MINNESOTA: Legislation that would revamp the ways Minnesota charter schools can buy or construct buildings was approved by the Senate. A proposal introduced by Sen. Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury, passed on a 51-15 vote, she said. State law prohibits charter schools from using state money to buy buildings, but that would change for schools that qualify under a new application process proposed by Saltzman. The bill attempts to close loopholes that she and others say have led to abuses of state money that charter schools get to help pay their rent. Some schools have formed and paid rent to private, nonprofit companies that own school buildings, and critics say some of the projects have been financed with expensive junk bonds and received too little public oversight.

Among other changes, the legislation would create a public authority to decide which charter schools are on stable enough financial and academic footing to build or buy with state funding. It would also create a special state account to enhance the schools' credit, helping those that qualified to borrow money for building projects at lower interest rates.
The bill now goes to the House, where several DFL legislators -- including Rep. Mindy Greiling, who chairs the K-12 Education Finance Committee -- have said they don't support it.

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, S. DAKOTA: Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced that savings in the Indian Affairs’ American Recovery and Reinvestment Act construction projects will be used to start four additional high-priority school projects in Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota.
Favorable pricing and aggressive management of the Recovery Act large construction projects have resulted in savings of $33 million, or 11 percent of Indian Affairs’ construction allocation under the Recovery Act. Indian Affairs will use these savings to undertake the four school construction projects, putting more people to work in ways that will also make critical enhancements benefitting students and Indian Country communities.

“The Recovery Act has given us a great opportunity to meet some of our longstanding infrastructure challenges in Indian Country, including repairing and replacing schools. We’re thrilled to be able to fund these four additional projects that will improve the learning environments for additional Native American school children, while also creating additional jobs,” said Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk.

The additional projects include: Kaibeto School Replacement Project (Phase 2) in Arizona (Navajo): The original ARRA project list funded the first phase of the Kaibeto School Replacement project. Due to the cost savings on the Rough Rock school replacement project, the entire Kaibeto School project can now be completed, providing a new K-8 school for 276 academic and 45 residential students.
St. Francis Indian School gymnasium construction project in South Dakota: This project will provide a high school gym and kitchen facilities that were not included in the original replacement school project (completed previously with non-Recovery Act funds).
Santa Fe Indian School gymnasium construction project in New Mexico: This project represents completion of the gymnasium /wellness center at Santa Fe Indian School. Phase 1 was funded by the State of New Mexico to complete the exterior of the building. This project supports the completion of the interior and makes the facility functional.
Shonto Boarding School gymnasium construction project in Arizona (Navajo): This project involves the repair and replacement of a snow-damaged and currently unusable gymnasium.

MARYLAND: When the Maryland Department of Legislative Services outlined the expected fiscal impact of the High Performance Buildings Act of 2008, which requires that all new public school construction using State funds meet or exceed the criteria for the LEED Silver rating, it found that the extra cost associated with LEED Silver compliance ranged from two to five percent and estimated that the new mandate would increase the cost of new school construction by two percent.This is a relatively small increase, but it is not insignificant. Five percent of a $15 million school project is an additional three quarters of a million dollars out of a school board's capital budget. In addition, there exists anecdotal evidence that outside major metropolitan areas, the cost premium may be much higher.

In accordance with the High Performance Buildings Act of 2008, Maryland now requires compliance with the LEED Silver standard for all new public school construction projects for which the Request for Proposal process for the engagement of an Architectural and Engineering consultant began after July 1, 2009. Until 2014, the State will pay half the additional cost of meeting the LEED Silver standard. After that, the school boards will incur the entire expense.

Because the State does not have enough money appropriated to meet the construction needs identified by its school systems, many proposed new construction and renovation projects are deferred each year. The extra cost of LEED compliance will necessarily be felt in terms of the reduced number of projects being undertaken. The actual additional cost remains to be seen, but as the Interagency Committee on School Construction has pointed out, the costs of meeting these standards should come down as more contractors become familiar with them. The cost of green schools may well be an issue in the next few years, as school boards and green building professionals grapple with the learning curve associated with building schools green.

NATIONAL: The Treasury Department released interim guidance instructing municipal issuers how to issue four tax-credit bonds as direct-subsidy bonds, as was authorized by a jobs law enacted in March. The 14-page notice also makes clear that for purposes of determining issue price, issuers of the new direct-pay tax-credit bonds and Build America Bonds can rely on the tax-exempt bond rules, putting to rest some of the concern surrounding the issue. Several bond attorneys had assumed the tax-exempt bond rules should apply to BABs, but the notice marks the first explicit Treasury guidance clarifying that point.

The interim guidance outlines how issuers of qualified school construction bonds, qualified zone academy bonds, qualified energy conservation bonds, and new clean renewable energy bonds can take advantage of the new direct subsidy payment mode. Under the new law, issuers of QCSBs and QZABs can have roughly 100% of their interest costs subsidized by direct payments from the federal government. The payments are to be determined by the lesser of the actual interest rate of the bonds or the daily credit rate for municipal tax-credit bonds set by the Treasury. Issuers of QECBs and new CREBs can receive subsidy payments equal to 70% of their interest costs or the Treasury rate, whichever is lower.
Issuers of all four of the direct-pay tax-credit bonds can apply for their subsidy payments in a similar fashion to the existing payment system for BABs, the Treasury said. The notice states that the applicable credit rate will be determined on the first day for which there is a binding, written contract for the sale or exchange of the bond. The notice also states that a special statutory premium restriction for BABs also applies to direct-pay tax-credit bonds. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that authorized BABs stated they could not be sold at more than a de minimis amount of premium, which is defined as 1/4 of 1% of the stated redemption price at maturity for the bond, multiplied by whichever comes first: the number of complete years to the maturity date for the bonds or the first optional redemption date for the bond. The premium limit was put in place to ensure that issuers do not artificially inflate the interest rates of their BABs to obtain larger subsidy payments.

The federal government will begin making payments on the bonds starting with interest payments due on Sept. 1, according to the notice. In addition, the IRS will be prepared by July 12 to process revised Forms 8038-CP, which issuers must file each time they request a payment. Issuers of fixed-rate bonds will have to file their 8038-CPs at least 45, but not more than 90 days, before their interest payment date. The subsidy payment will be made on the interest payment date.
Issuers of variable-rate bonds will have to file their 8038-CPs on a quarterly basis and will be reimbursed for interest paid during that time. They will have to file the form at least 45 days after the last interest payment date during the quarter. An issuer will have to submit to the IRS an information form, 8038-TC, at least 30 days before they plan on filing their first payment request form. The IRS will be prepared to process these forms by June 25 and they will be available on the IRS website, the Treasury said.

TEXAS: The $2.2 million Alice and Erle Nye Family Environmental Science Center opened this school year on a wooded lot, about four miles from the main campus in Lakewood.
The center has three science labs, a large meeting room and a retention pond. But the bonus is the adjacent 43 acres of untouched urban forest owned by the city along White Rock Creek. There, students can explore the flood plain and follow up with lessons and experiments inside the science labs.

But it's more than that. The building itself is a lesson in green construction. It was designed to meet LEED silver certification – meaning construction materials came from within 500 miles; furniture, carpet and other features were made from recycled materials; and rain is captured to irrigate the campus, among a host of other requirements.

NEW YORK: A ongoing $1.3 billion renovation project for all schools in the Buffalo Public School system includes a major investment in security. The renovation project, which is divided into five phases, completed phase three in September, and is currently in the process of renovating 10 schools.
Included in the renovations are the addition of video surveillance and access control systems to monitor activity inside and outside of buildings. The video surveillance system is designed to alert staff of incidents and make it easy to locate and review video footage. It is also tied in with other security systems. “When the burglar system is activated when the building is shut down the school district has it set up so if an alarm goes off or motion-detector is tripped, the cameras turn and point towards the intrusion and immediately start recording,” said David Angello, account executive for building efficiency with Johnson Controls, the company designing and leading this project.

In addition to video surveillance, the school is also in the process of adding an access control system, said Angello. While the card readers are currently limited to the main doors and teacher rooms and are primarily used by staff and faculty, Williams said he has bigger plans for the system. He predicts in the next two years, students will be issued a single smart card that can be used to enter the building, verify attendance in class, track cafeteria purchases and even tie in with bus transportation. He also hopes to issue cards to regular visitors at the school, primarily parents, allowing them access to certain areas of the school without having to go through regular visitor management procedures.

But getting all these systems on line has had its challenges. Williams said one of main lessons he’s learned through this process is the difficulty of getting people to change the way they think and utilize the security systems. When the system was first being installed, he said there was some blow back from teachers concerned the administration was trying to monitor their activities. “That’s not the case,” said Williams. “We are rewriting some of our policies dealing with privacy and how we use the video. It’s forcing us at the central office to do these things to make sure everything is done legally and ensure video evidence can be used in a hearing.”

NATIONAL : This year's best sustainable buildings include an elementary school, two universities and a New Orleans home designed for Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation, according to the American Institute of Architects. Each year, the AIA picks 10 buildings that show how design can reduce environmental impacts by reusing materials, connecting to public transit, conserving water and energy and improving indoor air quality.

One winner is the new Manassas Park Elementary School in Virginia, completed last April. AIA says it offers " intimate views of the neighboring mixed oak forest, while elementary classrooms face shady moss- and fern-covered learning courtyards." It says the school has signs everywhere to teach students about sustainability.
Also among the top 10 is Yale University's Kroon Hall, the new home for the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, completed in January 2009, and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), completed in Sept. 2009. Saudi Arabai's King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, completed in Sept. 2009, was also selected as a winner.

