-funded greenhouse on campus grounds. 
Winslow Township Schools' support of sustainability has earned the middle school hundreds of thousands in grants for green initiatives since 2017.
Recently it earned U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon status.
While the school district invested in solar panels, reflective windows and energy efficient lighting, its green philosophy doesn't stop with turning off the lights when they're not in use. 
The middle school's Green Team — a group of environmentally conscious staff — has applied the ideals of nurturing Mother Nature to its task of building back up their middle schoolers' physical and mental well-being. 
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Principal Stella Nwanguma's students have looked to her school for comfort through major transitions from in-person learning to sudden virtual teaching, then back to school again with masks and other precautions. 
 

Asbestos, once used in many construction projects, is now recognized as a cancer-causing agent. When discovered, it must be removed to protect the health and safety of people who encounter it.

As has happened in the past in other areas of the Shelter Island School building, asbestos has been discovered in its academic suite and science room, causing the Board of Education Monday night to approve expenditures for remediation, including removal, monitoring and floor coverings totaling $22,174 for the academic suite, and $15,811 for the science room.

Tax anticipation notes

Because tax money doesn’t flow to districts in time to cover expenses each year, school districts are forced to take “tax anticipation notes” (TAN) to be repaid when tax money arrives. The Board of Education approved a TAN not to exceed $2 million pending receipt of money levied for the 2021-22 school year. Typically, these notes cover expenses for the second half of a school year. More than a few school administrators on Shelter Island and other districts have complained about this need since interest accrues and has to be paid when notes are settled.

When Mary Filardo was a child, her father was the superintendent of a rural school district in Illinois—a one-room school house, in fact.
“Animals on platforms in barns were in better conditions than kids in schools,” in that district, she recalled.
Her father led the push for a bond referendum to replace the building and consolidate several of the district’s schools into larger, nicer facilities.
The issue of school building upkeep stared Filardo in the face once again as an adult, when her two children attended the dilapidated Oyster-Adams Bilingual School in the District of Columbia. She led a group of parents who successfully pushed for a public-private partnership to upgrade the school built in 1926, presaging a citywide school modernization initiative years later.
It’s no surprise, then, that Filardo has become one of the nation’s foremost advocates for addressing longstanding neglect of K-12 school building infrastructure. In 1994, she formed the nonprofit 21st Century School Fund, and in 2016 she founded the [Re]Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC), a collection of more than 100 public and private organizations that support school modernization.
Now as Congress takes up President Joe Biden’s proposals to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure, Filardo could see the culmination of her efforts over the last couple decades to make the case that the federal government—not just states and local school districts—should play a major role in ensuring that all students, whether in wealthy or poor communities, can learn in safe, well-maintained, adequately sized school buildings.
 

Three schools in Roanoke County need to be replaced, agree government leaders who met this week to compare ideas — including perhaps a 1% sales tax increase — for funding at least $153 million of construction costs.
Time is of the essence, emphasized Roanoke County School Board members on Tuesday to the board of supervisors, as student needs continue to go underserved and construction costs spiral upward.
Supervisors initially questioned in February whether two of Roanoke County’s elementary schools — Glen Cove and W.E. Cundiff — really required expedited replacement, but the school board eventually made its case understood.
Glen Cove and W.E. Cundiff elementary schools are approximately 60,000-square-feet apiece, opened in 1971 and 1972, respectively, according to county documents. Concerns abound within the 50-year-old schools: classrooms are cramped and noisy, owing to their obsolete open floorplans; bricks are crumbling; plumbing is two decades past its life expectancy; and the electrical systems verge toward ancient.
Estimates put construction of a new, 76,000-square-foot Glen Cove Elementary School between $20 million and $32 million, documents said. For W.E. Cundiff Elementary School, the most recent estimate is between $24 million and $37 million for an 87,000-square-foot structure.
No doubt has existed that Roanoke County’s career and technical education school, the Burton Center for Arts & Technology, needs upgrading. The 89,000 square-foot building was first occupied in 1962, is aged in its infrastructure similar to the elementary schools, lacks capacity for students and exists in a floodplain of Salem, rather than being in Roanoke County.
Building a new, 176,000-square-foot BCAT could cost upward of $84 million, estimates said, and prices are skyrocketing upwards.
 

