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NCEF News summarizes and provides links to news stories about educational facilities nationwide. To search the NCEF News pages quickly, enter a keyword using your browser's "Find on This Page"
function (Ctrl+F). Or you may use the NCEF Search or Advanced Search functions above. Links to older articles may no longer be active.
2007
Solving a Sticky Plague in the Name of School Pride?
Bob Harp, KVIA.com
December 26, 2007 TEXAS: A sticky problem that has plagued schools, students and teachers for as long as anyone can remember, Picacho Middle School officials say they've solved the dilemma: what to do with chewing gum? Mary Sanchez and her 8th-grade students have devised a plan to keep gum off the campus walls, walkways and out from underneath tables and chairs. A statue of the school's mascot - a scorpion - will be fashioned from the multi-colored, multi-flavored gobs of gum that would ordinarily end in the wrong places. But Sanchez said the idea is to keep the campus clean and have the gum-chewers from sticking their wares just anywhere. Other teachers at the school have said they will allow students to stick their gum to it to help keep the campus clean. "It's not the kids who are here now, but the kids who have been here since the school opened. They have been putting gum on the floor and it has accumulated into quite a nasty problem in the long term," Sanchez said. For obvious sanitary reasons, a school maintenance worker will douse the 'scorpion project' each day with a sealant to dissolve and re-mesh all of the pieces stuck to it.
Maryland School Officials Decry Asbestos Rules
Kenneth R. Fletcher , Baltimore Sun
December 25, 2007 MARYLAND: Maryland schools officials say they could be forced to test every new tile, pipe or wall put into school buildings for asbestos, under new guidance on Environmental Protection Agency regulations. State schools have relied in the past on material safety data sheets from manufacturers to determine whether hazardous materials, including asbestos, are in the products they are buying. But the EPA said it never accepted the data sheets under asbestos regulations. After the Maryland Department of the Environment asked the EPA a "clarifying question," Maryland schools were notified in September 2006 that the manufacturer's sheets could not be used to determine whether products contain asbestos, said EPA spokeswoman Donna Heron. Schools say that requiring them, instead of the manufacturer, to determine whether a product contains asbestos is an unfair burden. The EPA said schools could test all the materials they use, but they do not have to. If schools do not test all new building materials for asbestos, they either need a manufacturer's letter certifying the product is asbestos-free or they must assume that the materials contain the dangerous fiber. "The practical reality of it is that if they assume that it contains asbestos, all they are really required to do is to note that in their management plan," Heron said.
Here Comes the Sun. Lower Energy Bills Could Follow at 2 New Jersey Schools.
Andrea Alexander, NorthJersey.com
December 25, 2007 NEW JERSEY: Solar panels will go up next spring at two school buildings as the first phase of a groundbreaking project that will use a mix of alternative energy sources projected to save millions in utility costs. Plans call for a cogeneration plant, solar power, some geothermal heating and cooling and even a wind turbine. The project will provide heating and cooling to township buildings and nearby schools off Nellis Drive. The entire project will be completed in about a year. Solar panels will be installed at Wayne Valley High School and James Fallon Elementary School by May. Energy upgrades at the schools will be made over the summer and construction of the cogeneration plant will also start in the summer. The project passed the final major hurdle last week. The Board of Education voted 7-1 on a shared services agreement to buy energy with the township. "It's good for the environment and it's good economically," Board Vice President Cindy Simon said. The township and schools do not have to pay any capital costs. According to the project terms, Pepco Energy Services will build a gas-fired cogeneration plant off Nellis Drive that will provide electricity to Town Hall, the library, Police Department, Wayne Valley High, James Fallon Elementary and the school board administration building. Pepco will recover the cost of construction by selling energy to the township and Board of Education through the Wayne Energy Corp. The not-for-profit corporation will own the cogeneration plant. The corporation was set up to protect the township and the school district from any liability. The system will be fully operational early 2009. It would reduce carbon emissions by 2,000 tons a year, the equivalent of taking 385 cars off the road, according to Gary Fechter, president of Princeton Energy Systems, an engineering firm working with the township. The project would provide heating and cooling to the buildings. Plans also call for using geothermal energy to cool and heat the township Police Department. Geothermal units run pipes underground to take advantage of the earth's core temperature of 55 degrees to reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling.
Old High School a Source of Pride
Herb Meeker, Journal Gazette Times Courier Online
December 24, 2007 ILLINOIS: When Casey welcomed its first high school, part of the world was aflame with war and the night skies around the town were illuminated with oil well flares. A copy of the 1927 edition of the Casey High School yearbook “The Flame” tells of how construction started on the brick and tile structure in 1917, the year America entered World War I. But, despite a labor shortage, the high school was fully equipped and ready for students by September 1918. Work started on the school with a $70,000 bond issue in the Casey school district. The 1917 school building incorporated an all-in-one design with classrooms, science labs, study hall, library and downstairs gymnasium. The new school on the north end of the community was a great source of pride. “You will read in the yearbooks how the school was so advanced for its time. They really took great pride in it,” said Casey-Westfield High School Principal Clyde Frankie in reference to the yearbook articles from 80-plus years ago. The Casey community aimed to be progressive when the oil industry was prospering in that part of Illinois. “I’ve been told the yearbook was named ‘The Flame’ because the well flares would light up the night around here back then,” said Bob Rue, a 1957 graduate of Casey High School. “You can still see some flares north of town, but it’s not as bright as it used to be.” The local legend is the oil industry helped build up the Casey education system during the early 20th century, including the 1917 high school and the gymnasium that opened in 1929. “As the oil industry is partly responsible for our wonderful school building ...” an article in a 1920s era edition of “The Flame” states. But during the past two years, the Casey-Westfield school district had to let go of a piece of history when settling floors led to the condemnation of the 90-year-old building. A referendum on the issue of building anew decided there was no future for the shuttered high school. Many district residents talked about the great memories and the mystique of the structure, but some tours of the building helped turn the tide of opinion, said Christy Thomas, a guidance counselor and active with the referendum committee. “Tours of the building helped make it clear for a lot of people the true condition of the building. Some people had not been in the building for a long time. They didn’t realize the condition it was in,” she said Saturday after the demolition began. But she agreed that the school’s history helped bring people out on a rainy Saturday to watch the demolition. “Yes, it’s part of history. It’s kind of a way of saying goodbye,” she said.
More Texas School Districts Considering Surveillance Cameras
Ryan Holeywell, The Monitor
December 23, 2007 TEXAS: The idea of installing surveillance camera systems in schools to deter unsafe activity is picking up steam in at least three area school districts. South Texas, Donna and Sharyland school districts are among the districts that are considering implementation of the monitoring systems. “We just want to improve the security of the schools,” said South Texas spokeswoman Andi Atkinson said. “Basically we just want to take any preventive measure we can for the safety of our students.” The Texas Education Agency does not track how many campuses have surveillance cameras and does not make recommendations on how to implement surveillance programs. But the Center for Safe Communities & Schools at Texas State University offers a guide to school districts considering surveillance cameras. According to the center, surveillance cameras can deter outsiders who don’t belong on campus as well as deter students from engaging in malicious activity In a report on surveillance cameras, the Department of Justice explains that administrators and security personnel should understand that, for the most part, cameras are more effective identifying crime after the fact as opposed to stopping an ongoing incident.
No One Size Fits All for Ohio Schools
Simone Sebastian and Encarnacion Pyle, Columbus Dispatch
December 23, 2007 OHIO: In 1909, the Columbus schools opened the nation's first junior high. Educators thought it would reduce the number of students who dropped out before ninth grade. Seventy years later, junior high schools were squashed. Middle schools opened, and ninth-graders were moved to high schools in hopes of reducing discipline problems. Now Columbus school officials say middle schools aren't working, either. Superintendent Gene Harris announced that she wants to eliminate intermediate schools altogether. Sixth-graders would attend elementary schools while seventh- and eighth-graders would move to high schools. Columbus, like other school districts nationwide, has long debated where to place 11- to 14-year-olds, who are thought to be the most difficult students to teach. Schools have experimented with numerous grade groupings, but none has proven to improve student learning.