CALIFORNIA: As the school district battles a multimillion-dollar deficit, partial relief of the fiscal woes may be sitting under officials’ feet. The San Francisco Unified School District is flush with buildings and recreational space, and it could share the facilities with the community while making extra money, according to a study out of UC Berkeley. The report detailed how underutilized San Francisco’s school facilities are, even while classes are in session.

San Francisco has more than 200 facilities and more than 9 million square feet of space across The City. But declining enrollment — now estimated at 55,000 — frees up more space for the community to use, according to the report. Currently, there are 134 schools and 127 acres of outdoor space immediately available for community use, according to a report titled “San Francisco’s Public School Facilities as Public Assets.” While the school district is shelling out more than $126 million on building expenses, including maintenance and upgrades, it’s recouping less than 1 percent of that by renting out facilities to the community, said Jeff Vincent, deputy director of the Center For Cities and Schools, which authored the report. The report suggested there be a fee structure in which private companies wanting to use facilities would be charged more than other outside groups that would use the facilities for programs that benefit students, such as for sports or tutoring groups. On average, the district issues 1,200 facility-use permits annually, with 78 percent of those for private entities, Vincent said. “I do think that they could charge less to nonprofits providing services to students while at the same time getting more revenue from facilities use, and that happens from shifting the cost to more private-type users,” Vincent said.

As the district struggles with a $113 million budget deficit, school board members began looking at possible ways to generate new money, including renting out parking lots, buildings and fields. Hydra Mendoza, vice president of the Board of Education, said the district needs to start proactively soliciting its facilities to make money. “I think, as a board, we are absolutely hoping it will generate some income,” Mendoza said. But it’s not just about making money, she said. There are plenty of tightly packed neighborhoods, such as the Mission district, where park space is scarce and community centers are in high demand. Opening up school grounds to benefit families only makes sense, Mendoza said.

NATIONAL: The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), a national green schools organization has released the Operations Report Card (ORC), a new, low-cost, online tool that benchmarks current performance, analyses existing conditions and recommends green and healthy improvements for existing school buildings.

This new program allows both high- and low-performance schools to benchmark their current performance and receive suggestions for improvement in five categories: energy efficiency, thermal comfort, visual comfort, acoustics, and indoor air quality. The program had six pilot school participants over the last year, including one from Los Angeles Unified School District. “The CHPS ORC has been a tremendous tool to verify data,” said Lucy Padilla of LAUSD. “The ORC gives the design management team the opportunity to evaluate specific features in classrooms and workspaces to make a better environment for our students, teachers and staff.”

Development of the ORC was funded by a grant from the California Energy Commission. "The California Energy Commission is excited to see the launch of this important new tool for schools. Benchmarking current performance and pursuing relevant improvements are important first steps in improving efficiency, lowering utility bills, and providing a better environment for students,” said Commissioner Anthony Eggert. “The CEC is proud to have sponsored the development of the Operations Report Card, and we look forward to its adoption,” he continued.
The ORC combines facilities data, system and classroom measurements and occupant surveys to generate report card scores and recommended improvements. The cost for schools to participate in the Operations Report Card program ranges from $500 to $900 per school, depending on the number of schools that a district enrolls. It costs $900 for an individual school to participate. Recognition will be available for two classes of participants: high performers and high improvers. The program formally recognizes schools that make noticeable gains towards high performance, even if they start off lower on the spectrum.

FLORIDA: Orange County public-school managers are being criticized for sloppy and haphazard control over millions of dollars' worth of routine construction and maintenance projects on the 180 campuses that make up the nation's 10th-largest school district. The district has had no formal system of checks and balances over how contractors for smaller construction and maintenance projects file estimates, charge for work or get paid. The lack of such a system has meant that at least one contractor has been able to charge whatever he deemed appropriate without an initial district review of those costs.

The criticism comes from a highly contentious in-house audit that details the school district's lack of accountability. It's not clear how deep the problems go because the review covers only one year. The audit itself has caused bad blood among school-district managers and administrators, as disagreements over the findings delayed the release from the fall of 2009 to March 15 and led to the transfer of one auditor to a different department. Superintendent Ronald Blocker said he's troubled by the results and may order a more thorough outside audit. He said he'll talk with supervisors to see what action needs to be taken.

Auditors told the Orlando Sentinel that their findings raise troubling questions about the practices in one of the nation's largest school-construction and maintenance programs: Did the district pay for work that should have been done for free? Did the district pay too much for some of these jobs? Who, they ask, was minding the money?

CALIFORNIA: Manteca Unified is doing its best to conserve on gas and electrical power. In the last six months, the district has saved more than $486,000 thanks in part to the energy conservation and management program – Energy Education, named 2009 and 2010 Energy Star Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Agency – headed by Kimberly Wright and Victoria Brunn, teachers turned Energy Education specialists.
The recorded savings occurred this school year, from July through December. Wright and Brunn have helped build a customized and sustainable energy conservation program that reduces consumption of electricity, natural gas and water via changes in organizational and human behavior. During the Thanksgiving break, for example, their efforts were responsible for a district-wide shutdown of power that week, resulting in big savings. MUSD also dimmed power during the winter break, a February week, and spring break. “We’re getting ready for the big one in summer,” Brunn said.

District officials are thrilled with the energy conservation efforts. “I’m gratified by the success we have to date,” Superintendent Jason Messer. “Our partnership with Energy Education has led to a dramatic change in how MUSD view energy consumption. “While we believed we were doing a pretty good job of saving energy before, this program has taken us to new levels.” The savings also comes as big boost during these financially difficult times. “The dollars we’ve saved in just the first few months is a significant amount,” Messer added. “This is money we won’t have to cut from our budget.”

In tracking energy consumption – included was electricity, natural gas, water and sewer – Wright and Brunn relied on the third-party energy-accounting software. This software compared energy use to a baseline period while calculating the amount of power it would have consumed without the implementation of conservation and management practices. The local energy specialists indicated that, by tracking and analyzing, the district and Energy Education has been able to identify and correct energy consumption in fast and timely manner

NATIONAL: Solar power is not a new idea, it gained momentum during the energy crisis of the 1970s, which led to tax incentives for solar power. Once fuel prices stabilized, however, tax incentives disappeared. But now, with an uncertain economy, rising fuel prices and deep cuts to education, solar power once again holds attractive benefits for school districts.

Athenian School in Danville, CA has 1,300 solar panels that supply 50 percent of the school’s power needs. The California Solar Initiative covered one-third of the installation cost, Oxenburgh said, and the school partnered with a solar installation company to construct the system. California-based Tioga Energy owns the installation, which sits on the Athenian School’s property, and Tioga Energy recoups its investment by selling power directly to the school in what is known as a power purchase agreement (PPA). State incentives and tax credits help immensely in a solar power installation, Oxenburgh said, because the actual systems are very expensive, said Bob Oxenburgh, Athenian’s director of facilities.

California’s Lafayette School District has new solar systems at four schools under projects developed through two separate PPAs with Tioga Energy and Solar Monkey. Burton Valley Elementary School and Stanley Middle School in California’s Lafayette School District each installed 131-kilowatt solar power systems, which supply enough clean energy to reduce the schools’ energy bills by up to 60 percent. All four rooftop installations combined will reduce the amount of electricity the district must purchase from its utility company by an estimated 40 to 60 percent.

California’s Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) will partner with SPG Solar and SunEdison to install solar energy systems on 21 of its facilities, including schools and administrative buildings. The solar program, which will be implemented throughout 2010, is expected to generate 6.6 million kilowatt-hours of clean renewable energy per year and save the district more than $17 million over 20 years. When the project is completed, more than 44 percent of electricity for the 21 sites should be generated by solar power. This is expected to reduce IUSD’s total energy costs by approximately 10 percent each year. Environmental Protection Agency estimates note that IUSD’s solar systems will prevent nearly 127 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere over the next 20 years—equivalent to removing 12,000 cars from California roads per year.

Five New Jersey school districts in the state’s Morris County—Boonton, Mountain Lakes, Parsippany-Troy Hills, West Morris Regional, and Morris Hills Regional—have entered into a program with Tioga Energy and SunDurance Energy, a New Jersey solar development team. Fourteen schools will have solar panels installed on their roofs, and Morris County official William Chegwidden said the participating districts will pay 35 percent less for power from the solar systems in the first year of the program than they would pay for utility-provided power. Boonton School Superintendent Christine Johnson predicted a $16,000 savings and a 36-percent reduction in energy consumption in the first year of the program. Tioga Energy and SunDurance Energy will oversee the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of the solar equipment, which will reside on the schools’ roofs. Morris County will purchase its solar-produced electricity at a fixed price through a 15-year PPA with Tioga Energy. Roughly 17 percent of the schools’ electricity requirements will come from the solar energy systems.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority launched School Power…Naturally in 2003, a $2.1 million program involving 50 schools selected to receive a solar energy and data collection system. The system is worth about $24,000, and each school contributes $1,500. In 2008, the program received an additional $1.275 million to upgrade and expand its capabilities. Each participating school has a 2-kilowatt solar power system on its roof, which is tied into classroom lessons. Participating schools also were outfitted with equipment and software that provide performance data on the solar power system.

On April 1, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., introduced the Solar Schools Act, a bill that would make it more affordable for schools to install solar power systems. Currently, government institutions, including school districts, can develop solar energy in one of two ways: through an agreement with a solar installer who maintains ownership of the panels and who can claim an investment tax credit, or by financing the purchase of the solar system through tax-exempt bonds. If school districts were able to combine both approaches, financing a solar installation through tax-exempt bonds and claiming the investment tax credit, it would make clean renewable energy much more affordable, the bill says. The Solar Schools Act would allow schools to use proceeds from tax-exempt bonds to enter into pre-paid contracts for renewable energy. Publicly owned utilities already are granted just such an exemption to enter into similar contracting agreements. The act would extend that exemption to local government entities.

CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest U.S. school system behind New York City, led issuers selling $429.7 million of Qualified School Bonds this week, the most since the program began last year. The district’s offering was about four times subscribed, according to Jean Buckley, president of Tamalpais Advisors Inc. in Sausalito, California, the financial adviser for the deal.
The dedicated “property tax pledged to the bonds from a large diversified tax base” is one reason investors might have found the bond deal attractive, said David Blair, a municipal debt analyst for Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, in an e-mail. Pimco’s Total Return Fund, with $219.7 billion in assets, is the world’s largest bond fund.

About $3 billion in so-called QSCBs have been sold nationwide, compared with about $97 billion in Build America Bonds, according to Bloomberg data. The federal government subsidizes as much as 100 percent of the interest costs on the school debt and a fixed 35 percent on Build Americas.
The school bond subsidy is paid directly to the borrower, a change that came last month when Congress passed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act. The program previously offered investors a tax credit on interest paid.

KENTUCKY: New legislation aimed at changing the way Kentucky builds and renovates its schools was signed into law, just in time for Earth Week celebrations. Senate Bill 132, which encourages “green” school buildings, will create incentives and state standards for the construction of energy-efficient schools and calls for objective, third-party assessments of school buildings. “It gets districts to look at the whole life cycle of a building early in the planning stages, and encourages green concepts that save energy and money,” said Sen, Katie Stine, R-Southgate, who sponsored the bill. It encourages, but does not mandate, the construction of energy-efficient, LEED-certified school buildings, or other energy-efficient school buildings using guidelines from programs such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star Program, she said.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council that considers energy efficiency, indoor air quality and comfort, natural light usage and the general performance of buildings.

The new legislation requires the state’s Department of Education to develop guidelines for efficient school design that put an emphasis on long-term energy and cost savings. It also establishes a trust fund for school building projects. “It sets up a structure for any grant or federal money made available for school construction,” Stine said. “If money becomes available, we’ll be well situated to receive it.” The legislation also aims to improve schools’ handicap accessibility, and displaces the current evaluation system that rates the condition of school buildings throughout the state and calls for objective, third-party analysis.

The new legislation is good news for the state, according to Kenton County School District Superintendent Tim Hanner. His district has supported the bill since it was first presented, he said. With the completion of the district’s new Turkey Foot Middle School, which is set for this summer, the Kenton County School District will have three green schools. Each boasts different energy-efficient features, such as geothermal heating and cooling, daylight and rainwater harvesting systems. Retrofitting projects have also incorporated green elements in its other schools. “These features have resulted in over a million dollars of avoided energy costs, but the whole idea is embedded in our schools and has really changed the culture of our district,” he said. “It has created a better learning environment for our students and empowered them to get involved in conservation. “Ultimately, it’s about creating a better learning environment for students.” Stine says Kenton’s green building projects, and other local districts’ energy-saving efforts here Northern Kentucky, are “shining examples” of what the bill is all about. “By incorporating these green concepts into the early planning stages of a building, energy-efficient schools don’t cost any more to build than traditional schools and they save energy and money in the long run,” Stine said.

NATIONAL: The University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and Pennsylvania State University in University Park were the top three purchasers of green power among the 54 institutions that took part in this year’s challenge. Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the College and University Green Power Challenge encourages colleges and universities to use renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas and low-impact hydropower to provide the energy to run their campuses.

The University of Pennsylvania topped the list for the fourth year in a row purchasing more than 192 million kilowatt hours of green power in 2009-10 accounting for 46 percent of its power purchases and reducing its peak electric demand by 18 percent. Penn's commitment to green power will help make possible the construction of a 12-turbine, 20-megawatt wind farm in Pennsylvania. Carnegie Mellon acquired 86.8 million kilowatt hours of green power in 2009-10, which represents three-quarters of its energy consumption. Penn State acquired 83.6 million kilowatt hours of green power in 2009-10, about 20 percent of its total energy consumption.

The Green Power Challenge also categorizes participating schools by athletic conferences and recognizes the top conference in acquiring green power. The Ivy League was the conference with the most green power purchases. Its three participating schools– University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Yale -- purchased 225 million kilowatt hours of green power. The Big Ten--Penn State, Northwestern, Ohio State and Iowa--has the second-most green power purchases: nearly 160 million kilowatt hours.

The Challenge's total annual green power usage of more than 1 billion kilowatt hours has the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 160,000 vehicles.

WEST VIRGINIA: The state's School Building Authority chose Berkeley County to build the first LEED certified school and Spring Mills Primary to be the prototype for future green school construction in the state. LEED stands for leadership in energy and environmental design and is a certification given by the US Green Building Council to buildings that are environmentally friendly.

When it’s finished, Spring Mills will look a lot like the other schools the Board of Education has completed in the past 10 years but underneath, it will be very different. Don Zepp, Berkeley County school construction manager, said Spring Mills is oriented east to west to bring heat in through the windows reducing energy use. The building will be topped with a three inch insulated white roof that will reflect the light making heating and cooling easier. The school will be heated by a geothermal heat pump and interior finishes with incorporate recycled materials. “For instance the partitions in the restrooms are sometimes made up of old computers that have been grinded up, chipped and put together in a panel,” said Manny Arvon, Berkeley County school superintendent. The school will also have a garden between two wings where children can grow vegetables. Zepp said all storm water will be contained on the site and used for watering the gardens, grass and various other things.

Spring Mills Primary is slated to open in the fall of 2011.The 64,000-square-foot building will accommodate up to 600 students in kindergarten through second grade. The cost to build the school is about $13 million, which is about 15 percent higher than normal but Arvon and Zepp expect the school to save money in the long run.

TEXAS: The Plano school district has a $300,000 mobile computer lab to connect needy families with social services and better engage parents in their children's learning. Few, if any, other school districts have created a moving classroom that specifically targets parents. The project is especially distinctive because it's funded with federal stimulus dollars set aside for low-income students. Nearly 16 percent of the district's 54,000 students are considered poor. "The primary goal is to build relationships with parents and to create pathways back to the school building," said Cathy Galloway, the district's executive director of student and family services.

The mobile lab has 13 computer stations for parents with accompanying headsets. It will be staffed by school administrators, a police officer and bilingual volunteers to help parents who struggle with Internet access or need to learn Microsoft Office. Parents will be able to access their children's grades, work on financial literacy skills or follow along with English language programs. It will stop at mobile home parks and apartment complexes around five elementary schools one or two times a week. "The trick is to engage parents in the daily business of children's education," said Bruce Hunter, the associate executive director for policy and advocacy at the American Association of School Administrators. "For kids to succeed educationally, they need to see their parents are interested and concerned.”

CHINA: Last week's earthquake in western China destroyed or left in critical condition more than two-thirds of the schools at the center of the disaster, bringing fresh fears two years after an even larger quake left thousands of students dead. The government last year launched a vast project to inspect and strengthen schools across the country, and about 70,000 of them need work to be made quake-proof, a top education official indicated last month.
But some people, including students who survived last week's quake in Yushu county, have angrily asked why schools in the remote Tibetan community hadn't been fixed already. The quake's overall death toll rose to 2,064 Tuesday.

The central government has tried to respond to the urgency to fix schools with its three-year inspection and strengthening plan, but one international quake engineering expert warned that such work could take far longer. Another quake-prone area, California, passed a law in 1933 to make schools quake-proof, and work still hasn't finished, said Tom Tobin, president-elect of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute based there.

MINNESOTA: With a big assist from the federal government, a local school district is advancing plans to build a $27 million “education center” in New Hope. Intermediate District 287, which provides special education services for 13 west metro school districts, is among the 10 Minnesota school districts that won authorization this month to receive low- or no-interest bonding authority through the federal stimulus act. District 287 says it will save roughly $7 million in interest through the special bonding authority, known as Qualified School Construction Bonds.
District officials plan to build the North Education Center at 5530 New Zealand Ave. N. in New Hope, the site of a former middle school that District 287 occupies on lease from the Robbinsdale School District. The district has a letter of intent to purchase the building and then tear it down to make way for the new 122,000-square-foot building.

Sandy Lewandowski, District 287’s superintendent, said the school board had decided to go forward with the project before the stimulus-funded bonding authority came through. However, the stimulus money sweetens the deal in a big way. "The goal we set with our school board was we did not want our current payments for this building to exceed what our lease costs would be,” she said. “That was a fairly challenging goal to set. The reality was we believed that with today’s construction costs at very attractive rates, and the fact we could get the land and do this project in the time frame we were planning, we hit that goal. “But it was within a week after the board decided to go forward that these bonds were authorized. So it made it even better. This actually will probably allow us to … come in at lower costs than what our lease costs were.” The existing building would require “extensive renovations” to meet the needs of District 287’s students, according to the district.
Another factor: The district expects lease costs to rise 5 percent per year on average. Meanwhile, the climate for new construction is favorable, the district noted, with construction bids coming in 15 percent to 20 percent lower than “traditional rates.”

CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest U.S. school system after New York City, plans to sell $290.2 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds to tap a bigger federal subsidy than offered by the Build America program. The Los Angeles issue, scheduled for April 22, would be the second-largest use of the taxable school bonds since they were created last year, together with Build America Bonds, under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program. The school obligations are part of a $449.7 million sale that will be the second-largest in a week of $5.8 billion in municipal issuance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
About $2.8 billion in so-called QSCBs have been sold nationwide, compared with more than $95 billion in Build America Bonds, according to Bloomberg data. The federal government subsidizes as much as 100 percent of interest costs on the school bonds and 35 percent on Build America Bonds.

