America’s public schools have enormous energy, infrastructure and transportation needs, which make them an essential component of any plan to improve the nation’s overall infrastructure. Yet the role schools can play — both in economic recovery and in addressing climate change — is often overlooked.
Our public-school system — with more than 98,000 schools covering over 2 million acres of land across the country — recently received a D+ on America’s infrastructure report card. More than half of our school districts have multiple failing building systems, according to a recent government report.
Underinvestment in school infrastructure in Michigan led to a roof collapse at a high school, fortunately happening overnight when no students or educators were in the building. Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other students of color are more likely to attend underfunded schools in bad condition; their schools have to spend a greater share of their budgets on annual maintenance than well-resourced schools and find it more challenging to raise the funds needed for sufficient capital improvements. These same schools are more likely to experience poor indoor air quality, environmental hazards and other infrastructure issues detrimental to student health, attendance and test scores.
Yet this current underinvestment in school infrastructure presents an opportunity. Increased investment can help decarbonize our schools, lower annual energy and operations costs, improve health, safety and learning outcomes and provide opportunities for students to develop the skills needed to advance a sustainable future. Additionally, this investment will create living labs for environmental sustainability, clean energy and climate solutions.
Energy costs are schools’ second-highest costs, behind salaries, and schools are among the largest consumers of energy in the public sector. With 480,000 school buses, mostly diesel, public schools operate the largest mass transit fleet in the country. Federal policymakers must be the catalyst for schools’ transition to clean energy and sustainable operations.
 

President Joe Biden unveiled half of his massive infrastructure proposal at a Pittsburgh carpentry training center Wednesday afternoon —  a $2 trillion American Jobs Plan that includes building and upgrading schools and child care facilities as well as extending broadband service to all Americans. 

While calling on Republicans to support tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy to get the plan through Congress, he also hinted he expects the proposal to face strong opposition.

“Critics say we shouldn’t spend this money,” he said, but added, “There’s no reason why it can’t be bipartisan.”

The plan to spend $100 billion on K-12 facilities includes $50 billion in direct grants for facilities and $50 billion in construction bonds. Another $45 billion in Environmental Protection Agency funds would be used to reduce lead exposure in schools and early-childhood facilities. In addition to expanding broadband, Biden’s plan would seek to lower the cost of internet service.

“Infrastructure was not strong enough even before COVID,” John King, president and CEO of The Education Trust and a former U.S. education secretary and, said Tuesday during a webinar on early-childhood education hosted by New America. “Even before the pandemic, we were underinvesting in the systems and people that are essential in keeping our country running.”

President Joe Biden proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday that would provide $100 billion for new school construction and upgrades to existing buildings, meeting a long-time push by some education advocacy groups.
Separate parts of the American Jobs Plan would also provide $100 billion to expand broadband internet access and $45 billion to replace lead pipes around the country, which would reduce lead exposure in 400,000 schools and child-care facilities, the White House said.
The massive proposal comes after Congress passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief bill that included an unprecedented infusion of cash for schools. And, while infrastructure has been seen as an area of possible bipartisan compromise in recent years, the American Jobs Plan is sure to face resistance from members of Congress who have called for less government spending or more-targeted proposals.
The infrastructure plan would be paid for over 15 years by increasing corporate tax rates and closing tax loopholes, backtracking on some cuts made through a tax bill signed into law by President Donald Trump.
Dating back to his time as a candidate, Biden has frequently mentioned school buildings alongside more typical infrastructure priorities, like roads and bridges.
“How many schools [are there] where the kids can’t drink the water out of the fountain?” Biden said at a press conference last week. “How many schools are still in the position where there’s asbestos? How many schools in America we’re sending our kids to don’t have adequate ventilation?”
Those concerns have been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic as some administrators say crowded or dated school buildings make it difficult to carry out recommended procedures, like social distancing, to reduce the risk of transmission. Some of those concerns can be addressed through K-12 aid provided through multiple federal relief bills that have already been enacted.
 