Students Rally to Show Need for New School Building in Iowa
Molly Hottle, Des Moines Register
December 22, 2007 IOWA: A group of about 20 students staged a rally at West Central Valley High School in Stuart, where they say taxpayer aversion to new construction has left them in a dangerous building. Voters in the district have rejected six consecutive bond issues that would have paid for a new school. A seventh measure is scheduled for a spring vote. But school officials noticed foundation cracks in a wing of the school a few weeks ago, and students were moved out of the affected area on the advice of an engineer who inspected the damage. "I asked them if the students would be safe in the building. They said they couldn't guarantee it, so we moved all students out of that wing," principal Debbie Wilson said. West Central senior Tom Stiles, 18, of Dexter, organized his classmates to protest. "We as a student body are tired of feeling like we're cheated," he said. "We need a safe and better learning environment." The students have had to attend classes in a boardroom at the administration building down the street. Makeshift classrooms have taken over the library and the industrial technology room. In some cases, teachers have doubled up. The students hope the problem will help inspire the required 60 percent of voters needed to pass a referendum for a new school. Just to make sure, they orchestrated Friday's rally. "We wanted it to be as positive as it could be so we could get the attention of the public," Stiles said. Voters in March turned down a $13.3 million plan to build a new high school in Stuart and turn the old one into an elementary school. Previous votes have failed amid infighting in the four-town district, which in 2001 became the product of two merged districts, Dexfield and Stuart-Menlo. Redfield voters, who led the opposition to past bond issues between September 2002 and June 2005, voted 2-to-1 against the most recent proposal. Friday's protest plan involved a pre-announced "walkout" and pro-bond placards. Wilson gave the OK. "The point they want to get across is that please, we need a new high school," she said. "This is something they wanted to do and they didn't want it to look rebellious. They didn't want people to think it was kids just wanting to get out of school earlier." Organizer Jayme Cotten, 17, of Dexter said even though she won't be in a new building if the bond issue passes, she wanted to stand up for the younger students. "I've gone to this school my whole life, and we have a lot of overcrowding problems. We just feel like the younger students, including my nieces and nephews and cousins, deserve a better place to learn and be safe," Cotten said, adding that the majority of voters who resisted earlier borrowing plans "should really rethink things and look at the environment that we're learning in."
Health Concerns Raised at Tempe, Arizona School
Katie Nelson and JJ Hensley, Arizona Republic
December 21, 2007 Arizona: The Tempe Union High School District is making a dramatic statement as it pressures the state to pay for $17 million in repairs at one high school. It is telling state and local officials that malfunctioning ventilation equipment, dripping mold and high carbon dioxide levels at Tempe's Corona del Sol High School could be making people sick. District studies and the findings of a consultant, compiled and presented to officials, say that the school is plagued by smelly classrooms, mold and high levels of carbon dioxide in the air. The move is the latest battle in an ongoing war between school districts and the state School Facilities Board over renovation funds. The Tempe district says it needs emergency funding from the School Facilities Board to fix its ventilation problems and is threatening to join a lawsuit against the state if it doesn't get it. The state board reviewed the district's request this summer. While it acknowledged problems, including high CO-2 levels, it determined that they didn't merit emergency funding. The matter goes before the board again in January. Meanwhile, teachers at the school fear what's in the air, walls and carpet - some believe it's even causing tumors. The high school serves 2,712 students, who generally come from some of the city's most affluent neighborhoods. Another 200 or so administrators, teachers and support staff also spend their days there. Built in 1977 with federal funds, Corona was heralded as a leading innovation in energy conservation. Few windows and tight ceiling space for mechanical equipment created less space to chill and warm. But ultimately, officials say, this unusual design caused unintended consequences. Classroom air is stagnant because there is no place for old air to flow. The small ceiling space leaves little room for new air units hefty enough to do the job properly. The result: smelly classrooms, mold and high CO{-2} levels. The School Facilities Board did tests in 2001 that showed the air met muster, but they were conducted early in the day before students arrived. The district, concerned with the methods of those tests, hired Health Effects Group to do a comprehensive air-quality survey in 2006. The group concluded that the levels of carbon dioxide present in Corona buildings during the school day exceeded levels accepted by trade groups and the School Facilities Board's minimum requirements for air quality. The facilities board has so far refused to help fix the high school. As a result, the district is considering joining a lawsuit against the state if the board again refuses to help at a Jan. 25 hearing.
Dozens of Chicago's Grade Schools Could Close
Carlos Sadovi , Chicago Tribune
December 20, 2007 ILLINOIS: Chicago could close 10 to 15 public elementary schools in each of the next five years, officials are expected to announce, as enrollment plummets on the city's Near West and South Sides. Even as overcrowding reaches critical levels in some neighborhoods, the district says 147 of its 417 neighborhood elementary schools are well below capacity, due mostly to families moving out of the neighborhoods and a decline in the number of children per family. On the list are 79 schools at between 40 percent and 50 percent of their enrollment capacity. Twenty-five schools are at less than 30 percent capacity and these are at the greatest risk of closing, according to James Dispensa, director of school demographics and planning for the district.
The Future of Aging Lansing, Michigan Schools
Derek Wallbank , Lansing State Journal
December 20, 2007 MICHIGAN: Every year, Lansing taxpayers foot the bill for about 5,000 students who never step foot inside a city school. Not for textbooks or teachers, but in costs related to the buildings that were built for them a generation or two ago - aging buildings that now are under-used because of a steady decline in students over the past 10 years. "Most of our buildings were built when we were a 20,000-student district," said Chief Operations Officer Brian Ralph. "Now we're a 15,000-student district, but the buildings are still here." Ralph chairs the district's Facilities and Support Services task force, one of 11 such groups mapping a strategic plan to improve the district in all areas. A large part of that, he said, is deciding what to do with excess building space. While Ralph said his group won't discuss specific school closures, it will lay out a facilities plan, which will include criteria by which such decisions could be made. "The utilities still have to be paid and gas prices aren't getting any cheaper," said task force member Marty Ruiter, an architect with DLZ Michigan who helped design the new Pattengill Middle School. But the mission is not just figuring out how to shoehorn a new-looking district into old-model buildings. Many of those buildings aren't making the grade. The district rates buildings into three categories, good, fair and repairs or upgrades needed. Only one building - the new Pattengill Middle School that opened this year - is listed in good condition. It's also the only one constructed in the last 30 years. And after years of cutting corners to reduce costs, all but nine of the district's 36 school buildings need repairs or upgrades. "We have older buildings, many of them in a state of need because of years of deferred maintenance," Ralph said.
Mississippi District Praised for Maintenance, But New Buildings Needed
Julie Finley , Natchez Democrat
December 20, 2007 MISSISSIPPI: On average, school buildings in the Natchez-Adams School District are half a century old. The newest of the six schools housing grades kindergarten through 12th grade is Frazier Primary, which is 43 years old. The oldest is McLaurin Elementary, which is 54 years old. The buildings have been patched, partially rewired, painted and re-roofed several times over in some cases. And the district’s efforts in making old buildings work is something of which they are proud. But the buildings aren’t getting any younger, and good maintenance can only go so far. Administrators know that soon the challenge has to move from maintaining old buildings to funding new ones, but they don’t have a plan they think will work just yet. Building a new school would take a bond issue, Superintendent Anthony Morris said. And that means higher taxes. “Before we start considering any buildings, you have to investigate the community environment,” Morris said. “The first thing that’s going to be said is, ‘That’s going to raise my taxes and I don’t want taxes raised.’” Morris said he feels certain the community would not embrace a bond issue right now, despite the need. “A bond issue is somewhere out in the future,” he said. “For now, we need to study community perception of the idea.”
Demolition of New Orleans School Heralded as a Fresh Start
Darran Simon , Times-Picayune
December 19, 2007 LOUISIANA: A backhoe tore into a crumbling building on the future campus of a new high-tech academy in New Orleans, an early step in a plan to build and renovate five schools that will open in September 2009. The five schools are an attempt to show progress in a city where shuttered buildings still languish after the 2005 flood, and to jump-start a facilities master plan expected to be done in the spring. The master plan will change the landscape of what once was a singular system of about 130 campuses. That means some campuses will remain as schools, while others could be redeveloped or possibly sold for use as offices, condos or community centers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover the more than $120 million in construction costs of the five schools. But city and state officials still must solve the looming issue of how to find other financing to implement a master plan that could cost "well over a billion dollars," said Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas. In late July, state Superintendent Paul Pastorek announced plans to rebuild and renovate the five schools. He encouraged neighborhood groups and organizations to submit proposals, explaining why their site should be included in the "quick start" plan, but gave groups less than a month to cobble together their pitches. Officials tapped into a new source of FEMA money designated for temporary repairs. Rather than using the FEMA money allotted to build modular facilities, school officials were allowed to use the money to work on permanent facilities, with the caveat that the construction could not cost more than a temporary facility. The option allowed the district to toss plans for additional modular buildings, an unpopular option that cost about $70 million this year. Furthermore, the Recovery School District has secured permits to demolish Helen S. Edwards and Joseph A. Hardin elementary schools and Alfred Lawless High School. FEMA will cover the demolition and construction costs of the campuses, which have surpassed FEMA's 50 percent damage threshold. Demolition requests were submitted in November and approved in early December, officials said. The district also sought permits to demolish Ray Abrams Elementary; Marion Abramson Senior High; Ernest "Dutch" Morial Elementary; and Mary Coghill Elementary, officials said. FEMA will also cover the cost of this batch of schools. Officials also outlined the school buildings slated for demolition and plans for portable buildings on several campuses that will also be demolished. The facilities master plan will lay out options for the locations and uses of buildings based on factors such as the amount of money available, community input, projected demographics of neighborhoods and location of the city's Office of Recovery Management investment zones. The planners will hold several public meetings in early January to collect input on proposals for individual school sites. The master plan will also lay out financing options, which Vallas said Wednesday could cost well over a billion dollars. Officials said the pot of federal money they expect to receive from FEMA will fall short. The state, though it operates schools in a large chunk of New Orleans, does not pay for school construction. FEMA has obligated more than $300 million to the Recovery District for the cost of construction and contents. Officials expect that figure to grow to more than $500 million as the district and FEMA reassess damage to buildings. Vallas said options to pay for the master plan could include seeking more state and federal money, as well as securing federal tax credits designed to redevelop poor neighborhoods, which would require partnering with the School Board to use its bonding authority as collateral. School Board Chief Financial Officer Stan Smith said that bonding is an option, although no decision has been made. Issuing bonds could depend on whether residents vote to renew a property tax millage that expires in 2008.