In 2005, West Roxbury High School was split into four schools: Urban Science Academy, Media Communications Technology High School, Brook Farm Business and Service Career Academy and West Roxbury Academy, all operating as the West Roxbury Education Complex.

The move was part of one of Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ first short-lived forays into education reform — the Small Schools Initiative, which operated under the theory that students would fare better in smaller school communities.

By 2009, Gates had moved away from the idea, and the funding his foundation provided moved into other initiatives. In 2019, the two remaining schools in the complex — West Roxbury Academy and Urban Science Academy — were closed, after the city’s Inspectional Services Department deemed the building unsafe. The schools’ student bodies were dispersed to other high schools throughout the district.

The twists and turns that led to the closing of the school are not uncommon in Boston’s public schools. In the last 20, the district has closed, moved, merged or reconfigured grade levels at 70% of its schools, according to research by Boston Latin Academy history teacher Jose Valenzuela.

Prompted by news that Boston Public Schools officials have decided to close the Jackson/Mann K-8 school next year, Valenzuela crowdsourced a list of 40 schools that have been closed or merged over the last two decades. In addition, he added in grade reconfigurations to document what he says is a pattern of disruptions to school communities.

Five new school buildings, four school closures and four major renovation projects are proposed in Boston Public Schools’ fiscal year 2022 capital plan released by the district on Wednesday.
“This is a big step in moving forward to provide to our students the facilities that they deserve,” said BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius in a press briefing.
New schools will be built in Dorchester, Roxbury, Allston, East Boston and at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Allston, Cassellius and Nate Kuder, the district’s CFO, outlined in a capital budget and BuildBPS update announced during Wednesday’s school committee meeting.
Four schools, however, will be closing and two will be merging.
The Irving and Timilty middle schools will close in June 2022, Edwards Middle School will close in June of this year, and BPS officials are proposing to the school committee that the Jackson Mann K-8 School close in June 2022.
This is because standalone middle schools will be reconfigured into either K-6 schools or 7-12 grade schools under the district’s proposed plans.
Major renovations will take place at the Edwards, Irving, Timilty and McCormack middle schools. McCormack Middle School will merge with Boston Community Leadership Academy.
Major funding is also proposed to go toward building repairs, technology and improvements in the arts and athletics.
The total proposal for fiscal year 2022 is $163 million, and Kuder said it’s too early to project the cost of the renovations, especially as sites for the new schools haven’t yet been selected.
 

The condition of New Jersey’s school buildings is getting extra attention this year in State House budget hearings, as concerns mount about how schools, especially in the hardest-hit communities, will fare coming out of the pandemic at a time the state’s construction fund is drying up.

Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed an additional $200 million to tide existing projects over for another year and another $75 million to address the most emergent new needs. But as Monday’s Assembly Budget Committee witnessed, the reality remains that a far larger infusion of funds will likely be required — and possibly ordered by the court — to address the state’s deepening needs.

State Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Passaic) led the questioning and said the pandemic had exacerbated the needs in his home district of Paterson, where some schools are more than a century old and officials have struggled with the new pandemic-driven standards for air ventilation and social distancing.

“This has really showed, where you have buildings that are 100 years old and facing booming populations,” he said.

Manuel Da Silva, the head of the state Schools Development Authority, which oversees school construction in many of the neediest districts, was asked several times at the hearing to put a number on the estimated need for just the so-called emergent projects, let alone overall costs.

Da Silva promised the committee an estimate would be forthcoming, but also noted that the $33 million now committed in 11 emergent projects just scratches the surface.

“The numbers that we have approved is just a small percentage,” Da Silva said. “There is a significant need … but the funding is the issue right now.”

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The official start to hurricane season is right around the corner, and an Eastern Carolina county uses Hurricane Preparedness Week to get its staff up to speed.

Onslow County’s Departments of Emergency and Social Services teamed up Wednesday for hurricane shelter training, including preparations on registrations, shelter space set-up, and emergency generator operation.

“Now is actually the time to start preparing,” said Emergency Services Deputy Director Stacie Miles. “If we’re lucky enough to have that two-, three-, four-year period where we don’t have any hurricanes, they’re still touching all of the equipment, and they’re still getting that hands-on experience with it.”

The official start to hurricane season is June 1, but last year saw a record number of pre-season named storms.