Four Broward schools will remain closed until further notice as inspectors make sure their roofs won’t be the next to collapse.
While most students returned from Spring Break this week, 1,425 students at Lauderdale Lakes Middle, Lauderhill 6-12, Apollo Middle in Hollywood and Plantation Middle are learning remotely while the schools are inspected.
Combined enrollment at the four schools is about 3,600 students, but most were already learning at home due to the pandemic.
The four schools — all built in the late 1960s — have the exact same structural design as James S. Rickards Middle in Fort Lauderdale, where the roof over the media center collapsed March 5. Students there have been e-learning since the breach. The roof had just been replaced within the past year.
Initially after the Rickards incident, the school district decided to keep the four other schools open but close the media centers and adjacent classrooms.
“In an abundance of caution while this process continues, our school will revert to 100% e-learning,” Ryan Reardon, principal of Lauderhlll 6-12, wrote in a note to parents Sunday. “As always, our highest priorities are the safety of our students and staff.”
 

A public hearing was held Tuesday for a bill that would allow any school district to build teachers’ cottages or other housing units for school district employees. Senate Bill 5043 would give the green light for school districts to issue general obligation bonds to build staff housing, following approval from voters.
The ability to put this issue on the ballot is already an option for small school districts that tend to be in rural areas. This bill would extend the ability to larger districts as well, which tend to be in urban areas.
Sen. Jesse Salomon (D – Shoreline), the bill’s prime sponsor, said:
Right now if you’re what’s called a second class school district, meaning you have 2000 students or less. You can put a question to the voters of the school district: should we help fund housing for teachers or school employees to get them to move out here. This just allows all the other school districts to do that same thing that’s been happening in these smaller school districts for a very long time.”
In order to issue the bonds, a supermajority vote (60%) would be required, unlike a levy, which only requires a simple majority.
The repayment stream for the bonds would be property taxes, but the district could choose to size the bond issue based on rents in the housing units, said Faith Pettis of Pacific Law Group, LLP, who helped draft the legislation. School districts would be able to use their small surplus property for this purpose, and the bill would also allow school districts to partner with other governments on the setting, financing, and joint use of the housing.
 

HOW SCHOOLS STACK UP IN BIDEN’S INFRASTRUCTURE PUSH: President Joe Biden this week will unveil new details about his plan to inject trillions of dollars into the nation’s infrastructure — including an effort to upgrade or replace crumbling school buildings. Biden will outline his proposal during a speech on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.
— Biden said during his press conference last week that schools would be a focus of his infrastructure push, lamenting the state of some of the nation’s classrooms: “How many schools where the kids can't drink the water out of the fountain? How many schools are still in the position where there's asbestos? How many schools in America we're sending our kids to don't have adequate ventilation?”
— Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the chair of the House education committee, told state education leaders last week that he expects schools will be part of the infrastructure bill. “Usually it’s just roads and bridges, but we have a commitment that education — school construction — will be part of it,” Scott said at the Council of Chief State School Officers' Legislative Conference.
— Scott’s proposal — the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act — passed the House last July as part of Democrats’ sweeping infrastructure bill, H.R. 2 (116). The plan calls for $100 billion in direct federal grants, distributed using the Title I formula that targets funding to low-income school districts. It also includes another $30 billion in interest subsidies on bonds that states or school districts issue to pay for school construction.
 

With nearly $190.5 billion has been earmarked for helping schools cope with the ramifications of the novel coronavirus pandemic, some leaders are eyeing the use of those funds for related school construction projects. 
In 2020, Congress passed two relief bills provided nearly $67.8 billion to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, in March, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, in December. 
Those funds were eligible for COVID-19 construction projects, but schools had a more immediate need: putting them to use for technology, PPE, staffing and short-term changes that could get kids back to school. 
“Oversimplification of the CARES Act has been a little tough on answering the construction question,” said Danny Carlson, associate executive director, policy and advocacy at the National Association of Elementary School Principals. “It was an immediate finger in the dike to get devices to get through the school year.”
The recent passage of the American Rescue Plan, which adds another $122 billion in K-12 relief funds, may add an opportunity for school leaders to focus on using federal money on construction projects.
“Schools can use this opportunity to think three, five, 10 years down the line. Schools need to be thinking about how changes could better prepare them for weathering something like this in the future,” Carlson said.
 