Albuquerque Schools Going Green
Staff Writer, New Mexico Business Weekly
December 19, 2007 NEW MEXICO: A new grade school being built by Albuquerque Public Schools will be the first to seek a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. APS is pursuing a LEED Silver rating for its Southwest Elementary School, which is being designed by Garrett Smith LTD and is expected to be completed by February 2009. Other projects for which APS is aiming for Silver certification include: kindergarten additions at six grade schools (Montoya, Alvarado, Alamosa, Apache, Emerson and McCollum); classroom additions at Barcelona and John Baker elementary schools; the rebuilding of Figge Hall at Highland High School; the administrative building addition at Kit Carson Elementary; and expansions and/or additions at Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School, Family School Core Facilities, Evening High School, Georgia O'Keefe Elementary School and the Central Kitchen. There are a total of 17 LEED Silver APS projects in the works. "The greatest benefit to students of LEED schools is creating a healthy learning environment through improved lighting and indoor air quality, two of the most rigorous certification areas," said Karen Alarid, director of APS's Facilities Design and Construction. APS foresees an increase of 2 to 5 percent in budget costs for LEED design and construction, but also expects to save the same amount in utility costs within 10 years.
UK Government Unveils Green Schools Funding Plan
Staff Writer, Business Green
December 19, 2007 UNITED KINGDOM: Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced 200 new eco-friendly building projects as part of the government's plan to make all new school buildings zero-carbon by 2016. The projects, which will provide another boost to the booming green construction industry, will cost £110m over three years. In a statement to MPs, Balls said that a typical secondary school will receive around £500,000 under the scheme to reduce carbon emissions in new school buildings. The projects are expected to include investments in onsite renewable energy technologies as well as efforts to improve energy efficiency through improved insulation, lower-energy lighting and energy efficient computers. "We are taking action now to reduce carbon emissions in new school buildings while we work towards the zero-carbon goal," Balls said. The target for all new schools to be zero carbon by 2016 was published as part of the government's new Childrens Plan. Under the plan the government is to appoint a taskforce to investigate how schools could work with local authorities and construction firms to limit their environmental impact. The plan also includes a separate target to reduce emissions from the school run by 2020.
Baltimore's Smaller Schools Experiment Yields Higher Test Scores
Greg Toppo, USA Today
December 19, 2007 MARYLAND: The five-year effort to break Baltimore's big high schools into smaller, more autonomous schools seems to be paying off with better academic results and attendance, offering new evidence backing a reform that has stalled nationwide in recent years. An analysis released this week by the Washington-based Urban Institute finds that scores on required state math and English tests in the city's six "innovation schools" are higher than those of students in larger comprehensive schools, neighborhood schools and other schools, even after controlling for skill levels before entering high school. On average, innovation high school students score 14 to 30 points higher on a scale from 240 to 650. The schools also offer more supportive environments, and innovation school students go to school 16 to 40 days more a year than other students. Innovation high schools basically operate like publicly funded private schools, freed from most restrictions on hiring, curriculum and spending. But the study, which used student records and student and teacher surveys, also found that they enroll a slightly more accomplished student body, with fewer "academically challenging students" than other schools. Study author Becky Smerdon says she had been expecting to find larger gaps between students in innovation high schools and those in the city's elite, selective-admissions high schools. The innovation schools, she says, "looked a lot more like the selective schools than I would have expected." But she also says that even with the improved results, Baltimore students' skills "remain low overall" — only one in four students who took the state English exam in 2005-2006 passed it. Reformers over the past decade have touted small high schools, but disappointing results and high expenses in a few big cities have slowed the pace of new efforts. In Baltimore, where the small-schools push began in 2002, a handful of big high schools are still waiting to be broken up. Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, says the study is helpful if people can use it to learn from innovative schools' example. "It's not such a good thing if you're seeking a cookie-cutter solution." "One of the reasons innovative schools tend to perform higher is directly related to our autonomy to tailor our programs to match the needs of the majority of our students," says principal Jeffrey Robinson.
Asbestos Testing in Maryland Schools Would be a Costly Measure
Jennifer Raley, Cumberland Times-News
December 19, 2007 MARYLAND: If a new interpretation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's asbestos regulations stands, school systems in Maryland and neighboring states could be faced with major expenses. Maryland schools were notified in 2006 that manufacturers' sheets could not be used to determine whether products contain asbestos, according to EPA spokeswoman Donna Heron. The Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), which was established in 1986 and clarified in 1999, allows schools to use those data safety sheets to determine whether products contain asbestos, according to Vince Montana, director of facilities for the Allegany County Board of Education. "It was a part of the law," said Montana. Having to presume all building materials contain asbestos, or testing all materials when the manufacturers have already specified that they do not contain asbestos, is unnecessary and costly, according to Montana. David Lever, executive director of the state public school construction program, has written a letter requesting some clarification on the issue, said Montana. "If you assume there is asbestos, the smallest repair you make you either have to abate asbestos, which might not be there, or you might have to set up very involved protection," said Lever. "The new structure, which does not allow for MSDS (manufacturers' data) sheets, has huge consequences on school systems and buildings." The interpretation applies only to EPA region 3, which includes Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Washington, according to Montana.
Illinois Schools are Graduating to Green Cleaning
Jim Newton, Lake County News-Sun
December 18, 2007 ILLINOIS: Some Lake County districts are already moving toward the use of more environmentally-friendly cleaning solutions in schools, an effort that will be mandated next year by a new state law. Final guidelines are being developed for the Green Cleaning Schools Act, which directs elementary and secondary schools in Illinois to use cleaners that meet certain environmental standards that will improve indoor air quality. Officials said the new law will help remove chemicals that can cause adverse reactions in children and adults. Examples include ammonia- and acid-based cleaners. Gurnee Elementary School District Superintendent John Hutton said School Board members and administrators in the district have already initiated the conversion to green cleaning solutions to improve air quality and to set an example for students. The district's director of facilities, Mike Nichols, said the district is incorporating Green Seal-certified cleaners into its supplies as other products are used up. Two of the district's four schools are already using "green" hand soap, he said, and the district is also starting to purchase environmentally-friendly glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, disinfectant and trash bags.
Carbon Neutral New Schools Plan in the United Kingdom
Staff Writer, BBC World News
December 18, 2007 UNITED KINGDOM: England's Schools Secretary Ed Balls has announced 200 projects, costing £110m over three years. These will include using greener technologies such as wind turbines, solar power and biomass boilers. Under the Children's Plan, there is a target for all new school buildings to be carbon neutral by 2016. The 10-year strategy, published last week, sets out the ambition for greener schools - but also acknowledges that it might not be practical on existing school sites. Mr Balls says he will be appointing a taskforce to examine how schools could reduce their environmental damage - and the Children's Plan says it will look at "whether the timescale is realistic and how to reduce carbon emissions in the intervening period". "The taskforce will work closely with designers, builders, local authorities and other key stakeholders to develop a road map to zero carbon schools," says the Children's Plan. There is also a separate target to make school travel more environmentally friendly by 2020 as part of a wider plan for "sustainable" schools. This includes promoting greener power, reducing energy consumption and encouraging more recycling. Under the projects announced by Mr Balls, a typical secondary school will receive £500,000 to promote energy efficiency and to reduce carbon emissions. This could include measures such as improving insulation, using lower-energy lighting and energy-saving devices on school computers.