“We’re early adopters,” said Timothy Rosnick, controller of the school district, which sold the largest QSCB issue, $318.8 million, in October. “The tax subsidy is much higher under QSCBs than BABs, our net cost is much cheaper, so that’s why we use them.” The school bond subsidy is paid directly to the issuer, a change that came last month when Congress passed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act. The program previously offered investors a tax credit on interest paid.

Los Angeles Unified will sell $290.2 million in school bonds, its entire allotment from the federal government, and $159.5 million in tax-exempt debt, according to a preliminary offering document. The QSCBs will mature in 2027 and the tax- exempt obligations will be due in less than 10 years, Rosnick said. Proceeds will be used for construction and remodeling of schools, earthquake resistance and other purposes. The bonds are backed by voter-approved property tax revenue. “The tax-credit structure has only cobbled together a slim following in the market, it’s a thinly traded product compared to BABs,” said Philip Villaluz, a New York-based municipal analyst at Advisors Asset Management Inc. of Monument, Colorado. “They might have to price it attractively to the market, given the recent issues the city has faced.”

HAWAII: The state's Education Department will soon have the authority to impose impact fees on all West Hawai'i housing developments. The Board of Education votedin favor of implementing the West Hawaii School Impact Fee District. The plan will go into effect in July. Passed by the 2007 Legislature, the school impact fee will require West Hawai'i housing developers to pay a school construction fee of $3,359 per single family unit and $1,796 per multifamily dwelling, as well as a land donation or fee in lieu of land, which will be determined by the land's appraisal value. Impact fees would be charged to all new single-family and multifamily housing in the proposed district, which includes areas served by Waimea Elementary, Waikoloa Elementary, Kona-waena Elementary and all Kealakehe complex schools.

MICHIGAN: St. Johns Public Schools has received some very welcome news. The district has been approved for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money. The federal government will pay the interest on $15 million of the bond repayment, assuming the May 4 bond proposal is approved by the voters. "This $15 million is 23 percent of the total bond proposal," said Roy Piggott, St. Johns financial director. "The interest rate on this $15 million will be zero or near zero percent for us." The interest cost on this $15 million is that low because the federal government will fund it. The remaining $49 million being requested also qualifies for federal assistance, though through a different program -- Build America Bonds. Under that program, the federal government covers up to 35 percent of the interest. Both programs are part of the Qualified School Construction Bonds program.
There are no strings attached to the Federal assistance but the ARRA assistance must be accepted by Sept. 30. That means the May 4 bond request must be approved by the voters and the bonds must be sold before that date.

The savings the district will realize from these two funding sources will save the district 45 percent of the financing costs in the current bond proposal, according to Piggott. The preliminary figures sent to treasury included $92 million in interest. The $41 million in savings brings that figure down to $51 million, and it could go lower yet. "This could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Piggott. He explained that typically when construction costs are low, interest rates are high and when interest rates are low, construction costs are high. Currently, construction companies need work, so construction costs are low, and interest rates are also very low. "It's almost a perfect storm, the perfect time to go to the market for bonds and complete a construction project. It is hard to imagine when in the future we'd get as much for our tax dollars as we can right now," said Piggott."And it's an opportunity to boost the local economy," said Tennant.

NEW YORK: The Energy Star label, the federal government’s nod of approval for energy-efficient products, usually calls to mind household appliances like refrigerators and air-conditioners. But at Ithaca College, a campus known for its embrace of all things sustainable, two dormitories proudly wear the Energy Star label, too.
The residence halls, Clarke and Hood, feature six-way zoned heating, energy-efficient boilers, digitally controlled heating systems and ample weather-stripping. They also benefit from a brigade of students on campus, known as eco-reps, who cajole and exhort their peers to reduce their carbon footprints. Among their duties is the posting of fliers inside bathroom stalls, called installments. A recent missive urged students to “beware of the phantom load,” energy used by appliances that are turned off but still plugged in. “Instead of someone talking at you, it’s someone your own age who says, ‘This is a good idea,’ ” said Becky Webster, a junior from Troy and one of a half-dozen eco-reps on campus.
Ithaca is one of only two colleges in New York State with dormitories that have earned the Energy Star label so far; the other is Hamilton College. And administrators here say they have submitted an application for a third dormitory whose energy use has recently met the Energy Star requirements for buildings.

While the Environmental Protection Agency is widely known for its Energy Star program for appliances, the agency has rated commercial buildings — perhaps less visibly — for more than a decade. Dormitories are among 22 building categories eligible for an Energy Star label, along with bank branches, courthouses, hospitals, hotels, petroleum refineries and schools. Dormitories joined the program in 2006; so far, more than 50 residence halls nationwide have won Energy Star approval, out of more than 9,800 buildings and plants. The ratings system for buildings works differently from appliances. Using 12 months of utility bills, colleges enter information into the E.P.A.’s Web site about a dormitory’s energy consumption. The computer program takes into account factors like building size, computer use local climate and occupancy and then compares the energy use with similar buildings nationwide. A score of 75 or higher, on a scale of 1 to 100, means the dormitory is Energy Star eligible, and the agency system invites the college to apply for the label. A professional engineer must also perform an audit of the building, at the institution’s expense.

The Energy Star label for buildings is intended to raise awareness and prompt colleges to set energy goals. “Colleges and universities spend almost $2 billion a year on energy,” said Maura Beard, a spokeswoman for the Energy Star program. “A lot of people think the solution lies in the latest gizmo or newest technology. But there are things as simple as, who’s paying attention to the lights being on all night? The idea is extricating this waste.”

Ithaca College’s quest for green dormitories is part of a broader agenda to be environmentally sensitive, one of the hottest social causes on campuses. Set in the Finger Lakes in a college town that likes to call itself “10 square miles surrounded by reality,” the campus has a new platinum certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, known as LEED, for a business school building, the highest available, from the United States Green Building Council, an environmental group. A second new building is expected to earn a platinum rating shortly. The college also has an active composting program, an environmentally themed residence hall and a new organic garden. And administrators are considering a major in sustainability. The Energy Star labels for dormitories, which come with a plaque, are one way for college administrators to get recognition for investing in improvements that are not necessarily visible. At Ithaca, for instance, the college has spent $1.3 million in the last decade on dormitories and academic buildings to upgrade boilers, insulate attics and create a digitally controlled heating system that allows for automatic thermostat adjustments.

One of the keys to the Energy Star label for dormitories is submetering. While every dormitory at Ithaca College is individually metered for electricity, only about 15 percent have submeters for natural gas. The parsing of energy use is crucial because without information from both meters, a dormitory cannot compete for an Energy Star label.

With Ithaca College’s commitment to instituting practices that do not have a negative impact on the global climate, more investments are needed. Some of the money will come from energy savings that the college has already achieved. Mr. Couture estimated that the college had saved about a half-million dollars annually in the last five years as a result of the building improvements.

NEW JERSEY: School construction projects in New Jersey will soon begin to receive funding following approval for the sale of $500 million in new bonds by the directors of the state Economic Development Authority, Gov. Chris Christie announced. The state Schools Development Authority (SDA) will work with the state Department of Education to determine which school construction and improvement projects will receive funding from the bond sale, the governor said.

The SDA currently has a portfolio of 1,054 ongoing projects in various developmental phases, another 12 projects are under construction and 134 other projects are addressing health-and-safety issues across the state. The SDA covers at least 40 percent of costs for projects in non-Abbott districts (the state‘s 31 poorest districts), addressing health and safety issues, student overcrowding and other critical needs. The school districts fund the remainder.
"It is important for these school projects to move forward with state financial support," Christie said. "My administration is committed to providing exemplary educational facilities for our students in all school districts across New Jersey. The sale of these bonds is a fiscally responsible way to continue to address the school-construction needs of New Jersey's public schools."
SDA Chief Executive Officer Marc D. Larkins added, "Today's action by the EDA Board will allow the SDA to continue its core mission of building and improving educational facilities. We are committed to ensuring the efficient use of tax dollars toward these projects, which will create much needed jobs and assist school districts in need during this difficult financial period."

The state will sell taxable Build America Bonds for the school construction program, receiving a federal subsidy equal to 35 percent of interest payments. The construction program has provided more than 3,000 grants totaling more than $2.3 billion. Including contributions from local school districts, these grants have leveraged projects estimated to total of $7.4 billion. Since its 2001 inception, the state's school construction program has completed 618 projects. In addition to building 54 new schools, the program has helped fund 44 additions, renovations and/or rehabilitations, and more than 500 other projects.

INDIANA: Avon Middle School North has officially set the standard for environmentally friendly school buildings statewide. A celebration was held at the school, after it was the first K-12 building in the state to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. LEED is a globally recognized green building certification system used by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Jim Thompson, president of Gibraltar Design, the lead architectural firm to work on the school, said features that helped with LEED certification include an energy-efficient heating and cooling system, lower wattage lighting and the use of recycled construction materials in the gypsum wallboard and carpeting. The $33.5 million, 220,000-square-foot middle school opened last fall to students.

TEXAS: The half-billion-dollar bond proposal Northside Independent School District will place before voters May 8 marks a divergence for San Antonio's largest and fastest growing district. For the first time in a long time, the majority of the bond — 51 percent — will go to existing facilities instead of new schools. “This time, the emphasis is on refurbishing,” district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. “That's a departure for us.” Still, growth is the theme. Many of those existing facilities are getting additions to take the place of portable structures serving as classrooms

When John Folks became superintendent eight years ago, he inherited a district in the throes of growing pains. Schools were bursting at the seams, with an army of new students filling classrooms each year. Folks charted a course that included a steady stream of bond issues to build new schools, renovate and update old ones and replace portables with classrooms. Under his leadership, Northside has opened a mind-boggling 30 schools in the past eight years and will open five more this summer. Finally, Folks said, he feels the district is almost through playing catch-up.