To stop the spread of COVID-19 as students return to in-person learning, Wolfe County Schools’ superintendent has installed portable air purifying units in classrooms and on school buses.
Kenny Bell is among the K-12 school chiefs in Kentucky trying to improve indoor air quality as part of reopening after the March 2020 school shutdown.
“Our staff has been elated,” Bell told the Herald-Leader. “I have gotten more ‘thank you’s’, for these than anything I have done in 13 years as superintendent. They tell me it makes the air smell fresher and like hospital air.”
On March 19, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clarified that ventilation is a strategy needed to clean and maintain healthy facilities as schools emerge from the pandemic shutdown.
The CDC is encouraging system upgrades or other improvements for the delivery of clean air in classrooms to dilute possible contaminants in schools.
Using portable air cleaners, improving building-wide filtration and opening windows are ways schools can increase ventilation, the CDC said.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has said that when used properly, air cleaners and HVAC filters can help reduce airborne contaminants including viruses in a building but practices including social distancing and mask wearing are needed along with it.
 

More than five weeks after the Texas Freeze wreaked havoc in Central Texas — causing widespread utility outages for millions of Texans amid subfreezing temperatures — school districts in Bastrop County are still assessing property damage caused by the storms.

The four districts have spent the weeks following the winter storms evaluating and repairing damage at their properties, which ranged from minor pipe breaks to boilers that needed to be completely replaced.

Officials discovered property damage at their districts after the Bastrop, Smithville, Elgin and McDade school districts canceled school during the severe winter weather that brought ice and snow storms and continuous dayslong subfreezing temperatures during the week of Feb. 15.  

Last week, Bastrop school district spokeswoman Kristi Lee said the district had assessed $197,766 in damage claims related to the freeze, but the district anticipates this amount to increase as the process is finalized.

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — School officials said the lack of response by FEMA leaders to Hurricane Michael recovery has left some schools damaged and shut down.
For students, teachers and administrators these are daily reminders of the trauma of this Category 5 storm.
In some spots across Bay County, school is back in session but the signs of the massive damage caused by Hurricane Michael remain.
The slow recovery, according to some local leaders, is FEMA’s fault.
Rosenwald High School Principal, Jonathan McQuagge, said it’s time for FEMA to step up and help make a better learning environment for students.
 

Where some people might see overgrown foliage and empty spaces on the grounds of Aspen Community Magnet School, Tina Morris sees untapped potential.

There is the northeast corner of the property, with some trees providing shade, where Morris, the school’s principal, envisions an outdoor learning space. Students could sit in chairs there as teachers instruct them using a portable chalkboard or whiteboard, she said.

On the opposite side of the school, just beyond its football field, is a series of ungroomed trees among a grove of elms that is a popular hangout spot for students. Morris said that’s another area the school intends to turn into a learning space.

She wants to use tree stumps and logs near an abandoned building for a campfire-style setting.

The intent, Morris said, is not just to offer different venues where students can learn every now and then — it’s about providing a more enriching educational experience by using the outdoors as an extension of the classroom.

“It just opens up a whole avenue of learning that engages kids in a way I’ve never seen,” Morris said.