Green Schools Conference: California State Architect Discusses Grid Neutrality
Matthew Crawford, Green Building News
December 18, 2007 CALIFORNIA: With the goal of achieving grid neutrality at all new schools, California State Architect David Thorman is working to change the way school administrators think about construction projects. California, which has more than 1,000 school districts that serve more than 6 million students, spends $5 billion annually on new construction and renovation projects. With energy costs at about $1.43 per square foot, schools have the potential to save a total of $21.5 million annually if grid neutrality is achieved, plus the potential to make profits from selling electricity back to utilities, according to Thorman's office. There are four key steps to reach the grid-neutrality goal, according to Thorman: a comprehensive planning team, the most energy efficient designs, greater advances in energy-generating technology and innovative financing methods.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Safety a Question of Funds
Ann Doss Helms, Charlotte Observer
December 17, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: An adult signing in to visit Davidson Elementary recently swiped his driver's license through the school's donated LobbyGuard security system. It flagged him as a registered sex offender, and school officials escorted him out. The incident poses a powerful question: Can technology help keep kids safe, and how much are taxpayers willing to spend to do it? With guns turning up frequently at local schools and public shooting rampages making national news, safety is likely to be a hot topic as the system starts crafting its 2008 budget. "Once you get past student achievement, safety is probably our No. 2 priority," board chairman Joe White said. But he notes that district leaders routinely cut worthy proposals to boost the odds that county commissioners will pay for the most pressing needs. No technology can protect students from every threat. Ralph Taylor, CMS's safe schools director, said students are more likely to encounter problems with other students than with intruders. His vision: Create a districtwide system of student IDs that would make it easy for staff to know who belongs on which campus. That would also help screen students who have been banned from games and other after-hours activities because of serious discipline violations, he said. Some individual high schools already have student IDs; he did not know the cost of a countywide system. Putting LobbyGuard systems like the one at Davidson in elementary schools would alone cost more than $500,000, Cesena said. Facial-recognition cameras would cost $800,000 for elementaries, and more than $2 million to cover all schools. Both use databases to flag people who shouldn't be in schools.
Richmond's Old School Buildings Go Unused
Olympia Meola, Times-Dispatch
December 17, 2007 VIRGINIA: Whitcomb Court Elementary School sits on a trash-strewn lot, its windows covered in boards marked by crude graffiti. Since it closed to students in June 2006, Richmond police have been dispatched there 43 times for problems ranging from fires to fights. It's a disheartening situation for School Board member Lisa Dawson, who told Whitcomb parents in 2005 that although they were losing their neighborhood school, it wouldn't become an eyesore. "I sat in the cafeteria and basically promised that what has happened will not happen," Dawson said recently. In the past two years, the School Board has closed six buildings and recently recommended closing an additional five by 2015. Board members are growing concerned as more schools are added to the chopping block because the sites have no immediate plan for reuse and will sit vacant for vandals. One mothballed school even had its televisions stolen over the summer. As a result, the board wants to talk to the City Council about the options for the closed buildings. City administration officials say they can alleviate some of the heartburn. The city - not the School Board - owns the buildings, and when schools move out, they are supposed to revert control of the buildings to the city. It's the city's job to figure out what to do with them. "This process is based on city and state code. Thereafter, the city will seek to find new uses for those facilities through private development and other avenues," Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder said recently. Wilder's "City of the Future" plan involves building 15 schools after the School Board consolidates and closes current facilities with light attendance. "We continue to wait for this to happen," Wilder said. "Great opportunities exist for retrofitting the closed schools in ways that could help rejuvenate those neighborhoods," he said. "Because of the strong need for work-force housing, one possibility would be to develop additional residential units so that our police officers, firemen, schoolteachers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers can either rent or purchase a home that would be close to where they work." The buildings also could become community centers to provide training or recreation. Some city school buildings are historic, charming and located in sought-after neighborhoods. Others are small, architecturally unappealing and located in high-crime areas.
Funding West Virginia School Construction Projects
Staff Writer, WVMetroNews
December 17, 2007 WEST VIRGINIA: The Executive Director of the State School Building Authority says the response has been guarded, but positive so far, when it comes to a proposal that would allow the SBA to sell bonds to pay for school construction projects in West Virginia. Mark Manchin says the State Legislature will have that proposal to consider when the regular legislative session begins on Jan. 9. "We have delayed the selection process for this cycle of need projects in anticipation of introducing the legislation and, hopefully, being successful," he said. Right now, Manchin says 43 school construction projects have been proposed throughout West Virginia for a total of $254 million. Without the bond sales, the SBA will have $50 million to allocate. "The requests are five times greater than the money we actually have, and every year you let that go that those needs are exacerbated and grow. It just becomes more difficult to address those needs," Manchin said in an interview with MetroNews. He says selling bonds could possibly generate between $100 million and $135 million over three years. "If we don't address a renovation or an upgrade to a facility this year, the costs, with anywhere from a three to five increase in costs, are greater next year and it just continues to build and accumulate," he said. The rising costs of construction have hit school construction projects hard in recent years. In 2004, Manchin says it cost $6.4 million to build a basic elementary school. Today's cost, for that same school, is almost $10 million. He says an average size high school costs $40 million, almost all of the total amount the SBA has, right now, to give
Green School Buildings Making a Surge
Meris Stansbury, eSchool News
December 17, 2007 NATIONAL : School systems nationwide are beginning to realize the benefits of "going green" when building new schools, according to experts who follow school construction trends. Though the initial building costs can run higher, schools are seeing a return on their up-front investment through a reduction in monthly energy costs. Another important (and often unexpected) side benefit has been a boost in student achievement resulting from more healthy, productive, and comfortable learning environments. John Weekes, an architect who is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education, says "green," or environmentally friendly, school buildings aren't just a West Coast concept anymore. "Of course, places like California have been thinking green for a while, but it's really all over now--the Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest, and the Northeast," he said. "Recently, it's also been [occurring in] the Southeast. It's certainly [a] mainstream [concept], but not entirely even across the board. Every region has its own rate." There are many levels of "green," and each green building can vary in its degree of energy efficiency. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has its own set of measurements, called the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, which measures design, construction, and operation of green buildings. To date, the LEED certificate-available in bronze, silver, and gold-has been given to 55 schools around the country. However, another 370 reportedly were waiting for certification as of press time. LEED also has a special certification for green schools, which takes into account joint-use agreements that allow other groups to use the facility and also has stricter requirements for features such as minimum acoustic standards. According to Deane Evans, a research professor and executive director of the Center for Architecture and Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a high-performance green school has "healthy, productive, and comfortable environments for students and teachers that provide high levels of acoustic, thermal, and visual comfort." Features of green schools include windows and skylights that admit generous amounts of daylight; buildings that are safe, secure, and cost-effective to own and operate, because they use durable products and systems; materials that are chosen using life-cycle cost analysis, rather than the cheapest first cost; and availability to non-students during hours when the school is not in operation. (Community participation during design also is encouraged.) Already, many states and school systems are using LEED guidelines to structure future school design. For example, in September the Ohio School Facility Fund passed a requirement that all new schools and major renovations in the state be certified LEED Silver, using $4.1 billion in state money to help cover the costs. The plan will create at least 250 more green schools in Ohio in the next two years. In California, 23 school districts, including San Francisco and San Diego, have pledged to meet criteria for the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), a system similar to LEED. Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, Washington, and New Hampshire also are using measurement processes based on CHPS building standards. Pennsylvania even provides up to $500,000 in state funding to school districts for each new building that is LEED certified.
Asbestos Actions Against Maryland Schools Rise
Kenneth Fletcher, Capital News Service
December 17, 2007 MARYLAND: Environmental Protection Agency enforcement against Maryland schools for asbestos-related violations have exploded in the past year, from less than one per year from 2001 to 2006 to 16 actions since September 2006. The 16 actions filed between September 2006 and September 2007 included everything from small private schools to some of the largest school systems in the state, according to a Capital News Service analysis of EPA data. None of the violations are related to dangerous exposure to the carcinogen, school and environmental officials said. The actions mostly involve problems with the paperwork schools must keep to track asbestos, and the increase is due to a rise in state inspections and stricter enforcement. But the EPA does not take violations lightly: Penalties for schools in violation run up to $6,500 per day, or schools can escape the fine by spending the same amount to bring themselves up to code. Major violators include school systems in Baltimore City and county. The EPA reported in September 2006 that the city spent $305,730 to bring schools up to code, while the county spent $245,538, all for violations related to record keeping. Schools are supposed to maintain asbestos management plans, but it is often not a top priority for busy educators, said Mardel Knight, head of Maryland's asbestos inspection unit. Schools are selected for inspection randomly. In the past two years, inspections by Ms. Knight and her three inspectors have increased from about 25 each year to 60. Even though it seems like a technicality, Ms. Knight said the plans need to be taken seriously. Schools must know where asbestos is, or renovation could be done in an area with undocumented asbestos, releasing the fibers and posing a threat to students and staff.
10 Santa Rosa Schools Could Get Solar Power by Fall
Associated Press, Mercury News
December 17, 2007 CALIFORNIA: A $23 million deal between the school board and a solar power company could have 10 Santa Rosa schools running on solar energy by the fall. The school board voted to work out a deal with Solar Power Integrators of Roseville for the solar roof systems. The company would arrange for private investors to put up the money in exchange for tax credits and other write-offs for solar power systems. The district would then buy the electricity for a prearranged price. This deal would lower the costs for the school district. It also would let the school take advantage of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Million Solar Roofs Program, a $2 billion tax incentive program.