NEW YORK: Classes were canceled at Mount Vernon High School after a 100-foot section of wall in the auditorium collapsed around 4:30 p.m. Monday. The noisy avalanche exposed steel beams and wires and damaged three nearby classrooms used for woodworking, television production and R.O.T.C. meetings. The nearest students were on a practice field on the other side of the building, and no one was injured, district officials said. State and district officials immediately closed the 1,400-student high school, built in 1963, to determine whether it was structurally stable and to test for possible asbestos contamination.

W. L. Sawyer, the superintendent, said that preliminary investigation indicated the problem was limited to the collapsed wall and that classes would resume. Inspectors found that cinderblocks were not properly anchored to steel beams during the construction of that part of the wall, but that the rest of the building was safe. Officials said they would keep the area around the collapsed wall cordoned off.

Some students and nearby residents complained that the high school had been poorly maintained. Dr. Sawyer acknowledged that the district had struggled to maintain its buildings for many years because of budget problems. But, he said, other than a leaky roof, he knew of no structural problems at the high school. “This had nothing to do with maintenance,” he said. He also said there was no indication that the heavy rain played a role in the collapse.
State education officials said that Mount Vernon High School had not been cited previously for any deficiencies in building conditions and had a valid certificate of occupancy. A major wall collapse at a school in this area in 1989 killed seven children when a tornado tore through a cafeteria at East Coldenham Elementary School in the Valley Central School District in Orange County.

MINNESOTA: YME is getting a big slice of the stimulus pie. According to a source in the Minnesota Department of Education, the state of Minnesota was allocated $81.57 million dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for educational construction projects. YME Superintendent Al Stoeckman was notified that $10,745,102 of those stimulus dollars have been allocated for YME.
The money will come to YME through Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB). QZAB bonds are low interest or no interest bonds. The bonds can be used to cover the costs of a variety of projects. Other factors to qualify for QZAB bonds include geographic location, project readiness, and the district’s resource level. The bonds will help finance the $14 million dollar health and safety project.

Stoeckman had applied for the stimulus funding several months ago and had hoped to have $1 to $2 million allocated. “This is more than we expected, we still have to find out how this will affect the project.” “There is a good chance these bonds will be no interest bonds that will save approximately $8,000,000 in interest over the life of the bonds."

AUSTRALIA: Queensland state schools are on their way to saving more than 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year with the installation of the 750th solar power panel completed at Yeronga State High School. Premier Anna Bligh said this was a significant milestone in the Queensland Government's $60 million Solar and Energy Efficiency in State Schools program. "Our program is on track to be completed by June 2011, with the installation of solar power panels at 180 schools being brought forward to be completed by the end of this financial year. "We've been working in partnership with the Federal Government's National Solar Schools Program to maximise the delivery of the solar panels in Queensland state schools. When our program is completed next year, it's expected our schools will save more than 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year through the use of solar power and energy-efficient lighting. Harnessing the sun's energy to reduce our use of carbon-based electricity is the bright thing to do."

Education Minister Geoff Wilson said every school was also receiving an IT energy monitoring system so staff and students could monitor how much energy their new solar panels and energy efficient lighting were saving. "Not only does this save energy, but it's also a great learning tool for teachers and students to see the practical ways we can help to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "These are valuable lessons for our students who will be charged with protecting our Queensland lifestyle and environment in the future. Students will learn more about how using this energy-efficient technology impacts on our environment through specific curriculum materials that have been developed. A package of teaching materials on energy efficiency has been developed for Year 7 students. Schools will have the opportunity to begin using this material during Term 2 this year." Premier Bligh added the program was also supporting and creating jobs. "Over its three years, this program will generate more than 450 jobs for the solar, electrical and information technology sectors," she said.

ILLINOIS: On the roof of Chicago's Burr Elementary School, about 75 feet above ground, a new wind turbine spins, and solar panels soak up the sun. Inside, Doug Snower, a wind energy expert, points out a wall-mounted monitoring station that teaches about sustainable energy by letting students see how much power comes in and think about creative ways to use it, such as firing up their iPods or heating a fish tank. "We're really excited to have this. It's going to be a great learning resource for the children," said Vinita Scott, principal of Burr, a K-8 school in the Bucktown neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

Snower and his partners in a startup wind energy company worked with Scott on the project, paid for through a grant. It includes the first wind turbine in the Chicago Public Schools system and one of the first on a school in the Chicago area. While a number of environmental pioneers have put wind turbines and solar panels on their homes to reduce their electric bills, the Burr project is more about having children grow up with sustainable technologies, Snower said. Today's elementary school children will learn that the wind turbine and solar panels produce electricity and feed it, via wires, to a power closet next to the energy education station. They will see meters that show how many watts each device is producing and can graph the data, Snower said, then use it for science and math learning. They also can chart how weather affects the amounts of wind and solar power that can be produced in Chicago's climate.

The school's project cost less than $12,000, including installation, with the wind turbine only accounting for about $600 of that. The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora also has installed a wind turbine, and Snower's company is consulting with Highland Park High School students on a sustainable energy design. "We hope this stimulates the minds of students to create things we don't even know exist yet," Snower said. "That would be the ultimate."

NORTH CAROLINA: Wake County's environmentally green schools may be costing too much financial green for members of the school board's new ruling majority to keep in building plans. Chris Malone, chairman of the board's facilities committee, called for a financial review of Wake's green building efforts, which have led to features such as waterless urinals, natural lighting and recycled building material. Malone said these features can increase costs by as much as 5 percent and may no longer be justifiable when cash-strapped school leaders will need to ask voters in the next few years to approve a school bond referendum for hundreds of millions of dollars. "If we want a bond issue approved, we have to show voters we're saving dollars," said Malone, one of four newcomers swept into office in the fall.

But supporters of green schools said abandoning these efforts would be shortsighted. Green-school features are supposed to save money in the long haul, with lower electric and water bills because of greater efficiency. "I understand that these are hard economic times, but the costs will ultimately come back to the taxpayers," said Bae-Won Koh, chairman of the Triangle chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. "They'll have to pay more later."

Wake County voters last approved a school bond issue in 2006 for a record $970 million. Plans for a follow-up bond issue have been delayed because of the national recession. With the possibility of a bond issue going to voters in 2011 or 2012, Malone said Tuesday that it's time to spend the next few months considering the planning assumptions that will be used for the next school building program. Among the areas targeted for review by Malone are Wake's long-standing efforts to design schools to be in compliance with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The U.S. Green Building Council says LEED building standards can substantially reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. More than 1,100 schools have registered across the country for the LEED program.

Malone's call for a review occurs a week before Earth Day and at a time when global warming is a hot topic. Malone said he believes that man is causing the climate to change but thinks it uncertain whether humans are the major reason. Wake school administrators have noted that waterless urinals reduce water use by 20 percent and that designing buildings to use more natural lighting instead of electric lights can cut energy use by 20 percent to 30 percent. Doug Brinkley, past chairman of the Triangle chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, also touted how green schools can help improve student learning by ensuring good air quality. Schools can use paints that don't release as many chemicals into the air that can irritate people. "It's more than just about saving money; it's about the health of those inside," Brinkley said.

VERMONT: At a news conference at Highgate Elementary School, Sen. Bernie Sanders announced energy efficiency grants and after-school program funding for Highgate Center.
The town and elementary school received stimulus funding totaling $124,405.88 through the Sanders-authored Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants program at the U.S. Department of Energy. Sanders also secured $25,000 for summer school and after-school programs at the elementary school.

Through the block grant program, Highgate Elementary School was awarded $36,958.50 to replace parking lot lighting with more energy efficient fixtures for an expected saving of more than $3,000 per year – the school will invest the remaining funds to cover the $41,065 total project cost. The school also received $44,668.38 to replace interior lighting with more efficient replacements for an expected saving of more than $10,000 per year. Additionally, the town of Highgate Center was awarded $42,779 to make efficiency improvements to other lights around town.
“I helped write the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants program because I believe that it is absolutely imperative that we involve citizens at the grassroots level in this effort,” Sanders said. “We want and need the thinking of people at the local level as to how they can move their cities and towns forward in this area because they know the needs of their towns, schools and public buildings better than anyone else – and this program gives them the flexibility to prioritize how these federal funds should be spent.”

NORTH CAROLINA: Groundbreaking is scheduled in northern Stanly County on a new building that will allow students at a fast-growing charter school to study on a university campus, occasionally learning from university faculty. Gray Stone Day School, a charter school with about 300 students from Mecklenburg and seven other counties, is building a $7.2 million facility on 18 acres donated by Pfeiffer University in the town of Misenheimer.
Gray Stone’s building will be on university property, within walking distance of other Pfeiffer buildings. The university donated the property to the school – a gift with an estimated value of $400,000. Gray Stone currently is housed in facilities about a quarter-mile northwest of the center of Pfeiffer’s campus.

State officials say Pfeiffer’s gift of land was vital to Gray Stone. Jack Moyer, director of charter schools for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said state law prohibits charter schools from using state money to buy land or build facilities. It means charter schools must raise the money themselves or land grants and gifts. “This is really exciting and is an example of what can be done through a public-private partnership, when the focus is to provide quality education for students, rather than individual interests,” Moyer said.

Among the advantages cited by Pfeiffer and Gray Stone officials to the partnership: Gray Stone students and their families can experience life on a college campus. Pfeiffer’s students training for careers as teachers can observe high school classes and conduct student teaching. Pfeiffer students can develop tutoring and mentoring relationships with Gray Stone students. Gray Stone students can take classes in Pfeiffer classrooms under college faculty. They also can use Pfeiffer facilities, such as the library and dining hall.