Dozens of Philadelphia public schools continue to have serious environmental hazards, including damaged asbestos, peeling lead paint, and mold, according to an analysis by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

The union’s report, based on inspections of school buildings and district records largely unavailable to the public, outlines the scope of facilities problems that plague Philadelphia schools, which have an average age of 70 years. In the report, union officials identified six main hazards in the city’s aging buildings: lead paint, lead in drinking water, asbestos, lack of ventilation, mold and roofing issues.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, teachers union officials urged the district to invest in facilities upgrades and remediate “toxic conditions” for teachers and students. They also asked for improved transparency about environmental hazards in schools.

Remediating the most pressing environmental concerns would cost about $200 million, according to the report, and simply maintaining all public school buildings would cost billions more. According to the district’s 2017 Facilities Condition Assessments, the district has a 25-year deferred maintenance backlog of needed work, which would cost an estimated $4.5 billion to complete.

Several Philadelphia City Council members asked Superintendent William Hite at a Tuesday hearing about his plans for fixing the district’s aging buildings. Hite said the district will spend $325 million of its $1.1 billion in federal stimulus funding on facilities improvements.

SMITHFIELD, R.I. (WPRI) — State and local leaders toured a Smithfield elementary school utilizing funds from the state’s School Construction Task Force on Wednesday.
General Treasurer and School Building Task Force Co-Chair Seth Magaziner, who released the Progress Report on Rhode Island School Construction last month, stopped by Anna McCabe Elementary School to see construction progress Tuesday.
Anna McCabe Elementary School is being expanded to accommodate students from William Winsor Elementary School that’s closing at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. The $85 million expansion project at McCabe Elementary broke ground last spring.
According to the new progress report, McCabe is one of 163 school buildings across the state utilizing funds from the so far $1.3 billion allocated to modernizing Rhode Island schools.
“They are one of the first out of the gate modernizing and consolidating their elementary schools. It’s just incredible,” Magaziner told 12 News Wednesday.
“They have maker spaces, a 21st century library that they’re building, the energy efficiency, the natural light. It’s going to be terrific for students, it’s going to be terrific for outcomes, and that’s ultimately what this is all about,” he added.
Magaziner, who started his career as a public school teacher, said from his teaching experience, he learned the quality of a school building directly impacts the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn.
“Every student deserves to go to a school that’s warm and safe, and dry and equipped for 21st century learning. And the progress that we see statewide from the state’s school construction program is just incredible,” he said.
 

New classrooms are coming to Mathews Elementary School, as Greenwood County School District 50 moves to put early childhood students into elementary schools.

On Tuesday, the board of directors for the nonprofit Greenwood Fifty School Facilities Inc. met to get an update on the finances and building projects in the district. The facilities group is a support organization for capital projects in the district, managing and selling bonds issued in 2006 to fund the projects.

Board Chairperson Debrah Miller said the nonprofit was responsible for the funding behind building Westview and Brewer middle schools, along with renovations to Springfield, Lakeview and the career center, among other projects.

District 50 Assistant Superintendent for Business Rodney Smith filled the board in on its latest financial statements — a bond sale in April brought in $4.5 million. These funds were being used at the performing arts center, but with it completed some of the money will go into a capital fund while another portion is used on loan payments.

Auditors will be taking a look at the district’s books soon, Smith said. Last year the district got an unmodified opinion, the best they could receive. Administrators were able to give teachers a bonus, for dealing with the complications of teaching amid a pandemic.

“2020 was a great year for the district,” he said. “We added quite a bit to our fund balance.”