There are roughly 1,000 K-12 schools in Utah, and researchers estimate at least 80 to 100 — maybe more — are so unstable that they would collapse in a major earthquake.
In the small sample of buildings they’ve examined, they found holes in foundations deep enough that you couldn’t see or touch the bottom. In a few, bricks were loose and slipping out of exterior walls at angles so odd that students could study them. In one, ceiling tiles randomly crashed down during the day. In another, there were visible cracks running up the hallways inside.
Many of those schools were constructed more than 60 years ago, before there were any building codes for earthquake safety. And seismologists predict the classrooms in them could be crushed in less than 60 seconds if the ground starts shaking as it’s expected to when “the big one” hits the state.
If that happens during the school day, the thousands of students and teachers who go to those schools could be trapped.
But despite at least five separate reports to the state in the past 26 years repeating those estimates and warnings over and over, Utah leaders have taken little action.
Parents with kids at the schools that were included in that 2011 sample have a starting place to try to discover whether their child’s classroom is safe. But that list is now 10 years out of date. And others with kids at older schools not surveyed still have no way of finding out. In fact, the state doesn’t know exactly which school buildings are the most dangerous, because it’s declined several times to fully fund any formal study to follow up on the estimates, examine all aging schools and uncover the full extent of the risk.
That is deliberate.
 

Beginning Thursday Henry County will have the highest sales tax rate in the region, at least for a few months.
The increase is the result of a referendum on the ballot in November that asked voters in Henry and Patrick counties if a general retail sales tax, not to exceed 1%, could be levied by the local governments to provide revenue solely for capital projects for the construction or renovation of schools.
The referendum was approved by about 55% of the voters in each of the counties.
Virginia Department of Taxation Senior Communications Specialist Stephanie Benson said the total sales and use tax rate in Henry County will be 6.3% effective April 1. Patrick County has the same rate, but it won’t go into effect until July 1.
This includes the 4.3% state tax, the 1% local option tax and, for now, the 1% Henry County additional tax.
The change was approved by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly and presented to voters in November.
“This adjusted sales and use tax rate does not apply to food purchased for human consumption, such as groceries, or essential personal hygiene products, as both are taxed at a reduced rate,” Benson said.
That reduced rate is 2.5% and is statewide.
Henry County Administrator Tim Hall says the extra tax will be worth millions to Henry County schools.
“We are estimating that the 1% sales tax will generate an additional $4 to $5 million in annual revenue,” Hall wrote by email. “This is based on what we see already from the 1% Henry County receives back from the Commonwealth of Virginia of the 5.3% tax rate currently in place.”

Getting kids back to in-person learning could hinge on upgrading the ventilation systems in school buildings.

Why it matters: This is a massive undertaking in the U.S., where school maintenance has been neglected and the average school building is 44 years old. Significant stimulus funds can be funneled to installing new A/C systems, but it may not happen by fall.

How it works: Scientists now realize that poorly ventilated settings increase the likelihood of airborne transmission of COVID-19.

The concentration of viral particles in the air is usually higher indoors than outdoors, where a breeze can quickly reduce the particle concentration, per the CDC. Better indoor ventilation means it's less likely that viral particles are inhaled or contact eyes, nose and mouth, or fall onto surfaces.
While the CDC says it's not necessary, in most cases, to install new ventilation systems to re-occupy a building during the pandemic, its guidance to school districts seeking to reopen is to ensure ventilation systems operate properly.
Where it stands: 4 in 10 U.S. school districts need to update or replace the HVAC systems in at least half of their school buildings — affecting about 36,000 school buildings, according to a June 2020 Government Accountability Office report.

RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The time has finally come. Monday (March 29) will mark the first day of classes in the new $26 million Richmond Heights Upper School building.
Principal Marnisha Brown said seventh- and eighth-graders will attend classes in the building that day, and that ninth- through 12th-graders will join them April 6.
Due to the pandemic, Richmond Heights students, like many around the country, have been learning remotely from home. The new building makes their return to in-person learning even more of an event.
Ground was broken on the new two-story building in late May 2019 and the final beam put into place in March of last year. The new building is located behind the former high school building, 447 Richmond Road.
Brown said that, in mid-January, teachers were permitted to take a last walk through the old building, which was constructed 100 years ago, in 1921.
“The biggest thing about being in our former building was the history and tradition that went along with it,” Brown said. “There was a lot of nostalgia, especially for the staff members that had been there a while.
 

