COVID-19 is an airborne disease, and epidemiologists agree that containing the pandemic depends in part on limiting the coronavirus that causes the disease from spreading when infected people cough, sneeze, or talk. But as schools work to bring students back to full-time, in-person learning safely, staff members are finding it difficult to literally clear the air.

In a study released this month, researchers from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers surveyed more than 4,000 public and private schools in 47 districts across 24 states on their efforts to improve indoor air quality during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers improved ventilation and indoor air quality to be one of the core virus-mitigation strategies needed to reopen schools in person safely, along with masking, social distancing, and contact tracing.

Participants reported air-quality improvements have generally proved to be a lower priority compared with other prevention strategies, both because of cost and pressure from the outside community.

WEAKLEY COUNTY, TN — Schools were closed in Weakley County, Tennessee, Tuesday after early morning storms caused power outages, fallen trees and storm damage. For the school district, the worst damage was at Dresden High School and its bus and maintenance garage, a district spokesperson says. 

Weakley County Schools Communications Director Karen Campbell says the damage at the high school was "extensive." She says three classrooms were flooded because of roof damage, and water flowed from those rooms across the hall to the library, where it seeped into the carpet. She says two light poles at the football field were knocked down, the roof of a storage shed was blown across the road and a tree was uprooted. 

That decision, however, was overshadowed by the news that the discovery of more PCB chemicals in the high school had made remediation untenable.
The presence of the cancer-causing carcinogens forced the school to shut down last fall and required students and staff to find a new home in a renovated Macy’s department store downtown. 
At the board’s May meeting Tuesday night, Flanagan put a final nail in the coffin. The building could not be renovated, he said, so the district would have to build a new high school.
“It is no longer possible to meet our stated goals of the ‘ReEnvisioning project,’” Flanagan said, referring to its plan to rehabilitate the facility. “The remediation that will be needed to address the contamination pushes us over the threshold of what is possible in this building. And I believe that we need to start fresh with a new build.” 
Remediation would cost the district between $7 million and $12 million, he said. Even then, it’s unlikely that the building would meet state safety thresholds due to the extensive nature of the contamination.
School board members said they agreed with Flanagan’s request to call off the renovations and find new land upon which to build a new high school. They unanimously approved his directive to end the “ReEnvisioning project” and cease all contracts related to the work.  
The project was originally designed to renovate the aging high school with a $70 million bond approved by voters in 2018. But when PCBs were found while the project was underway, some of that money was redirected toward remediation. 
 

The coronavirus pandemic has put a spotlight on persistent health threats to schoolchildren and teachers posed by crumbling U.S. campuses with leaking pipes or mold-prone ventilation.
Now, as more schools reopen for in-person teaching, the Biden administration is using that focus to seek billions of dollars in spending to repair and maintain K-12 schools—an area outside the traditional scope of federal infrastructure or education aid.
“It’s a battleground topic,” said David Sturtz, a partner at school planning firm Cooperative Strategies. “The vaccine can get you back in school but not provide long-term peace of mind. The real need out there dwarfs what we’re allocating.”
With Covid-19 vaccines in hand and policymakers negotiating over spending numbers, champions of safer school buildings are looking to the White House’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal as their best chance to address longtime needs.
Since the pandemic hit over a year ago, K-12 schools have received roughly $280 billion in emergency federal aid, most for immediate needs like personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, and technology for remote instruction.
But fixing infrastructure like air filtration or water systems can be much more costly, and the scope of needed repairs is vast.
Roughly 36,000 K-12 campuses need to update or replace ventilation or heating systems, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last year. Of the school districts GAO surveyed, 41% needed such repairs in at least half of their schools.If left unaddressed, those outdated systems can lead to mold and worse indoor air quality.
 

Late last month, eight second-grade students from a single classroom at Penn Valley Elementary School in the Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia, Pa., tested positive for coronavirus. Officials are calling it the first instance of significant in-school transmission in the district. Because of the number of students affected, staff conducted an investigation and discovered a potential cause for the spread.

The LMSD Operations Department assessed the HVAC system of the classroom in question and found that a portion of the ductwork in the ceiling “was far too closed, allowing only (approximately) 30% of the maximum amount of fresh air it should have into this specific room,” said Terry Quinlan, the district’s lead supervisor of school health and student safety. Quinlan added that, with the current information, the district “cannot say definitively whether the diminished fresh airflow contributed to the outbreak; however, it could be a factor.”

The Montgomery County Office of Public Health (MCOPH) noted that the spread could also be due in part to a variant strain of COVID-19, “citing both the rapid spread within the class and the fact that two vaccinated family members of impacted students have also tested positive,” according to the district website.

All members of the second-grade class in question have been in quarantine since April 16. The district is in the process of performing indoor air quality tests at all buildings.