New Jersey School Construction Bond Failures Laid to Tax-Weary Voters
Debra Nussbaum , New York Times
December 16, 2007 NEW JERSEY: Tax-fatigued voters said no to $189 million in school construction proposals on bond issues throughout the state. While 8 of 14 school districts approved bonds, less than half the $347 million sought by school boards and administrators was approved by voters. The rejections continued a turnaround since 16 of 18 bond proposals were approved in April; only four of nine proposals passed in September. School budget and bond votes are among the few opportunities voters have to tell government to rein in spending, said Brigid C. Harrison, a political science and law professor at Montclair State University. “When voters are feeling belt tightening in their own homes, they want government to spend less,” she said. Bond and budget votes “are one of the few forms of direct democracy we have in New Jersey,” she said. Before Tuesday’s elections, New Jersey voters had approved bond issues in 23 of 35 districts in 2007, said Frank Belluscio, director of communications for the New Jersey School Boards Association. Of 49 districts’ bond votes this year, voters approved 31 proposals totaling $354 million in construction. That is a 63 percent approval rate, a slight improvement over 2006 (60 percent) and 2005 (59 percent), but down significantly from 2003 (78 percent) and 2000 (77 percent).
Air Rights, Swapped for New Schools in New York City
C. J. Hughes, New York Times
December 16, 2007 NEW YORK: The thought of shrieks from playgrounds during recess may till now have distanced developers from choosing sites near schools. But with buildable city lots in such short supply, they now appear willing to reconsider. Two Manhattan buildings are to rise close enough to schools that they will almost seem part of campus: the Azure, at 33 East 91st Street, and a condo-rental at 250 East 57th Street. And if the schools and apartments end up looking similar, it’s because the same developers are to build both, under deals hammered out with city’s Educational Construction Fund, a division of the Department of Education. Created in 1967 but dormant for some time, the fund works to ease overcrowding in schools by leasing unused air rights over low-slung buildings, in exchange for new classrooms. In the past 40 years, the fund has added 18,000 school seats, said Jamie Smarr, its director, adding that the two new projects alone will create 2,700. “We’re getting $300 million of new construction out of this,” he said, “and none of it is going on the city’s books.” The Azure, which broke ground in September, will be a “co-op with condo rules,” which means subletters won’t require board approval, said John Caiazzo, a vice president of the DeMatteis Organizations, based in Elmont on Long Island. It is a developer of the 32-story tower, along with the Mattone Group of College Point, Queens. The Azure’s L-shaped lot had been home to Public School 151, which closed in 2000. The new structure, with 80,000 square feet across five floors, will serve Middle School 114, whose 350 students are now shoehorned into a nearby elementary school. It is set to open in September 2009, Mr. Caiazzo said. The Azure’s 127 units will range from 600-square-foot studios to 1,970-square-foot three bedrooms, he added. Priced from $713,000 to $3.7 million, the units went on sale in October, though “only a few contracts have gone out.” Mr. Caiazzo played down concerns about noise; the school’s 40-foot-wide recreation area will be away from apartments, he said. In fact, proximity might be a plus. “We’ve gotten quite a few inquiries about people moving here, so their kids could attend that school,” he said. The high-rise at 250 East 57th Street, as designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is an angular 59-story glass tower over a retail base. Its offering plan still requires state approval. But David Lowenfeld, a principal with World-Wide Group, its Manhattan-based developer, envisions a total of 320 units, from studios to three-bedrooms. Sixty percent will be condos, priced at $1,500 a square foot, he said. The 1.5-acre site now houses P.S. 59 and the High School of Art and Design, which faces Second Avenue. For the 2011 school year, the schools will have roomier new quarters. The elementary will triple in size, and the high school will grow 40 percent, Mr. Smarr said. First, though, World-Wide Group must build P.S. 59 a temporary facility; It is currently under construction on East 63rd Street. But what about noise from P.S. 59’s future rooftop playground? “This is the middle of New York,” Mr. Lowenfeld said. “People are used to noise.”
Plan for Joint Use of LAUSD Campuses Inches Ahead
Rick Orlov, Daily News
December 12, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Calling it a logical step that maximizes public land, the Los Angeles City Council approved a plan to expand agreements with the Los Angeles Unified School District to keep schools open on nights and weekends for the public. "The time has definitely come for this," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. "I will tell you that the people I talk with all want to know why we can't work together to make better use of these facilities. "They see these facilities and wonder why we can't work together and make better use of them." Under the proposal, a master joint use agreement is to be developed - the school board is scheduled to take up a similar proposal soon - in which the the district and city would agree to develop more sites at which the public can use the facilities after school hours. In the past, such agreements have stalled over liability concerns and cost of maintenance and operation. Councilman Tom LaBonge, who has been spearheading the project, said costs for both sides can be reduced by working together to make the land available. "We are finally (able to) make a step forward for increased joint use," LaBonge said, adding that the initial program is to identify 17 sites throughout the city in addition to 30 already in place. "What we are doing is developing a framework of agreement for the city and the LAUSD," LaBonge said. Officials with the city Recreation and Parks Department said the program fits with plans to add 1,000 acres of park space over the next five years. Councilman Richard Alarcon, who chairs the council's Education and Neighborhoods Committee, said park space should be the first areas to have common use. "We should be looking at other areas where we can work together," Alarc n said, adding he is planning to hold hearings on areas of mutual interest. "I would bet there are a number of things the city and the schools can do to help each other. I think it's time we did this ... to use it as a model for future agreements."
A Movable Feast
John K. Waters, THE Journal
December 11, 2007 NATIONAL : Furniture on wheels! Wireless islands! Cutting-edge K-12 classroom design marries digital technologies with thoughtful architecture, challenging traditional ideas about where and how learning takes place.
Wyoming Deals With School Construction Decisions
Rena Delbridge, Casper Star Tribune
December 09, 2007 WYOMING: At least one school building in Douglas County is rapidly running out of room, with enrollment increasing even as unprecedented community growth is forecast for the next 10 to 25 years. Superintendent Dan Espeland wants to prepare now for when those young students grow into their middle and high school years, but is somewhat strapped in advance planning. He’s facing skepticism from lawmakers and School Facilities Commission officials, and a reluctance to build now for projected needs. “I think there is some skepticism in the Legislature about whether, actually, we will experience the continued growth some people are predicting,” Espeland said. The local economic development organization recently publicized information suggesting the city’s population could double within seven to 15 years due to energy development. “There is that fear we may hit a bust down the line. And there’s some concern with overbuilding -- that’s not a good situation, either," Espeland said. Espeland anticipates a School Facilities Commission report in about three weeks that will prioritize capital construction projects across the state, including a new primary school for Douglas. The best news, however, may be that the commission has decided to hold back some of the capital construction money it expects to receive from the state this biennium, as a backup for emergency situations. Following a joint meeting of the Select School Facilities Committee and School Facilities Commission Friday in Casper, director Ken Daraie said about $20 million of the commission's appropriation will be reserved until the last six to nine months of the biennium, when money typically runs out but needs are more clear. “It’s a lot of money, and yet it’s not a lot, depending on what you wish to be able to do with it,” Daraie said. At that point, the $20 million could fund a new elementary school and a few emergencies, such as boiler or roof problems, Daraie said. If no emergencies arise, the money would fund the next item down on the commission’s priority list. Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Glenrock, chairs the legislative select committee. He said the committee and School Facilities Commission are considering ways to be more flexible, including shifting projects on the priority list when districts experience unusual changes, or when projects are delayed several years due to property constraints or other issues. That way, money can be spent on projects that are ready to go. That could be good news for Douglas schools, which have enjoyed moderate enrollment increases for a number of years, even as other districts slipped in numbers. Recently, however, enrollment is significantly higher -- especially in the youngest grades -- and is continuing to grow as the school year plays out, a trend that is “quite unusual,” Espeland said.
Sales Tax New Option for Illinois School Construction
Bob Susnjara , Daily Herald
December 07, 2007 ILLINOIS: School districts now have a shot at asking voters to approve a sales tax increase as a way to help pay for construction-related expenses in all but one Illinois county. Under a state law that became effective in October, school boards representing at least 51 percent of the student population of a county are allowed to pass resolutions to get the sales tax question on the ballot. A local county board also can put the school construction sales tax to a vote. Cook County was excluded from the law, which was detailed for some Grayslake High School District 127 school board members Thursday night. Deanna Sullivan, director of governmental relations for the Illinois Association of School Boards, said the countywide sales tax hike cannot exceed one percentage point. She said the school construction tax must be in quarter percentage-point increments. Sullivan said school districts statewide have indicated strong interest in the tax since legislators in the state House and Senate overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich's veto of the measure in early October. She said the sales tax would be a good way to help fund new buildings, renovations, architects, land acquisition and other construction-related costs. If a school district's slice of the pie isn't enough to cover a construction project, said Sullivan, a local property tax increase referendum could be sought to pay for the balance.