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The third round of federal relief money for schools is headed to Iowa. Schools across the state are set to get $775 million dollars. According to the Iowa Department of Education, 90% of the money will go to school districts. 
The rest will benefit state-level education.
"With Iowa's schools open for learning, this new round of funding will provide critical support to address current needs and plan for the future," said Ann Lebo, director of the Iowa Department of Education, in a press release.
Schools have two options when it comes to how to spend the money, as long as it's pandemic-related.
"The latest rounds, the last couple really are designed to have districts focus on students and what they can do to come out of the pandemic," said Coy Marquardt, associate executive director of the Iowa State Education Association.
One area of focus for a number of schools across the metro has been improving ventilation systems to increase airflow and filtration. While that could have long-term benefits, projects can be complicated and expensive.
 

After a lengthy and sometimes contentious discussion, members of four town and school boards decided not to decide about replacing outdated boilers in two Sandwich schools.

More specifically, the board of selectmen—which hosted the combined meeting of the school, finance, and capital improvement planning committees Thursday, March 25—deferred a decision about how to replace the 30-plus-year old boilers.

“My personal feeling is that we’re in no position to move this decision tonight,” said Selectman David J. Sampson, summing up the feelings of the selectmen and members of the finance committee.

Michael J. Miller, chairman of the selectmen agreed.

“We just don’t have enough information to defend this to the taxpayers” at the May Town Meeting, he said.

The selectmen deferred a decision—and possible presentation to taxpayers—until the fall.

What that means, however, is that the town could lose an offer from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), a state organization that helps municipalities with funding and oversight of large school building projects.

AURORA, Mo. — The Aurora School District is looking to get some improvements done.

In the upcoming April election, the Aurora School District is hoping to get at least 57.1% of the votes to help them build and renovate facilities.

Billy Redus – Aurora Superintendent, said, “What we’re trying to do is just to make students safe, secure, we’re also trying to update our facilities. We’ve got some old buildings. 1966 model, a 70’s model, trying to make those a little more conducive for learning. Students feel good about the building their going in to.”

If passed, the school district will be issued $7.7 million with no estimated increase in the tax levy. With that money one of the upgrades the school is looking to make is a tornado shelter.

“Just like any school, you shelter where the safest places are, usually that’s bathrooms, hallways, but really when it gets down to it, those do not provide the amount of safety that we would like for our kids to have.”

Along with the shelter they would also like to upgrade entry ways at Robinson School and Aurora Junior High thus improving safety.

“When we do that, we would like for them to enter the office area, you know most of the buildings built now, you have to go through the office before you can actually get into the building, with the entry ways we have now, once you enter the doors, you have access to all the building.”

Renovation projects at two Mooresville Graded School District elementary schools may be in jeopardy after construction bids came back $3.2 million higher than initially forecast due to COVID-19-related global production price increases and supply chain issues.
The MGSD had planned to spend $16 million for new HVAC systems, kitchen and cafeteria renovations and the addition of a 12,500-square-foot combination gymnasium and auditorium at both Park View and South Elementary schools.
But, bids for the project came back 20 percent higher than expected to Performance Services, the Indianapolis-based design-builder hired to head the projects.
Without new financing to fund the now $19.2 million project, the MGSD could be forced to reduce the scope of the project, officials said during a virtual Board of Education meeting March 24.
“We do not have $19.2 million that we can borrow at this point or supplement with local funds or something like that to be able to proceed at this point,” said Superintendent Stephen Mauney. “We are trying to keep all our options open.”
 

CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has appointed a new director to the Wyoming State Construction Department.

Jerry Vincent will replace Interim Director Mel Muldrow as director of the department, Gordon’s office said Thursday. Muldrow will continue to serve as administrator of the Construction Management Division.

“Jerry’s experience and leadership stood out amongst a strong pool of applicants for this position,” Gordon said. “His work in state general construction, as well as his expertise working with municipalities, school districts and universities, will serve him well in this critical role.”