President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan promises to invest $100 billion to upgrade and construct new public schools. That represents a fraction of what schools need — or are likely to get — given other priorities.

After decades of neglect and delayed maintenance, about half of U.S. schools are in a state of “disrepair.” Overall, the U.S. is underspending on these facilities by an estimated $46 billion per year, according to the 2016 State of Our Schools report.

Given the chasm between the scale of the problem and the money available to address it in any of the proposed new federal measures, the Biden administration and state governments will need to triage the spending. When needs are this open-ended on infrastructure projects, there is always a risk that money will be misspent.

To ensure that the new education dollars go where they are most needed, the federal government should give states incentives to audit school facilities as a condition for receiving extra funding, now and in the future. School facilities represent the second largest sector of public infrastructure investment, after highways — though the portion of federal, as opposed to local and state, spending on schools is a fraction of what it is for roadways.

MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) — The Novato Unified School District is considering closing one of its elementary schools to save on operational costs.
A committee on Wednesday decided to recommend shuttering Lu Sutton Elementary School. Their recommendation now goes to the Board of Trustees, who will make the final decision.
NUSD Superintendent Kristopher Cosca said Friday that no official decision has been made to close a school. 
“Should the Board approve the recommendation to close Lu Sutton, then we will work with our consultants, Board, and community, to discuss plans for reassigning students to other schools considering things like distance to the school, streets crossed, capacity, the ethnic mix of students on receiving campus, and several other factors,” Cosca said.
The committee recommendation is informed by criteria like the school’s operation cost, capacity to accommodate excess students, special program facilities, ethnic balance, transportation, neighborhoods and education program.
 

Some Prince George’s County School students are being relocated for the next three years as reconstruction on four schools begins, causing some parents to question long-standing equity issues and challenging the school system to find new ways to address the issues.

Four middle schools: Drew-Freeman, Hyattsville, Kenmoor, and Walker Mill are all under reconstruction after a billion-dollar maintenance and new school construction backlog. These schools have been plagued with overcrowding, mold, and cracks in the foundations for decades.

“For whatever reason in this school system and in this county have not built schools as fast as we probably should have or could have,” Mark Fossett, an associate superintendent for county schools, told parents at a town hall last month.

The issue of outdated crumbling school infrastructure is now being swapped for a bigger one: how to equitably relocate students into swing space, or extra temporary classroom space, especially coming off of a year of COVID and remote learning where many students — especially Brown and Black students — fell behind academically?

Parents say the school system is playing a big game of chess with little pre-planning and pitting school communities against each other.

For instance, Hyattsville Middle School parents were told earlier this year their children would be moving to the Robert Goddard Montessori School because that could accommodate their 900 students. To make that work, Robert Goddard’s 490 students would move to an old school building in Bowie (about 7 miles away) where renovations would be made to accommodate them.

As Washington schools reopen to more students, one concern at top of mind for many families and teachers is this: How are schools ventilating classrooms to reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19?

The Seattle Times Education Lab received a surge of questions over the past month about how air quality is measured in schools, the ways schools can keep air circulating and how ventilation stacks up relative to other school safety measures. To answer your questions, we spoke with public health and occupational safety experts about improving ventilation. We also asked Seattle Public Schools for a demonstration of how employees assess buildings and ventilation equipment for air flow.

How important is ventilation when it comes to protecting kids and teachers during the pandemic?

Refreshing air inside classrooms is among the most important measures schools can take against airborne diseases like COVID-19, say government health officials and occupational safety experts, and should be done in combination with other methods like wearing masks, distancing and hand-washing.

The more students and teachers in an indoor space, the riskier the scenario for spreading the virus that causes COVID-19. Bringing in new air can help lower the concentration of particles containing viruses and the risk of disease spread.

In its most recent advice to schools, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention placed new emphasis on the importance of ventilating classrooms. The agency advises that schools bring in “as much outdoor air as possible” and ensure that air filtration and ventilation systems are working at max capacity. Since reopening buildings, the Seattle school district, for example, has cranked settings in HVAC systems to pump 100% outside air, versus the typical setting of 30%. The Washington State Health Department also has school ventilation guidelines.

Twenty-four Arkansas school districts are approved to receive more than $77 million in state funding for construction, expansion and replacement of academic-related spaces on 32 campuses in the coming 2021-22 fiscal year.
The three-member Commission for Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation on Thursday unanimously approved the state's share of funding for the projects that range from a dining and kitchen expansion in the White County School District to an elementary physical education space/safe room in the Concord School District to a new elementary school in the Benton district.
The commission gave conditional approval to three additional projects, making those contingent on legislative approval next month for using money from a state restricted reserve fund.
Those projects include $12.8 million in state aid to go toward work at Pine Bluff High School and $15.3 million toward an addition at Springdale's Central Junior High School. The third conditionally funded project is renovation of classroom space in Western Yell County.
The growing 2,300-student Southside School District in Batesville is to receive about $23 million of the $77 million for a $32 million expansion of the elementary, middle, junior high and high schools, with the greatest expansion occurring at the high school.
 