Bill to Create Standardized Plans for School Facilities Proposed in Indiana
Staff Writer, Rensselaer Republican
December 07, 2007 INDIANA: A bill to help taxpayers control school construction costs and reduce debt service payments on new facilities by creating standardized plans for school facilities was filed by state Sen. Brandt Hershman (R-Wheatfield). Senate Bill 13 will create standardized plans for school facilities to control construction costs and debt service payments for those facilities. Approximately 50 percent of property taxes collected in Indiana are used to fund local schools. Of those tax dollars, a significant amount is used to pay for debt service. “Hoosiers want significant, permanent property tax reform,” Hershman said. “In order to achieve that, we must contain costs. Since school spending accounts for approximately 50 percent of our property taxes, this seemed a logical place to start.” Senate Bill 13 is part of a package introduced by the Senate Republican Caucus to provide significant and permanent property tax relief. The bill: Requires that a contract for professional services for design of school facilities must provide that any completed plans and specifications developed under the contract become the joint property of the person providing the services, the school corporation and the State. Requires the DOE with the assistance of the State Building Law Compliance Officer to develop and update standard plans and specifications for the construction of school buildings and athletic facilities. Requires State DLGF approval (in addition to County Review Board approval) for schools that elect to use a non-standard design for a school facility. The General Assembly enacted legislation for development of stock school plans in 1951, but funds were never appropriated for the measure and it was repealed in 1972. In 2005 Gov. Daniels asked the DLGF to implement new cost-containment measures because Indiana was constructing school buildings 27 percent larger and 46 percent more expensive than the national average. Those new thresholds for costs per square foot have resulted in a 65 percent reduction in total costs for new construction, Hershman said. Many states have adopted plans to help contain school construction costs and help school corporations with construction projects, Hershman said. California1s state architect reviews all school schematics to ensure all building and educational requirements are being met, and the California Offices of Public School Construction and State Allocation websites provide a website where school corporations can share and review other school plans. North Carolina has taken a different approach, creating a clearinghouse in the Department of Education which allows school corporations to compare existing plans and modify them for their own use. Officials in Johnston County, N.C. estimate design costs for new schools have been cut by more than six percent thanks to the clearinghouse program, Hershman said.
$100,000 Grant to Make Lake Forest School Building More Energy Efficient
Staff Writer, Lake County News-Sun
December 07, 2007 ILLINOIS: Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn was in Lake Bluff to honor Lake Bluff School District 65 for designing what will be one of the state's first certified "green" schools. The district received a $100,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to pay for environmental design features that will make the new school -- planned for 350 W. Washington Ave. -- more energy efficient. "This energy-efficient building will help Lake Bluff School District 65 save money on ever-increasing costs of heating and cooling," Quinn said. "This model of green construction will certainly help our students understand the importance of energy conservation," Superintendent David Vick said. State Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, said the new building is setting a precedent and she was impressed with the fact that residents took the initiative. "What makes this such a great project is it was a real partnership between the school district and everyday citizens of the community who felt strongly about the environment," she said. "The residents thought it was important enough to get involved in a grass roots movement that helped push this proposal," she said, "It will be a much better building because of it." Garrett said that the project will add about $200,000 in extra costs to the school's construction and she said the district will try and secure the other $100,000 through other sources.
Artificial Turf Runs Afoul of Science
Ryan Tracy, The Times
December 06, 2007 NEW JERSEY: When athletes in the township school district sprint past their opponents in future years, they might be kicking up tiny grains of rubber instead of the usual cloud of dust. The small rubber particles would be part of three synthetic fields that would replace the overused grass football fields with a softer, more durable artificial surface. But the pieces of rubber, which create a soil-like layer in a cutting-edge synthetic field system, have also been at the center of a controversy about the health impacts of the popular artificial fields, especially as their use has become widespread. Synthetic turf fields at each of Hamilton's three high schools account for $2.8 million of an $81 million school construction referendum township voters will be asked to endorse in its entirety or not at all. Meanwhile, the synthetic turf fields have been installed at more than 100 parks, schools and stadiums across the state, including Princeton University's football field and two high school fields in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District. Controversy was sparked after a Rutgers University study released about a year ago detected the presence of potentially carcinogenic chemicals called polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in recycled tire rubber used as an ingredient in the synthetic fields. One part of the study looked at FieldTurf-brand fields, the same brand name that Hamilton school officials are considering. That study stopped short of concluding that athletes who come in contact with the rubber or ingest the particles could be at risk, but it did call for more research and suggested a "moratorium" on building synthetic turf fields. Clamor about the issue in New York led a state senator there to introduce a bill last month that would suspend construction of the fields for six months.
Arizona Schools in Catch 22 When it Comes to State Funding of Facilities
Editorial, Vail Sun
December 04, 2007 Arizona: The state's educational institutions are quickly finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. What is occurring is a classic Catch 22 when it comes to funding education. In the November election, 33 school districts throughout Arizona asked their voters to approve overrides or bond issues. Bond issues allow the districts to supplement state facilities board funds for capital improvements. Overrides permit districts to go beyond their approved budgets. Of the 33 districts seeking voter approval, 22, or two-thirds, were turned down. Only 11 districts received the additional funding. For many of them, it was a close vote. And last year, Cochise Community College's bond issue was soundly defeated by county voters. It's easy to understand the voters' point of view. A yes vote means higher property taxes. In the last few years, as real estate values have jumped, so have tax valuations. Now that the market has cooled and some of that real estate has lost value, the valuations and tax rates remain unchanged. A lot of people feel they just can't afford any more taxes. But this leaves school and community college districts in a quandary. For growing districts, money available from the School Facilities Board lags growth by a couple of years. Moreover, the state has failed to recognize increases in construction costs for schools, so it becomes an instance of too little, too late. Moreover, the Arizona Legislature, rarely a champion of public education, tends to look at voter behavior as an indication of voter interest in education. That is specious reasoning at best, but it is convenient for a legislative body that has historically had little interest in "book learnin'." As a result, schools can't get money from overrides and bond issues, but when they go to the Legislature, they are ignored because they couldn't get their bond issues and overrides passed. If the state would properly fund education, they wouldn't need to go to voters. On the other hand, if voters would approve their requests, state funding would be less critical. What's an educator to do? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. There is nothing paid for with taxes that is more important than educating young people. But districts are going to have to conduct sophisticated public relations campaigns on an ongoing basis - not just when they need money. Nearby, Benson has done that, and their bond issue and override passed with a 75 percent majority. Higher taxes are a tough sell, no matter what they buy.
Utah Lawmakers Look at Income Tax to Fund School Buildings
Lisa Schencker, Salt Lake Tribune
December 04, 2007 UTAH: Legislators are no longer looking to more equally fund school construction across the state by raising property taxes, but they are hoping to keep new districts from opening until they've figured it out for sure. A legislative school building equalization task force approved a proposed bill that would keep new school districts - such as the one that will result from the Jordan School District split - from opening to students until, at the earliest, July 1, 2009 with an equalization law or until July 1, 2012 without one. The task force, however, also moved one step closer to passing such a law by approving a proposed bill that would equalize money for school buildings throughout the state by using income tax revenue from the Uniform School Fund instead of by raising property taxes. A previous proposal would have likely meant property tax increases for residents of about 25 school districts. Several legislators said they decided to support the new proposal because they felt it had a better chance of becoming law. The idea behind the proposal is that legislators would give a total of $52.8 million in income tax from the Uniform School Fund to the Utah State Board of Education each year to be put toward school buildings. Though some school districts might raise property taxes to get a maximum amount of money from the state, no district would have to, Eastman said. Some school districts would see millions in additional money.
Schools Look to Voters for Exit from 'Corridor of Shame'
Bill Robinson , The Columbia State
December 04, 2007 SOUTH CAROLINA: Dillon County voters go to the polls to decide whether to infuse as much as $60 million into construction of public schools that serve Lake View, Latta and Dillon. At issue is whether county residents support using money generated by a local one-penny-on-the-dollar sales tax to leverage loans for building new schools or additions in all three communities. The centerpiece is a proposed middle school for Dillon 2, which uses a mixture of buildings that date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. J.V. Martin Junior High is featured prominently in a 2005 documentary about substandard conditions of rural schools along Interstate 95 in eastern South Carolina. "We want to shed that stigma of being in the 'Corridor of Shame,'" said Carl Altman, who heads a committee that supports school construction. "I don't think I live in a corridor of shame. I'm happy and proud to live here." The average age of schools across Dillon County is about 40 years. The last new school built was Dillon High, which opened in 1970. Since 2003, Dillon County has collected an extra penny on the dollar in sales taxes to generate $11.7 million for various capital projects the county government asked voters to support in a referendum. Collections have gone so well the county anticipates reaching its goal in mid-2008 two years ahead of schedule. Enter the Dillon County Board of Education, which has struggled to help the three local school systems it oversees find a way to pay for school repairs and upgrades. Dillon County has high unemployment, low-wage jobs and widespread poverty, a recipe that makes raising property taxes specifically earmarked for school construction a difficult sell.