OHIO: It took seven tries and a recount before the Bloom-Carroll school district won voter approval of a $26.1 million bond issue last year to build a middle school and update the high school. But when the district in Fairfield County went to sell the bonds last month, things went smoothly: Bloom-Carroll will effectively pay no interest on $15 million worth of bonds, thanks to a federal stimulus program intended to help build better schools.
The federal government will send the district a check twice a year to cover the 5.8 percent interest rate, said Travis Bigam, the district's treasurer. The district borrowed the other $11.1 million under another stimulus program in which the federal government reimburses the district for 35 percent of its interest costs on the bonds, Bigam said. Altogether, the district will pay just under 2 percent interest. He estimates that the district will save $11.3 million over 28 years. "We're getting great rates, and the investor is still getting a nice interest rate on a secure debt," Bigam said. "It's been a very good program."

It wasn't always that easy. Many districts around the country had trouble selling the stimulus bonds in 2009, said Eric Bode, chief financial officer for the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The commission authorized 52 Ohio districts to borrow $255.8 million using the bonds last year. "There's been a lot of disappointment in how fast this money has been used," Bode said last month. "It's about 20 percent nationally. We've used over 50 percent of our allocation for 2009."
That was before Congress changed the program. Until March, buyers of the Qualified School Construction Bonds received a tax credit rather than interest, Bode said. Investors were leery, and if they were willing to buy the bonds, they wanted districts to sweeten the deal with additional interest.

That's what Gahanna schools did in February when the district sold $5.7 million worth of the stimulus bonds to build an annex to the high school, said Treasurer Julio Valladares. Gahanna is paying 1.5 percent interest on top of what the federal government will cover. Still, he's happy with the deal. "You cannot borrow $5 million for (1.5)percent interest in the real world," he said. Now, as Bloom-Carroll demonstrated, eligible districts can do even better. On March 17, Congress ended the tax credit, and the government, with some limits, started making direct payments to districts to cover the interest on the bonds. The change is expected to cost an additional $4.6 billion nationally over 10 years, Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, told Reuters at the time.

"The feedback I've had is, 'Yes, this is going to be a big help,'" Bode said last week. "Not only does it improve the ease of going to market, this will make the lending cheaper." Bloom-Carroll was the first district to use the new program. The state gave 17 districts that didn't sell their 2009 bonds a deadline of April 30 to do so. That includes Grandview Heights, which is authorized to borrow $630,000 to pay for energy-efficiency improvements in its buildings. This year, Ohio districts will be eligible to sell $431 million in construction bonds under the program. Columbus schools are eligible to sell almost $39.3 million. Other large districts can sell $97.9 million, and smaller districts can apply to the state for permission to sell a total of $293.8 million. The facilities commission expects to announce details of the program on April 22, Bode said, so that districts with bond issues on the May ballot can apply to take advantage of it.

OHIO: The Cincinnati school board voted to borrow up to $22.3 million to fund upgrades to aging district buildings to make them more energy-efficient, joining a program allowed by the 2009 economic stimulus package. Under the stimulus plan, certain school districts may tap federally backed zero- or low-interest loans to pay for high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, among other features. This project is separate from the ongoing school-rebuilding effort, and will impact schools and administrative sites.
According to projections, CPS will save enough money on utility costs to pay off the debt.

NEW JERSEY: Plainfield will soon be home to the city’s first charter high school after the zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously approved a variance for the educators to set up classrooms at the Plainfield YMCA. The 120-seat Barack Obama Green Charter High School is slated to open for ninth and tenth graders at the start of the new school year. It already has approval from the state Department of Education. The school’s founders tout it as the first charter in New Jersey to implement the philosophy of the nonprofit Green Schools Initiative, which advocates a strategy including a toxin-free campus, sustainable use of resources and a ban on junk food. The school plans to reinforce its philosophy of sustainability by encouraging students to walk or take public transit and to bring their own lunches. The school will not have a cafeteria or school buses. “We’re not far from the train, and we really are encouraging the staff [to use it] as well,” said school cofounder Alisa Barnes. “Students really model their behavior on the adults they’re surrounded by.”

Barnes and co-founder Safiyah Sadiq also hope to take President Barack Obama’s message to heart, emphasizing community service. The YMCA property is not zoned for a school, but administrators and urban planner Sonyagita Chavan convinced the zoning board Wednesday that a focus on environmentally friendly development would prevent a glut of traffic from clogging the residential side streets.

GEORGIA: Three years ago, DeKalb County school officials decided Forrest Hills Elementary was too small to remain open, and neighbors say its closure has changed their community in palpable ways. Formerly active residents and many young parents have moved away. Community gatherings have grown smaller. The recession makes the impact on property values hard to determine, but many residents believe they’ve been damaged. And the sense of neighborhood renewal and momentum that the effort to better its school fostered has diminished.
As DeKalb and other cash-strapped metro school districts again eye closing schools, Forrest Hills serves as a reminder that the decision is among the most momentous a board of education can make. It affects not only the children, parents and teachers of the facility, it can ripple through the surrounding community.

ILLINOIS: Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School is a no-frills but architecturally impressive new school in the troubled Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. The new building is touted as the first all-new Catholic high school on the West Side in more than 80 years. It may look too corporate, but its businesslike image and its unrepentant sense of newness — a shock amid the tattered brick buildings around it — are both there by design, sending a message that the building marks a fresh start.

The architecture provides order amid urban chaos, as does an innovative work-study program that places students in clerical and entry-level jobs at law firms, banks, hospitals and other businesses. Both form a framework that is helping students like Larry Carr and Khadijah White to build a better life.
Here is a reminder, after years in which designers were obsessed with flashy museums and concert halls, that the social promise of architecture still matters.
"I kind of envision it as a school of the future, not any old office building," said Carr, a neatly dressed sophomore wearing a tie. "It's a professional environment," White added. They are among 160 freshmen and sophomores at the new building, which opened in January and will gradually ramp up to its full capacity of 600 students. More than 80 percent of the students come from Austin, where boarded-up houses betray a recent wave of home foreclosures. Nearly all are African-American. Yet surprisingly, more than 90 percent are not Catholic, revealing how attractive a quality, values-based education is to the area's struggling families.

Designed by Chicago architect John Ronan, Christ the King is far simpler than Ronan's award-winning Gary Comer Youth Center in the also-troubled Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side. The per-square-foot budget for the $27 million school was roughly half that of the elaborate youth center. The school still owes $13 million on its zero-interest construction loan, said the Rev. Christopher Devron, its president.

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey’s $12.5 billion school- construction program will continue under Governor Chris Christie’s administration, the chief executive officer of the authority that oversees the projects said. The future of the program, which is funded through bonds issued by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, was unclear in light of Christie’s pledge to trim the state’s debt load, which was third-highest in the nation at $36.5 billion, according to a 2009 report by Moody’s Investors Service.
“At this point in time I do feel fairly confident to say they continue to be committed to the program in some form,” Marc Larkins, who Christie named in January to head the Schools Development Authority, said at a board meeting in Trenton.

The state’s school-construction program is one of the largest in the U.S., the authority said in a financial report released this week. The program has spent $7.9 billion in borrowed funds since 2007, according to the report. The economic development authority plans to issue $900 million of school bonds next month, with $600 million to refinance existing debt and as much as $300 million for capital projects, Larkins said. Payments as part of $309 million in grants approved for 688 school projects will resume, and new agreements that have been suspended since December will be completed, Larkins said. He said he is also hoping to get funding for “a number” of new construction projects.

New Jersey lawmakers in 2000 approved the sale of $8.6 billion of bonds to finance school construction projects. The Legislature approved $3.9 billion in additional borrowing for that purpose in 2008. Since the program began New Jersey has built 59 new schools, 44 additions or renovations and 354 health and safety repairs and awarded about $3 billion in grants to cover a portion of construction costs for 1,556 locally built schools, according to the authority’s annual financial statements and a December report to the Legislature.

PENNSYLVANIA: Many downtowns are trying to get back what Lewisburg has never lost — a school.
On the eve of the Facilities Committee’s anticipated recommendation to the school board, which will weigh heavily in deciding the fate of the 83-year-old downtown high school, this is what community leaders heard from a woman who has studied heritage buildings, schools in particular, and how they matter to lifestyles and the environment.
Mindy Crawford, the executive director of Preservation Pennsylvania, told a group of 20 community leaders gathered at the Lewisburg Hotel that school districts should first consider rehabilitating a building when that would keep a school in a location where at least some of the students can walk or ride their bikes to it. If renovation will absolutely not work, she said, the second best option is to build a new school on the old site. As someone vitally interested in historic preservation, Crawford said she is still struggling with the idea that sometimes demolishing an old building is the best choice. But in terms of proximity, downtown vitality and environmental preservation (fewer car trips to and from school and again in the evening for extracurricular activities), it can be, she said. If a new location must be chosen, she said, school officials should endeavor to make it an area where as many students as possible can walk or bike to school. That means considering sidewalks, availability of bike trails for off-road routes and the like.

Crawford said she wanted to dispel some myths, including that new construction is cheaper than renovation. “Rehabilitation done well can actually save dollars,” she said, and demolition adds to costs. New buildings are safer — not necessarily true either. “Buildings of ordinary construction are just as safe as steel ones,” she said. Crawford said preservationists were, at first, just interested in saving heritage schools for the buildings themselves. Then they came to realize the schooling taking place in the buildings was part of what needed to be preserved. Not that there haven’t been some great examples of conversions to other uses, she said, from housing to professional offices. I go to the dentist in my old English classroom,” she said. “But our first priority is keeping a school building a school building.”
And now, she said, it isn’t just “the hysterical preservation folks” interested in schools. The Environmental Protection Agency wants to keep schools in neighborhoods. The economic revitalization folks want to keep schools downtown, she said. If there every was a time when school siting mattered across a variety of interests, it’s now, she said. “The greenest building is the one already built,” she added.