VENICE — Taylor Ranch Elementary School isn’t yet ready to serve as a hurricane evacuation center but is expected to come online in July, shortly after the end of the school year.
Hurricane season starts June 1.
When the school is certified as an evacuation center, it will be the county’s 12th and the only one between Sarasota and North Port.
Ed McCrane, county Emergency Management chief, said at a news briefing Friday that work to harden the facility has been ongoing but hampered by the fact that school is still in session.
The school year ends June 11, compared to May 29 last year.

McCrane said the county is always looking for opportunities to expand the number of evacuation centers but currently has none planned in South County.

“Taylor Ranch is the solution that we’re going with now,” he said.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital had offered space on its Venice campus for a center but it was unable to come to terms with the county.

As part of its master plan to improve school facilities and alleviate overcrowding, the DeKalb County School District has released preliminary reports showing the “educational suitability” of schools throughout the district, including six that serve the Dunwoody community. 
The educational suitability reports indicated that many schools, like Dunwoody High School, are overcrowded and have classrooms that aren’t suitably sized. But a spokesperson for the school district said these reports are still a work in progress, and will not be finalized until late summer or early fall. 
The school district began working toward the creation of its “Comprehensive Master Plan” last August. The master plan is expected to provide the school district with a district-wide facilities plan through 2031. 
At a March 29 virtual public town hall, representatives from the architectural and consulting firms helping to formulate the master plan — Perkins&Will, Jacobs Engineering Group and Cropper GIS  —  presented the structure for the two main assessments used to grade schools. The Educational Suitability Assessment (ESA) and the Facility Condition Assessment (FCA) will be used to evaluate each school, and will be continuously revised based on feedback from the schools and principals, according to a spokesperson for the master plan. 
 

A report from the Center for Green Schools says too many school buildings cannot accommodate strategies and equipment that improve air quality.
In their efforts to combat the spread of Covid-19, schools across the nation have pursued many strategies to improve air quality in their facilities. But many administrators say that those efforts have been hindered by aging and inadequate buildings.
A report from the Center for Green Schools, “Preparation for the Pandemic: How Schools Implemented Air Quality Measures to Protect Occupants from Covid-19,” details the steps schools have taken to reduce the spread of the virus through improved air quality.
But it concludes that in too many of the nation’s school buildings, systems are outdated or not designed to carry out recommended strategies for improving indoor air quality (IAQ).
"School districts still have unmet needs in addressing indoor air quality, in particular, when faced with cost constraints and outdated building infrastructure in the face of changing conditions," the report says. "The most frequently cited challenge to carrying out protective air quality measures at schools was that school buildings were not designed to support the strategies that were being recommended."

Reading time for Kari Share’s second grade class at Red Oak Elementary in Ventura County looks a little different this year. One by one, she sits on the ground with each of them, and asks about the plot or helps sound out a tricky word.
But instead of rows of desks, these kids are on a concrete stage outside of their classroom, surrounded by the sound of birds and the rustle of black oak trees. 
“We've been reading for so long on iPads, so that they actually have books in their hands makes them so happy,” says Share. “Just the fresh air I think gets them excited and just being outside is nice. We get to hear all these wonderful birds and it’s just peaceful.”
Now that kids are back in school, administrators are looking outdoors to find ways to keep students safe. And the kids are thrilled.
“My favorite thing about the school is that the campus is mostly outside,” says second grader Brielle.
“It’s more comfortable than our desk because we stay inside a lot and it’s like really relaxing outside than inside,” says student Aaliyah.
 

Central Kitsap’s school board on Wednesday approved a $1.5 million increase to the Olympic High School Phase 2 project budget as a result of two separate incidents, including one that involves the discovery of asbestos in student locker rooms.

The Phase 2 modernization project, which will now cost $34 million, began July 2020 and involves renovations being made by FORMA Construction to the south classroom wing and north athletic wing. The school board originally approved $29.5 million for the project in August 2018. In January 2020, the board approved a new figure of $32.5 million to account for building needs not covered in the original budget.

Doug Newell, assistant superintendent of finance and support for CKSD, detailed the reasoning behind the most recent budget adjustment. 

In November 2020, a contractor working in the north wing of the 42-year-old high school bumped into a hanger supporting a cold-water pipe featuring friction fittings. 