All of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s high schools are showing their age, built at least five decades ago.
That leaves a long list of needs at each, many of which are being addressed over the next few years through the successful $317 million November 2020 capital referendum. Through that vote, each of the four Madison public high schools is set to receive $70 million worth of renovations and improvements.
But two schools — both on its west side — want to take advantage of the already-planned construction to check more boxes on their wish list through private fundraising.
With West and Memorial seeking to raise nearly $18 million between them, some are concerned that East and La Follette will be left behind, along with their proportionally higher rates of students of color and students considered low-income.
“It’s important for us to realize this conversation is about a lot more than buildings and the facilities inside those buildings,” School Board member Cris Carusi said in February. “This is also about the opportunities that are offered to our students every day in every building.”
Memorial wants to raise $11.3 million and West is seeking $6.6 million for additional projects through alumni donations. There’s no guarantee the fundraising efforts will be successful, given a tight timeline to raise the money, but the School Board approved both plans earlier this spring.
Daniel Mansoor, a professional fundraiser who graduated from West in 1975, is consulting with both high schools on their projects. While he understands east side schools might not be in a place to fundraise like West and Memorial right now, he believes these projects can be a springboard for similar efforts across the district in the future.
“One school might succeed at this moment in time, another school will learn from their mistakes and from their successes, maybe even do a more effective job of running a campaign or fundraising drive in the future,” Mansoor said. “So I don't buy into the sort of equity issue.”
Few would argue the projects, in a vacuum, are bad. Presentations on the projects in January and February featured school leaders and students extolling the importance of what is proposed and why it was worth going beyond the $70 million for each school.
 

Major decisions are on the table at the Victoria school district, and the community needs to get involved.
The district’s superintendent Quintin Shepherd discussed some options for the district after the community voted down a $156.8 million bond proposal on May 1. About 15% of registered voters turned out to the polls.
Now district officials and the board look to alternatives to address major repairs like updating HVAC and plumbing systems.
With possible multimillion dollar issues up for discussion, community members need to voice their opinions when it comes to the district.
Shepherd said during an Advocate interview that he is listening to the community. Now is the time to speak, Victoria residents.
We need to collectively stop and think about what we want to see in our local school district. More importantly, we need to communicate that to our local school leaders.
Costly repairs are nearly impossible to address without a bond, but Shepherd discussed the possibility of using COVID-19 relief funds to fix HVAC needs.
The money comes from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. The funds are allocated from the federal government down to the Texas Education Agency, which distributes it to districts across the state. Victoria’s school district expects to receive $28 million-29 million from that fund.
 

When the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of schools in Tempe and West Chandler, the last thing on anyone’s mind was the condition of campus gardens.

A year later, when students were back in school and millions of Arizonans were vaccinated, members of three Rotary clubs, alongside their non-Rotarian friends, attacked the tangle of weeds and brush that were choking the garden at Kyrene del Cielo in West Chandler.

For 2½ hours, the volunteers worked hard to re-establish four garden beds and clear the overgrown paths leading to them.

It was all part of the Rotary District 5495 Week of Service.

Marni Anbar, of the Rotary Tempe Downtown Club, said that Cielo Principal Tammy Thaete was among those who rolled up her sleeves to help get the job done.

Also on hand were members of the Gilbert Rotary Club; Laurel Gwilliam, a fourth-grade teacher at Cielo; Nicole Leonardi of the Cielo Parent Teacher Organization; Dan Leonard of Cielo staff, and Dave Kurckhard of the Rotary Tempe Downtown Club.

PALATKA, Fla. – If you check out Visit Florida’s website, you’ll notice it states Palatka as being home to the sunshine state’s first accredited school for Black students. If you dig further, you’ll see the old Central Academy is filled with fascinating Putnam County history.
According to the Palatka Housing Authority, which now oversees the building, the current Central Academy School building was built in 1936, replacing the original building that was destroyed by fire. Then in 1971, the school was closed following desegregation. Then in 1998, the authority says it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. The Putnam County school district also confirmed to News4jax it used the building as a maintenance warehouse, and the property as a bus depot before selling it to the Housing Authority in 2009.
But now, the building stands in ruins. Years of decay have visibly added up, and there’s almost nothing left of the roof. The building itself is surrounded by a fence, and parts of it are boarded up. Dr. Andrew McCrae and Bernice Johnson were Central Academy students in the 1960s.
“When we come through our community and we see the disrepair that it has fallen to, this is evident that we have been failed,” Dr. McCrae said. “As a student with a doctorate, I owe it to this because this is where I got my beginnings. And I got to walk and see it in this shape?”
For Johnson, the sight of some of her earliest memories is heartbreaking and says it leaves an impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.
“When I see this building like this, it brings tears, it brings sadness, and disbelief,” Johnson said. “That’s what it brings to me, and it hurts my heart.”
They, like many, want to see this property thrive once again. According to the Palatka Housing Authority’s president, Dr. Anthony Woods, it was one vote away from being demolished in 2006 as “...a result of its severe state of deterioration.” During our interview, Johnson provided News4jax with a copy of a resolution from the city of Palatka dated in 2006. The resolution formally stated the city opposed demolition and was signed by then-Mayor Karl Flagg.
 