PENNSYLVANIA: More than 1,100 school administrators, healthcare personnel, parents and community members gathered to rally around Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius's call to utilize city school buildings as safe havens for families, even after the school bell rings. Sebelius, the keynote speaker at the two day Coalition of Community Schools' National Forum said school buildings should be a cornerstone of the community, housing health clinics, after school programs and family activities. "These are tax paid institutions, we need to open them up," Sebelius said. "Community schools will make it easier for families to access the service they need to succeed." Mayor Nutter agreed saying, "Schools need to be the anchor of this community's health.

Sebelius said her inspiration for community schools came from her father, John Gilligan, former governor and Cincinnati school board member, who helped turn Cincinnati schools into community learning centers. She noted one particular Cincinnati elementary school in a poor part of town that went from having under 35 percent of its students attend high school to having half the students go to college in six-years time. The school was extended to 12th grade and transformed into a community center which provided health care and other services needed for learning, she said. After witnessing such a dramatic change, Sebelius devoted her work to pushing this agenda onto the national stage with the help of Arne Duncan, President Obama's education secretary who made a virtual appearance. "If a child is not healthy, they will not learn, they can not learn, they are not equipped to learn," she said.
A reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act would create a $410 million "safe, healthier" grant program for schools. The funding would expand the approximately 2,000 school-based health centers that service more than 1 million children and adolescents across the country.

TEXAS: YES Prep Public Schools in Houston said a $22.1 million bond program for construction projects makes it the first charter-school system in Texas to use part of a federal stimulus program that provides a net interest rate of less than 1 percent. The 15-year debt package will save about $28 million in costs because the average interest rate on loans for charter schools is about 6.5 percent, often with longer terms, YES Prep said today in a statement. Capital One Financial Corp., based in McLean, Virginia, is the sole investor in the privately placed offering. YES Prep, which focuses on grades six through 12 in low- income Houston neighborhoods, plans to expand its schools to 13 from seven by 2013 and increase student numbers to 10,000 from about 3,500. The campuses are expected to be fully enrolled by 2020. The bond package will help pay for facilities at three YES Prep locations.
“This is a very low-cost financing for the school,” said Bill Herrington, manager of the South Texas commercial-banking group at Capital One Bank. “But it also is an entity that has a strong balance sheet, it has a strong management team and a strong board, so that we felt very good about the repayment prospects of this particular credit.”

YES Prep said it’s using $6.1 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds that were part of a U.S. stimulus bill passed last year. The financing also includes $16 million in Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, which were created in 1997 and can be used in renovating facilities. The debt programs provide a tax credit of about 6 percent to Capital One from the U.S. Treasury Department, according to the statement. YES Prep will pay Capital One a supplemental coupon of 2 percent. The coupon and its issuance costs are compensated by YES Prep setting aside annual principal payments at a fixed-interest rate of 4.26 percent. The earnings on that fund will allow the school system to deposit $16.2 million to retire $22.1 million of bonds at maturity. As a result, YES Prep said its net cost of funds is 0.67 percent. The 15-year term also is half the length of many bond setups, the school said.

While the YES Prep system, which was chartered in 1998, receives state and federal money per pupil for operations, it gets no government funding for facility construction or renovation. The bond financing means that more than 99 percent of future money from YES Prep backers will go to student programs and education, the school said.

NATIONAL: Getting energy-efficient design into school construction can be tough, but the Gen7 modular-classroom building from American Modular Systems, Manteca, Calif., fits many of the latest energy-efficiency advances into one package, bringing the cutting edge of green technologies to modular school construction. Introduced at the Green California Schools Summit 2009 in Pasadena, Calif., in December, Gen7 is being touted as a “grid-neutral” modular-classroom solution for California school districts.

“Gen7 is a loaded model, with every possible option,” says Tony Sarich, vice president of operations for AMS. “It’s not the best plan for every school, but it is intended to show that the technology is finally there.” While each Gen7 building sports a 6-kW rooftop solar-panel system, the grid-neutral claim is due mainly to energy-efficient design. “The extent to which [AMS] were willing to go was more than the norm,” says Chuck Shinneman, director of sustainability and optimization for Capital Engineering, Rancho Cordova, Calif., which modeled performance scenarios for Gen7 and made energy-efficiency suggestions. “Gen7 more than met net-zero in our studies.”
The building features Lutron dimmable lighting controls with sensors that dynamically adjust classroom lighting to maximize daylighting. A variable-refrigerant-flow, split-design HVAC system from Mitsubishi Electric boasts lower energy use, quieter operation and improved indoor air quality over comparable rooftop-mounted systems.
The absence of gypsum- or formaldehyde-based materials contributes to low VOC levels. A polystyrene thermal envelope prevents thermal bridging. The cladded wall system requires no paint. Green construction materials include denim-based insulation, a high-fly-ash-content concrete floor, 80%-recycled structural steel and 100%-recycled mineral-board sheathing for roof and wall backing.

KANSAS: Clifton-Clyde High School's wind turbine and solar panels aren't enough green for the 2010 Kansas Green School of the Year. Students told Sen. Sam Brownback the school district has purchased compost tumblers for the middle school and high school and is talking about building a greenhouse and putting in a bigger wind turbine to power the whole school. The school's 24 kilowatt tower currently powers the entry lights and its solar panels power a water pump for the school's garden. The Clyde community has always been environmentally aware by participating "religiously" in the city's recycling program and establishing on arboretum in the town's downtown, said student Trevor Burns.

In addition to running partly on a wind turbine, Clifton-Clyde schools have done an energy audit to become more energy efficient, and this year Superintendent Brian Pekarek has sought grants from five sources to build a greenhouse, which is now under construction, and obtained a grant to hire an energy manager and another from Waste Management, Inc. to purchase compost tumblers. "The greenhouse will be a great asset for our school, especially our ag students involved in several planting projects," student Dylan Koch said. Koch said students hope to be able to use the greenhouse and compost tumblers as ways to raise funds for the schools.
Twelve compost tumblers split between the middle school and high school are "dual binned," meaning one tumbler can be used for two settings, and students can alternate between the seven weeks required to turn garbage into compost. This year the school also received an grant from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to set up an aquaculture system with various Kansas invertebrates, catfish and other fish. "We can actually use the waste water from that to fertilize plants in the greenhouse and other gardens we're putting up," Koch said. The school can also use the compost from the tumblers in the garden, he said. The newest project for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks includes setting up butterfly and hummingbird gardens, planting trees with birdhouses and two solar-powered bubbling brooks.

CALIFORNIA: Some say this small city's struggle to block construction of a high school may be a losing battle, but a tenacious group of Maywood activists has managed to hit the Los Angeles Unified School District where it hurts -- in the wallet.
By calling on a very powerful friend in Sacramento and organizing hundreds of families who would have to vacate their homes and apartments to make way for the proposed school, Maywood officials succeeded recently in depriving L.A. Unified of $20 million in state matching funds. And that figure could grow.

At issue is the construction of South Region High School No. 8. The planned $141-million school in southeast Los Angeles County is intended to relieve overcrowding at Bell High School and would require the demolition of 10 single-family homes and 29 multifamily homes and apartment buildings. In all, more than 100 families would be displaced, according to the district. Among them is Maywood City Councilman Edward Valera. He and others claim that L.A. Unified officials ignored better sites.
But school officials deny that. They say other potential sites were either contaminated or posed other risks. They insist that construction of the school in this one-square-mile city is inevitable and that opponents are holding up progress.
"The people who are opposing us are saying 'Oh, gee, you're not going to get that money so you're not going to build,' " said Rod Hamilton regional development manager for the school district. "It's false hope. We're going to build this school."

TEXAS: The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, which was signed into law as part of H.R. 2847, by President Obama on March 18, 2010, has prompted Pine Tree Independent School District to apply for a new Federal Bond Programs which could potentially save the taxpayers millions of dollars. In considering the scope and timing of the current bond proposal, the Pine Tree Board of Trustees took into consideration the current state of Pine Tree facilities, lower construction costs, more favorable bond rates and were aware of the possibility of federal assistance.
"What was a bit unclear was the mechanism for accessing those federal funds and how much was available," said Gil Gillam, President of the Board. "This recent legislation clears that up and emphasizes the importance of going forward with the bond election at this time." "The new legislation which expands Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs), will affect Pine Tree ISD if the bond referendum is passed in May," said Ed Moore, Senior Vice President, Southwest Securities. "Taxpayers will save an estimated $6,571,000 interest cost over the life of the proposed bonds by using this program instead of the traditional tax exempt bonds," he said. "But right now, this program only applies to the current calendar year." The district had announced earlier in the year that the projected tax increase for the proposed 2010 bond project would amount to 6.5 cents. However Moore reports that with the new legislation, the tax rate would drop to a 6-cent increase.

Moore noted that in order to maximize earnings in the sinking fund, he would structure the bonds to have one principal payment in the last year. "While working with another district on a bond program, I received a guaranteed investment contract quote earlier this month showing an interest earnings rage of 4.1%. So in addition to the interest cost savings for the district, Pine Tree stands to earn an estimated $2.1 million in the debt service fund further offsetting the projected tax increase."
"Delaying the vote until November, because of the time it takes to sell and deliver the bonds, prevents the district from taking advantage of the federal program," said Dr. Strauss, Superintendent of Schools. "We have applied," said Strauss, "and the funding is allotted on a first come-first serve basis; so holding the election in May will provide our District every possible opportunity for additional funding to help support the development and improvements outlined in the proposal."