A Thriftier School Building Program
Editorial, Milford Daily News
December 04, 2007 MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts is getting back into the school building business, after taking three years off for a major reorganization of the program governing it. The school building boom of the 1990s left the School Building Assistance program's finances unsustainable. Its oversight was criticized for failing to set standards, police practices and find efficiencies to help control costs. The old SBA program was mostly a list, and once a project rose to the top of the list, the state picked up a big share - generally 60 to 90 percent, depending on a variety of factors - of whatever it was local officials spent. In 2004, the Legislature responded to problems with the program by setting up a new revenue stream for the SBA and moving it from the Department of Education to the office of state Treasurer Tim Cahill. Since then, while Cahill has been rewriting the rules, dozens of school districts have been waiting to find out how much - and if - the state would help them with critical school needs. Last week Cahill released a new list, but even communities on it don't know yet exactly what they will be able to build. The new SBA will provide immediate help for 27 schools in need of immediate repairs. Another 56 schools, including many that local officials say need to be replaced, not repaired, have been accepted for a feasibility process in which state and local officials will weigh different options to remedy school shortcomings. The 83 schools selected will have a shot at $2.5 billion the SBA plans to distribute over the next five years. Among the winners in the MetroWest/495 region are schools in Natick, Hopkinton, Hudson, Northborough, Medway, Sherborn, Uxbridge, Wellesley, Wayland, Norwood, Shrewsbury and Dedham. Another 340 schools, however, are out of luck at this time. Among the projects left off the list entirely are schools in Franklin, Milford, Marlborough and Newton. Cahill has made it clear there are no blank checks being written by the new SBA. All options are on the table for the feasibility process, including not just renovation and repairs, but alternatives like regionalization, redistricting and reprogramming existing spaces. Even when new construction is approved, the generous reimbursement rates of the past won't return, and Cahill promises the state will be an active collaborator when it comes to choosing designs and funding strategies. The effectiveness of Cahill's approach will be seen when schools are actually built. The old system included incentives for overspending: architects and engineers paid as a percentage of the gross cost, rigid guidelines for athletic fields and square footage that made renovating or rebuilding on downtown sites difficult, reimbursement rates that encouraged school officials to load up on new equipment and furniture. The old system helped fuel school construction inflation, resulting in projects like the $155 million high school now being built in Newton. Parents and school officials understandably want nothing but the best. But it's good to see policy-makers recognize there are limits to how much the state should have to pay for it
New Charleston Middle School Called 'a Dream'
Kelly L. Holleran, Charleston Daily Mail
December 03, 2007 WEST VIRGINIA: When Sissonville Middle School Principal Brian Eddy walks through the doors of the newly built school Dec. 19, he may have to pinch himself a few times to make sure he is not dreaming. After nearly five years of planning, the new Sissonville Middle School soon will open its doors to Eddy and about 490 students. "For anybody in education, this is a dream," he said. As Eddy gives a tour of the $17.5 million new school, he can't help but constantly grin. The school, for which the state School Building Authority provided about $7 million in funding, is a sprawling, state-of-the-art complex where technology and academics have taken a front seat to athletics. For example, all students will have a computer class. They will have access to two wired labs - one with 30 computers and another with 33. In addition, there will be a wireless computer lab for each grade in the school. The wireless labs consist of 30 laptop computers that can be carted between classrooms. Every classroom will have a 42-inch, flat-screen television. Teachers will be able to use white boards, also known as smart boards. Teachers and students can write on the boards with electronic pens. All teachers will have their own laptop computer and printer at their workstation. Every classroom will have three computers. The latest technology is evident everywhere, even in the cafeteria, which can double as an auditorium. A huge data projector hangs on a wall in the cafeteria above a classroom that can be converted into a stage. Two steps lead from the cafeteria to the stage. While school is in session, the stage will serve as a health classroom. A retractable wall will separate the cafeteria from the classroom. When the wall is in place, the entrance to the room is through a door adjacent to the gym. The community was desperately in need of a new school. The old school, which was built in 1939, had flooded twice, and there were heating and cooling concerns. Although the old middle school had plenty of room for its occupants, personal space had become an issue. No sixth graders have lockers at the old middle school. Now, with 580 lockers, there will be more than enough for all students to have individual spaces. School board member Barbara Welch thinks the community will be awed when they see the school. "It is absolutely more than I ever dreamed," she said. "It's beyond my wildest imagination. I cry when I go through it. It is one of the most beautiful structures. The technology is second to none. I'm so anxious for my community to see it." The school has already started to impact the community, she said. "We're seeing several businesses moving into our community," she said. "They know that that is going to draw people into this community."
Sluggish Housing Starts Could Mean Savings for School Projects in Massachusetts
Margo Sullivan , Eagle-Tribune
December 02, 2007 MASSACHUSETTS: The housing slump could translate into savings for some school building projects, according to managers at several construction companies. "It's sort of a buyer's market," said Steve Ingram, an owner of Ingram Construction Co. in West Swanzey. "If I had a municipal building or a school to do, or even a private building, this would be the time to do it. "We have seen fuel now over $3 a gallon. We can expect it to go up even more. That ripples through every industry - not just construction," he said. "Because of the fact there are fewer projects out there and work is less plentiful, contractors are willing to reduce (profit) margins." That could be good news for towns like Pelham, where school officials are considering building a new high school. But it's not such good news for Windham, which has already started to build a new high school. "It's kind of late for us to take advantage," said Glenn Davis, the engineer overseeing the new Windham High School construction. Most of the work at Windham High has already been bid and awarded. But Davis said the bids for subcontracting jobs have been coming in under budget. On average, the bids have come in 3 percent to 4 percent under the target. "We're hoping that trend will continue," he said, estimating 76 percent of the bids have been received to date. Davis noted some quotes have been higher than expected, but the trend in prices has been downward. Contractors are adjusting to the new economic hard times out of necessity and trimming their prices, he said. A sampling of companies doing business in New Hampshire found only Gilbane Building Co.'s corporate spokesman saying business was still strong. "Nationwide, business has never been better," Wes Cotter said. But Gary Bertram of Hutter Construction Corp. in New Ipswich said the price drop is not going to be dramatic and likely will be temporary. He estimated costs will go down by 2 percent due to competition, but doubts they will go lower. Contractors still have to pay for materials and fuel, he said. Meanwhile, Bertram said, school officials would be prudent to continue including 5 percent inflation rates when they estimate a project's price. "Nobody can predict exactly what's going to happen," he said. "My gut tells me it's going to be a little bit lower than that (5 percent)." Salem and Pelham have school construction projects moving into the pipeline. Paul Marinace, an architect who has been designing renovations at both Salem and Pelham high schools, did not immediately return calls for comment. Marinace's firm has estimated the Salem High renovation will cost $41 million. Last month, the School Board hired consultant Gino Baroni of the Trident Group to scrutinize the project's cost. Pelham is considering a $44.6 million new high school building, plus a $3.2 million renovation to convert the existing high school building to a middle school. It's too soon to predict if voters will agree to build a new Pelham High School. And if they do, it's too soon to say where school building prices will be if ground is finally broken. Pelham Schools Superintendent Frank Bass said he was not sure school construction costs would go lower, due to the price of steel. Ingram said it's really debatable whether school construction costs should be going down. Contractors are seeing increases in their costs - and not just for building materials like steel. It also costs more for gas to drive the materials and the workers to the job site, he said. But the reality is, there's an industrywide building slowdown, and it's not just the housing market that's been hit. The slump has also spread into industrial and commercial jobs. Statewide, construction company managers and owners are battling one another for jobs by cutting their profit margins, Ingram said. "The margins are smaller," he said. "They just have to be." Ingram did not want to quote a number, but estimated construction costs could be down 1 percent to 2 percent.
Schools Watching Indiana Statehouse. Tax Reforms May Hit Building Plans.
Bryan Corbin , Courier Press
December 02, 2007 INDIANA: The 2008 Legislature will consider sweeping property tax reform legislation. Among proposals offered by Gov. Mitch Daniels is a plan to have voters approve or reject large capital projects, such as school construction, through referendums, instead of the current petition-drive remonstrance process. Meanwhile, Senate Republican leaders have introduced their own property tax reform legislation — three proposed constitutional amendments and 11 bills. One of them, Senate Bill 13, is aimed at the debt on school bond issues. It is intended to curb what critics call exorbitant architectural design costs for school-construction projects that are passed on to homeowners through property taxes. The bill would create a central repository of standardized school blueprints at the state Department of Education. When school corporations need to expand, building plans would be available off the shelf to construct, thus saving the cost of designing a new building from the ground up. The bill would allow school boards to contract to build schools using non-standardized plans, but they would first have to appeal to the county Tax and Capital Control Board and to the state Department of Local Government Finance. But those newly drawn plans would become jointly owned property of the state, meaning other school districts could use the same blueprints and duplicate the construction in the future. "I wanted to look at meaningful way for schools to construct the necessary space in a cost-effective fashion," said state Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Monticello, who introduced Senate Bill 13. Hershman emphasized there would be flexibility for school boards to make minor modifications or to develop non-standardized plans for local needs, such as a performing-arts center. "I don't believe we would be restricting anybody, but there would have to be a justification provided that would pass local and state scrutiny," he said. A lobbying organization watching the various property tax proposals carefully is the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. The association does not oppose Senate Bill 13 as long as the bill does not mandate that schools build identical "cookie-cutter" buildings, executive director Dennis Costerison said. "This is a way that some legislators believe they can deal with the issue of the increased debt that we have. I don't think this is a way to stop school construction, but it is a way to see if we can slow down the overall costs," he said.