Boston school officials are planning to close the Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston as they push forward with a school construction program and facing a dramatic decline in enrollment.

Officials notified staff and families about closing the school at the end of the next school year during a meeting on Wednesday, ending nearly two years of consternation over the school’s future. School officials had initially planned to replace the Jackson Mann’s deteriorating building on Armington Street and had been seeking an alternative location for the school during construction.

But with student enrollment dropping across the city, some families were skeptical that Jackson Mann would remain open and transferred their children to other schools, causing enrollment to drop from 610 in fall 2018 to 429 last fall

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected South Kingstown’s request for up to $85 million in bonds for a sweeping school facilities improvement program.

The unofficial results posted Tuesday night on the town’s website showed 5,244 votes against the plan, 1,967 in favor of it.

The vote marked the conclusion of months of planning and public outreach efforts by supporters of the project to move the high school from Columbia Street to the Curtis Corner Middle School building and to renovate and expand it.

Middle schoolers at Curtis Corner would have moved to Broad Rock Middle School, and each of the town’s elementary schools would have undergone smaller-scale improvements.

“Tonight was a tough loss and there are so many emotions,” School Committee Chairperson Emily Cummiskey said. “I am so sad for what could have been for the students of South Kingstown.”

The town has a Stage II necessity of construction application currently before the state Department of Education’s School Building Authority for the project. The town submitted it in mid-February.

Stage II approval would make the town eligible for up to 50% reimbursement from the state for construction costs. That would have included a 35% base reimbursement and potentially another 15% for “bonus” incentives, leaving the town responsible for about $42.5 million over 20 years.

The project was set to move forward only if voters approved the bond referendum and state authorities approved the application for reimbursement.

By rejecting the bond, any requests for state reimbursement would have to begin again at Stage I. The School Building Committee would have to repeat the process of reviewing the school buildings and the required work. The projects could be included in the Capital Improvement Program each year, but they would not be addressed in a timely manner, according to school officials.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - State lawmakers say Burlington High School isn’t the only school in the state that is in need of a major construction project.
“We certainly know that there are other schools that were built at the same time, so the chances that this extends to other school districts is quite high,” said Rep. Kathryn Webb, D-Shelburne, who is the chair of the Vermont House Education Committee.
Lawmakers believe Burlington’s pricey PCB problem is likely just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Vermont’s aging schools. Following the decision to rebuild the high school, the Burlington School District now needs to find a new location and figure out what to do with the land where harmful PCBs have seeped into the soil.
“It’s a serious issue. I’m not sure how Burlington is going to deal with this in terms of building a new high school. It’s going to be a lot of work, it’s going to be a big problem for the city of Burlington and a very expensive proposition,” said Rep. Larry Cupoli, R-Rutland, who is the vice-chair of the Vermont Committee on Education.
The Burlington School Board said it plans to reach out to state and federal leaders to see if there is any money available to supplement costs so city taxpayers don’t have to foot the entire bill, but it’s still early in the process.
Before the 2007 recession, funds were available through the state to assist schools that were taking on large construction projects. However, the fund has since dried up.
Webb says a bill working its way through the state Legislature would take an inventory of all 300 schools in the state to figure out where the major issues lie.
“We are hoping that with H.426, as it moves through, may get the district and our schools around the state in a better position to be able to apply for long-awaited construction repair,” she said.

SHELBY CO., Ala. (WBRC) - Shelby County School leaders expect students across the district can return to class Thursday, after dealing with serious flooding issues following Tuesday’s storm.

Flood waters swamped the parking lot of the Shelby County Instructional Services Center. The water was so high during Tuesday, flooded cars left in the parking lot.

24 hours later, a thick layer of mud was left behind that crews worked to clear Wednesday. District leaders say a clogged drainage ditch nearby may have worsened the flooding.

The water made its way inside the building too.

“One of the rooms that was probably knee deep was the computer lab,” said Cindy Warner, Shelby County Schools.

District leaders say the flood waters drenched the main servers in the facility which help run school operations. Students were forced to work remotely.

“It impacted services at all schools. We had no internet. No phones. No nothing. Nothing until we could get those servers back up,” said Warner.