As stated in the March 18th press release from the US House Committee on Ways and Means, this legislation expands Build America Bond's successful direct payment option to include the issuers of qualified school construction bonds, qualified zone academy bonds, clean renewable energy bonds, and qualified energy conservation bonds. According to the new law, any school district issuing taxable Qualified School Construction Bonds receives direct payments equal to the lesser of (a) the actual interest rate of the bonds or (b) the tax-credit rate for municipal tax-credit bonds that the school district would have received if it issued the bonds as tax-credit bonds. The subsidy is intended to fully or nearly fully reimburse the school district issuer for its interest costs.

HAITI: Some schools reopened in the wrecked Haitian capital nearly three months after the January 12 earthquake, but others could not because of lack of repairs or equipment, staff said. The education ministry, backed by the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, had called for classes to resume 12 weeks after the quake which reduced many parts of the city to rubble and destroyed or damaged more than 4,000 schools. The education ministry itself was also destroyed.
But while some schools, many private, were able to reopen using donated tents as classrooms, others remained closed or turned students away because their premises were not yet repaired. Overall figures for how many schools had restarted were not immediately available.

UNICEF representatives said the operation aimed to get more than 700,000 students learning again over the next two months, with numbers expected to rise further by the start of the new academic year in September. Even before the quake, Haiti's education system was weak and starved of funds. Large numbers of poor children got little or no schooling. Haiti's government says it believes more than 300,000 people died in the quake, including at least 38,000 students and more than 1,300 teachers and other education personnel.

MINNESOTA: The Minnesota Department of Education has authorized $81.57 million of no interest, or low interest, Qualified School Construction Bond (QSCB) authority for 10 Minnesota school districts from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In addition, the federal government authorized separate bonding authority to the Minneapolis School District, and St. Paul School District in the amounts of $19.7 million and $18.2 million, respectively.

School districts must issue the bonds by Dec. 31, 2010, and use the proceeds for construction, repair, or renovation of public school facilities. Bonding authority is allocated on a preliminary basis to the districts based on criteria that includes a preference for deferred maintenance over new construction, geographic location, project readiness, and district resource levels.
The districts will use proceeds of the bonds for a variety of projects including boiler replacement, roof replacement, heating and ventilation, and classroom upgrades. In order to ensure the entire 2010 allocation is utilized, each district selected to receive bonding authority has been placed in a pool of districts eligible for a 2010 QSCB allocation and will document to the department that all requirements are met, prior to final allocation.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Representatives of state government, along with local school district officials and more than a dozen members of the public attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a biomass plant that will heat the middle and high schools in the Winnisquam Regional School District. The project has been funded through a Qualified School Construction Bond award from the state Department of Education of $3.55 million, which came from federal economic stimulus money.

Seeing the project through was important for many reasons, including the reduced environmental impact the plant will have by burning wood chips, a locally-produced, renewable fuel source; and by providing an educational opportunity literally in the district's backyard. "By building this biomass plant, we are teaching our children by example how to be good stewards of our environment," Raymond said, later talking about the unprecedented environmental, social and economic challenges current and upcoming generations will face. The projet, which also includes the building of a classroom, also will serve as the foundation for a green energy curriculum in the district which will feature prominently in the high school's vocational-agricultural program.
The money the district will save in future fuel costs from the project is large — an estimated $4.5 million over 25 years — and the project is being built with no impact on school district taxpayers, Raymond said. "It's a bit of a paradox that the completion of the $3.5 million project costs less than if the voters decided to do nothing at all," Raymond said.
Murray said the project — the first of its kind in a New Hampshire school district — and the new environmental curriculum that will be developed will allow students to be on the leading edge of the new green energy economy. "I'm proud this district is leading the way for other districts in the region, in the state and in the nation," Murray said.

NATIONAL: Rep. Betty McCollum has asked House appropriators to approve five times more money to fix federally managed Indian schools than President Obama requested in a bid to dramatically slice the time it would take for the more than 60 schools in poor or worse condition to come up to acceptable standards. One third of the schools managed by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) — including Bug-O-Nay-Ge Shig in Bena, Minn. — are rated in poor physical condition. Circle of Life in White Earth was rated in even worse condition — listed back in 2004 as among the 14 schools most in need of having facilities replaced.

It takes between $15 million and $50 million to replace a school entirely, according to BIE spokeswoman Nedra Darling, and Obama’s Indian schools construction budget calls for $52.8 million to be spent in fiscal 2011. At that funding level, it would take about 30 years to fix them all, according to Sen. Byron Dorgan, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. McCollum’s request, detailed in a letter to the head of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, is for $263 million. “We need to be on a trajectory to actually making sure that schools get fixed,” said Bill Harper, McCollum’s chief of staff, adding that schools have been “just treading water” because of inadequate funding for years.

Having 63 Indian schools out of the 183 under BIE control in “poor” physical condition is hardly cause for celebration, though officials note it is a sign of progress. Ten years ago, there were more than 120 on that list. Over the past 10 years, more than $1.3 billion has been allocated for Indian school construction, including about $250 million under the stimulus law. So while Obama’s request this year is half of what was budgeted last year, officials point to the stimulus funds as evidence that more money is actually being spent to build schools.
“The president’s FY 2011 budget requests reflects the work accomplished in the past 10 years as well as the on-going work funded by the Recovery Act and other competing funding needs across Indian Country,” said Nedra Darling, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. “Indian Affairs supports the president’s FY 2011 budget request. Should the Congress through the annual appropriation for FY 2011 provide additional funds, Indian Affairs would follow the direction of the Congress in executing the program.”

McCollum’s funding request came in consultation with the National Indian Education Association, which has long lobbied for more money for Indian schools. The inadequate physical structures are part of the reason, they say, that three quarters of Indian schools fail to meet federal testing standards. Three of the four Indian schools in Minnesota failed to meet those standards last year. "It is unjust to expect our students to succeed academically when we fail to provide them with a proper environment to achieve success," Patricia Whitefoot, president of the National Indian Education Association, said in an interview earlier this year.
McCollum’s $263 million request, if approved, would eclipse the record Darling said was set by the stimulus, making it the largest single funding of Indian schools construction. “We need to get at the backlog of this,” Harper explained.

MARYLAND: Baltimore’s grade-school students like the idea of having a planet to call home for a few more years. “Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we don’t care,” says Kayla Adams, a sixth-grader at the Stadium School, a small public charter middle school in Waverly. The Stadium School is one of sixteen Baltimore City schools that won thousand-dollar Sustainability Challenge grants in December to facilitate recycling, reduce waste, and create green spaces in their schoolyards. The grants came through a partnership of the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability, Baltimore City Public Schools, the Baltimore Community Foundation, and the city’s Cleaner, Greener Baltimore initiative.
Many of the Stadium School students participating in the Sustainability Challenge are also involved in a project-based class called Green Neighbors. “It’s important to recycle here at school because we waste a lot of good materials every day,” says seventh-grader Antrel McDowell. Kamryn Taylor adds, “I see all the garbage and think, ‘Is this what people think of the planet?’”

Some schools have taken eco-education a step or two further. Take the Green School, another public charter school located in the old Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic School in Belair-Edison. As the name suggests, the fundamental three “r’s” of education have been expanded to include three more—reduce, reuse, recycle. “Each grade has an anchor project called an investigation that involves science and social issues tied to the local environment,” says Green School director Kate Primm. Kindergarteners study pollinators; first-graders raise terrapins to be released in Poplar Island, a small island in the Chesapeake Bay that is being rebuilt using soil dredged from the Baltimore Harbor; second-graders grow underwater grasses that are transplanted in the Chesapeake Bay; and fifth-graders grow an organic vegetable garden. Each of these projects integrates traditional subjects with hands-on learning methods. For example, when planning and creating a garden, students must diagram and map out a site and calculate the cost of plants and other supplies—all activities that utilize math. “The students’ investigations are authentic applications they can apply in real life with meaningful context,” says Primm.
The Green School and thirteen other city schools have been awarded “Green School” certification by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education. Both public and private schools are eligible for the program. Schools qualify for this seal of eco-approval by demonstrating activities such as waste reduction, water-use reduction, habitat restoration, and community involvement.

NATIONAL: For those districts seeking to construct, renovate, rehabilitate or acquire land, the National Education Technology Funding Corporation, or “Eddie Tech,” has made an innovative program to simplify the process of accessing low-cost financing. Eddie Tech’s School Investment Pooled-Securities (SIPS) Program is bringing together tax-credit Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs) and creating larger and more marketable collections that are more desirable for investors. Eddie Tech is a nonprofit organization that was recognized legislatively by Congress in 1996 principally to improve education- technology infrastructure.

QSCBs were introduced in February 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These bonds offer a tax-credit and therefore require an investor who isn’t interested in a cash return. Throughout 2009, it became apparent there was a small market for such investments. Districts often had to pay lenders supplemental interest, which raised the cost and complicated the process.
“It’s the law of supply and demand,” says Brett Mandel, executive director of Eddie Tech. “People interested in tax-credit bonds are interested in lots of them. Now we can get their attention because we’ll have pools of millions of dollars.”

QSCBs have a national limit of $11 billion in each of 2009 and 2010. Forty percent are given to the top 100 largest local education agencies based on the number of children below poverty level, and the remaining 60 percent are given to the states to be allocated to districts. They must be spent on construction, repairs or land for public school property.
“These things are complicated financial instruments,” says Mandel. “We’ve made it a plug-and-play product. Now districts, especially smaller districts, can just plug into the deal and get their money cheaper and easier.”
The National Education Association (NEA), the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) partnered in February 2010 to show their support for Eddie Tech’s efforts.