During the pandemic, schools across the country turned themselves inside out, holding classes outdoors to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. And now that vaccination is driving down transmission rates, school administrators are eager to get students back in the classroom.
But disease prevention is just one of many reasons to educate kids outdoors. As we invest in pandemic recovery and infrastructure, we should make sure all students have access to nature-filled outdoor spaces.
Consider the experience of Portland, Maine, one of the country’s first public school districts to develop a district-wide outdoor learning program in response to COVID-19. By last fall, half of the district’s teachers were using one of 156 new outdoor classroom spaces provided on every school campus.
Portland students enjoyed hands-on learning outdoors. They studied pollination in a community garden. And at first snowfall, they were outside learning how snowflakes are formed. The experience of students and teachers in Portland affirmed what research has shown: When students play in nature they are kinder to each other, more physically active and more creative.
There are clear educational benefits, as well. Many students who struggle in a classroom setting thrive in an active, outdoor environment. Learning outside helps teachers see those students as capable, while the students themselves feel successful in school.
 

FORT KNOX, Ky. — Fort Knox plans to build another 21st century elementary school at the installation. The features and amenities are designed to bolster the education and give students valuable skills to unlock their potential.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have set aside $69 million for the project. Schools on military installations are built to higher anti-terrorism and force protection standards than schools that serve civilians; this impacts the cost, as does the large, open spans and integrated technology that is part of 21st Century design.Community Superintendent Josh Adams with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) said that 21st Century designs like the Kingsolver Elementary at Fort Knox will help set children up for long-term success.
 

A high school in Pennsylvania has leaky pipes and broken fire alarms. The ceiling collapsed at an empty elementary school in Connecticut, causing it to flood. A public pre-K facility in North Carolina found lead in its water fountains and faucets.

These are just a handful of recent examples that illustrate the woefully inadequate condition of many of America’s public school buildings. Insufficient and inequitable public investment, growing nationwide K-12 enrollment, and evolving technology needs have created a situation in which thousands of school buildings are years, or even decades, behind on repairs and upgrades. Millions of students learn in buildings that are unsafe and overcrowded.

A wide body of academic research has shown that lawmakers’ inability to maintain school buildings has led to lower academic outcomes for students and a lower well-being for the teachers and administrators who spend long periods of time in school buildings.

President Joe Biden is proposing a $100 billion federal investment in K-12 school building infrastructure as part of a $2 trillion spending package that also includes funds for electrifying school buses, expanding broadband access, and eliminating the nation’s lead pipes. Congress is poised to vote on the proposal in the coming months.

Here’s how dismal the state of school infrastructure is, how we got here, and what impact Biden’s plan could have, if approved.

Tackling learning loss that has resulted from the pandemic is today’s most pressing education policy concern. Critical remedies like intensive tutoring, added instructional time and early warning indicators have gotten a lot of attention. But there is another solution that is ripe for action, one that undergirds all other efforts to address learning loss: upgrading school buildings.
The state of school facilities in underserved communities is, in a word, poor. A Government Accountability Office report from last year found that half of schools nationwide need to repair or replace multiple major systems, such as heating, cooling or plumbing, and 41 percent needed updates to HVAC systems. In Detroit, it would take $500 million to bring all schools into good condition. In 2018, Baltimore shuttered schools due to inadequate heating during an extremely cold winter. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives school infrastructure in America a D-plus.
If broken school buildings were just an inconvenience or a matter of aesthetics, their condition wouldn’t be of urgent concern. But the buildings in which students learn have a big impact on their thinking and academic performance. A 2019 synthesis of 250 studies, spanning 30 years, by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that environmental issues in school buildings, from mold to poor ventilation to noise, lighting and more, can adversely impact learning. “Improving the school building may well be the most overlooked means of improving student health, safety and academic performance,” the authors concluded.
 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) ─ Rhode Island has so far invested $1.3 billion in modernizing school buildings across the state, according to a new progress report.
The report, released Wednesday by R.I. Treasurer Seth Magaziner, highlights the progress the state’s School Building Task Force has made regarding renovations and repairs.
In 2018, the task force developed a plan to increase state funding for school construction, with a focus on enhancing educational spaces, health and safety, early childhood education, and career and technical facilities.
In the years since the funding was approved by voters, 163 school buildings have been lined up for repair or replacement across 22 of the state’s 36 districts. Of those, 12 projects have already been completed while several others are currently under construction or scheduled to break ground before 2022.
“Every child deserves to go to school in buildings that are warm, safe, dry and equipped for 21st-century learning,” Magaziner said.
Magaziner called the progress report “encouraging.” He said this level of new school construction is significantly higher than historical norms and well distributed across multiple school districts.
The report showcased the brand-new East Providence High School, which is currently the state’s largest school construction project.
The previous building, which was built in 1952, was deemed one of the lowest-quality high school buildings in the state.