NEW YORK: The city's 1.1 million public-school students will breathe a bit easier this school year with the addition of more than 17,000 classroom seats, Mayor Bloomberg announced. In one of the largest single-year unveilings of new school space, officials are opening 15 new school buildings for the opening of the new semester next Wednesday -- along with three new school annexes and eight new leased sites.

The new digs include the costliest school-construction project in the city's history -- a mammoth, 280,000-square-foot, four-school site known as the Mott Haven Educational Campus. The college-like property features multiple gyms and science labs, an Astroturf football field, several cafeterias and a 600-seat auditorium to be shared by all four schools.
"This used to be an abandoned rail yard with all sorts of issues and now it's the most beautiful building you can imagine," said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who joined Bloomberg at Mott Haven for the unveiling. "It transforms not just the academic and school community but the entire community here in the South Bronx."

While city officials approved the project back in 2004 at an initial cost of $129 million, the final estimated price has since ballooned to nearly $250 million. Officials said that's because the construction contract that went out for $160 million in 2006 didn't include "soft" costs such as furniture and equipment, construction supervision, inspections and design costs. The city also spent an additional $30 million making sure the soil beneath the buildings -- on which sat industrial shops as well as the rail yard -- was toxin-free.

MICHIGAN: The Flint school district will apply for a Qualified School Construction Bond worth $15 million after the board of education authorized the move. The funds would be repaid over three years using revenues from the sinking fund millage that voters approved last month. The bonds have spending restrictions similar to sinking funds, limiting usage to building and site repairs and improvements.
District Chief Financial Officer Andrea Derricks said Qualified School Construction Bonds, which are subsidized by federal stimulus funds, were distributed during the last school year. Some districts didn't spend all the money they were allocated before a July 30 deadline, resulting in about $90 million in remaining funds, according to Derricks. "They're considering reopening that process and reallocating that $90 million," Derricks said. She said the bond would allow more immediate usage of sinking fund money the district is set to receive in the coming years. "We would get $15 million within six months to hit the buildings hard and fast," she said. Derricks said the first expenditures would go toward energy efficiency improvements that would save the district more money.

WEST VIRGINIA: A state lawmaker is asking Cabell County Schools Superintendent William Smith to suspend the removal of swing sets from all elementary school playgrounds until he can bring involved parties to the table. Swings are scheduled to be removed from the 17 schools that have them by late December because of recent lawsuits and costs associated with meeting national standards for playground safety.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission sets playground safety guidelines. The current guidelines for swings require a protective layer of sand, pea gravel, wood mulch, wood chips or recycled rubber that equals twice the height of the swing in each direction. That means if a swing is 7 feet long, a layer of ground material is required 14 feet in front and 14 feet in the back. The safety standards also call for a depth of at least 9 inches.
Cabell County uses wood mulch on its playgrounds, but it is biodegradable and washes away when it rains, said Tim Stewart, safety manager for Cabell County Schools. That makes it difficult to comply with national safety standards, he said. The only other viable alternative is recycled rubber, but it has raised toxicity questions among parents across the country and is more expensive than wood mulch, Stewart said. He estimates it would cost about $8,000 to cover the ground around each of the 36 swing sets. That's a total of $288,000, a cost that would have to be repeated at least every seven years, he said.

MARYLAND: Summer may be over, but students at Sidwell Friends Lower School in Bethesda will be still playing, and learning, using the power of the sun. The school teamed with Common Cents Solar to install 120 solar panels on the roof of the gymnasium funded entirely by $5,000 "solar bonds" bought by 25 shareholders, mainly parents and community members.
The bond program creates a new approach to financing large-scale solar installations by taking the burden of cost away from the school, said Kirk Renaud, general manger of Common Cents Solar, a Bethesda nonprofit co-op that promotes solar initiatives through community collaboration and education.

Solar installations help save money for private and public schools. The system will cover half of the gym's energy needs and save the school $4,000 annually in electricity costs, Renaud said. Sidwell Friends had an electric bill of about $450,000 last school year for all campuses. Solar panels save the Montgomery County Public School system about $30,000 annually because unused electricity generated by rooftop panels receives a credit from Pepco that is taken off the bill. In fiscal 2010, the school system spent about $27 million to power its more than 200 buildings, spokesman Dana Tofig said in an email.

Eight Montgomery County Public Schools have rooftop solar panel systems that are used to save money and create clean energy, said Sean Gallagher, assistant director in the school system's department of facilities management. Schools pay to use solar electricity generated by panels installed by SunEdison solar company, which is based out of Beltsville. Solar panels are installed based on the size and age of the building's roof, Gallagher said.
About 500 solar panels will be installed on the roof of the upgraded Carderock Springs Elementary School in Bethesda this fall, Gallagher said. Not all modernized schools are able to get solar panels because stormwater management laws may require a vegetated roof to be installed instead. Additionally, eight other county schools have one or two solar panels on their roof paid for by grants or fundraising efforts, and are used primarily to demonstrate the technology to students, Gallagher said.

The $200,000 system at Sidwell Friends was purchased by a group of shareholders who will make their money back over a 10-year period using funds the school would normally pay to Pepco in their electric bill, said Michael Saxenian, assistant head of Sidwell Friends School, a private school with campuses in Bethesda and Washington, D.C. "We're very excited not just for the potential to reduce our environmental footprint but also to demonstrate a model that might help others do the same," Saxenian said. The shareholders should make a 3 percent return on their investment, Renaud said. Several people bought more then one bond, and the solar panels should be operational next week.

Solar panels provide a tangible way to teach the concept of harnessing energy to young children, said Sidwell Friends science teacher Sam Francis. Students at the Lower School will be able to view the energy production of their solar panels using monitors installed inside the school, and Francis plans to incorporate it into the science curriculum. In addition to the economic and environmental gains, the solar installation is also a way to bringing the community together to make a difference, said Ketch Ryan, sewing teacher at Sidwell Friends Lower School and co-founder of Common Cents Solar, who spearheaded the collaboration.