Alabama Tornado Prompts Request for Stronger Safety Rooms in Schools
Staff Writer, WAFF.com
November 30, 2007 ALABAMA: A powerful tornado that destroyed Enterprise High School and killed 8 students earlier this year has prompted weather forecasters to call for increased safety measures in homes and schools. Who can forget these images out of Enterprise after an F-4 twister leveled the area March 1st? The high school was destroyed, and eight students were killed when a concrete wall collapsed on top of them while seeking shelter. Months later, weather statements taken from south Alabama show high school administrators and students followed appropriate safety measures before and during the tornado outbreak. Federal weather teams also determined there's a need for adequate hardened safe rooms for homes, schools and businesses. Tim Troutman with the National Weather Service in Huntsville said they are essential for tornado safety. "Safe rooms will give you extra withstandability to tornado winds and high winds," he said. Weather specialists contend a hardened safe room can make a difference in certain types of severe storms. But even the most well-built structure can't always stand up to mother nature. When Enterprise High School builds back, classrooms will have interior shutters that lock during storms.
Daylight, Clean Air, on Michigan School Priority Lists
Staff Writer, Business Review
November 29, 2007 MICHIGAN: Studies have demonstrated that not only does natural lighting save schools money, it also improves student performance. So architects are tossing out the 1980s notion that big windows are big money-wasters -- the small ones didn't save that much in heating or cooling, later studies showed. That's according to Susan Einspahr, president and CEO of Kingscott Associates Inc. in Kalamazoo. School architecture, she said, is the firm's specialty. The new windows are more energy-efficient than windows of an earlier generation, and the interior lights probably are on sensors that dim them or turn them off completely when daylight is brightest, added Greg Monberg, senior associate and project engineer for Fanning/Howey Associates Inc. another school architecture specialist. The Michigan City, Ind., office has done projects for the Dowagiac, Three Rivers, St. Joseph, New Buffalo and Buchanan school districts. Designing for sound is important, too, Einspahr said. Schools are being built with auditory enhancement systems that require speakers throughout the classroom. Mechanical system design must minimize noise, she said. The U.S. Green Building Council and its Energy Star program are shaping school design. The single most important considerations in school LEED certification is air quality, Monberg said, because children are more susceptible to air contaminants. Kingscott designs from a "green" baseline, and offers more as the client asks, Einspahr said.
More Than Two Dozen District of Columbia Public Schools Facing Closure
David Lipscomb, Washington Times
November 29, 2007 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA : D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said that he has no specific plans for more than two dozen schools that he has proposed closing over the next two school years. "We're looking at a lot of different options, but we haven't decided on anything yet," said Mr. Fenty. Mr. Fenty and D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee say closing 23 schools and relocating three special-education programs would save the city about $24 million. Mr. Fenty, who took over the school system in June, said he is considering several options for the properties but none would be sold. The school system has 141 buildings that cover about 15 million square feet. Mrs. Rhee said a typical school system should have about 150 square feet of space per students. But the District has about 302 square feet per student; under the proposal, it will be cut to about 257 square feet. The closings would put the number of vacant school buildings at roughly 26; five schools were closed over the summer. The proposal follows a steady decline in enrollment in recent years, as parents have opted to send their children to charter and private schools. This year's enrollment number is about 5,000 less than last year. Mrs. Rhee said she anticipates opposition to the plan, even though it came largely from suggestions by parents of children in public schools.
Buncombe County Schools’ State-of-the-Art Security Surveillance System
Staff Writer, Asheville Citizen-Times
November 28, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: Buncombe County Schools’ state-of-the-art security surveillance system is featured in this month’s edition of Security Management – a publication earmarked for security professionals worldwide. The article, titled “The New Hall Monitor,” is an in-depth look at the planning, implementation and maintenance of the district’s camera systems, which are strategically placed in all middle and high schools. In the seven-page article, Eric Arthur, the district’s video security engineer and technician supervisor, describes the steps that the technology department took to select and operate the appropriate software system. The system took about four years to implement, but was definitely worth the effort, according to a district spokesman. Buncombe Schools' surveillance cameras serve as an internet protocol based system that administrators, school resource officers and other law enforcement personnel can view anywhere they have internet access. The article also notes that the district saved the county 20 to 35 percent by installing the system with district personnel. It mentioned that choosing to maintain the system in-house has saved the county an estimated 60 percent in back-end maintenance. The cameras have help to reduce the number of violent incidents occurring at the middle and high schools. The system has also assisted law enforcement investigations and has provided evidence in the prosecution of criminal cases.
$1 Billion to Fix Colorado's Crumbling Schools with No New Taxes
Dianne Primavera and Debbie Benefield, YourHub.com
November 28, 2007 COLORADO: Colorado has a big problem: our schools are literally crumbling. Eighty-eight percent of the state's school districts report at least one school not meeting health or safety standards. Colorado's schools - some more than 100 years old - have failing roof systems, broken boilers, asbestos contamination, structural problems, inadequate fire safety systems, inadequate water treatment systems, faulty electric and pest infestation. Some districts have nearly half of their students in trailers. However, with a plan recently announced, Colorado's schools are about to get the resources they need to build safe buildings without distractions from learning. The Building Excellent Schools Today - or B.E.S.T. - will help make sure every child in Colorado attends a school that is safe, healthy and educationally enriching -- without raising taxes or impacting the state general fund. B.E.S.T. may be the most significant investment in Colorado school construction since statehood. The plan will send as much as $1 billion - with no new taxes - towards school repair, and when needed, new construction. That's enough to build as many as 100 new schools and to repair hundreds of others. B.E.S.T. works by leveraging income from the School Trust Lands, property the federal government granted to Colorado for the benefit of its schoolchildren upon statehood, to build new schools and help fix Colorado's most dilapidated public education facilities. B.E.S.T will ensure students spend less time concentrating on staying warm during the winter and more time pondering the periodic tables by covering the varied capital and infrastructure needs of Colorado's public schools. The first step for B.E.S.T. will be to conduct a statewide assessment of the health and safety needs of our schools. Once the neediest schools are identified, funds will be leveraged to repair existing schools and to build brand new schools across the state.
Green Schools Get Better Results
Hallie Woods, Coloradoan
November 28, 2007 COLORADO: Mike Stohlgren can get a glimpse of the outside world in every classroom. With solitubes, large windows and lots of natural lighting, Stohlgren never feels like he's going to school in a cave. "My grades are better, and I'm sure that's why," joked Stohlgren, a 10th-grader at Fossil Ridge High School. But Stohlgren's sense of humor isn't too far-fetched. Studies have shown green buildings can increase productivity and improve health for those who spend large amounts of time in them. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certified buildings have more natural lighting and exposure to outdoors, which can improve productivity, said Ashley Katz, communications coordinator for the U.S. Green Building Council. "LEED-certified spaces offer a connection to the outdoors with large and operable windows, which makes it more pleasant to spend your day," she said. Students in Pennsylvania moving from a conventional school to a 2002 LEED gold building had a 19 percent increase in average Student Oral Reading Fluency Scores compared with test scores from the previous building, according to a study done by George Kats, funded in part by the U.S. Green Building Council. A study by the California Energy Commission found that having a better view out a window was consistently associated with better performance. Tara Rigby, a social studies teacher at Fossil Ridge High School, said she notices the difference the school's many windows provide for her and her students. "Exposure to more light, especially in the morning, makes me more productive and motivated," Rigby said. "People tend to be a little more alert with natural lighting," said Stu Reeve, energy manager for Poudre School District. A 1999 study done by the California Energy Commission in schools in Fort Collins, Capistrano, Calif., and Seattle showed students in classrooms with the most natural lighting scored 7 percent to 18 percent higher than those with the least natural lighting. "The natural lighting certainly lends itself to a calmer sense for kids," said Bill Smith, principal of Bacon Elementary, a green school in Fort Collins. Green buildings are also built to bring in natural light, without creating glare. Workers in offices without glare outperformed workers in offices with glare by 15 percent or more, according to the Kats study. "The light (in green schools) is balanced upward to create less glare," said Matt Brooksmith, designer and co-director of sustainability for the Neenan Company of Fort Collins. "You have less eye strain, and it makes doing any task, like taking a test, that much easier," Brooksmith said. According to Kats, approximately 55 million students spend their days in schools that are often unhealthy, which restricts their ability to learn. Students and faculty spend 85 to 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentration of pollutants is typically higher than the outdoor concentration by 10 percent to 100 percent. But less-toxic materials and cleaner air circulation can promote a healthier indoor environment. Buildings with improved indoor air quality saw an average of a 51 percent reduction in colds and flu, according to a study by the Center for Building Performance at Carnegie Mellon University.
83 Schools Make First Cut for Massachusetts School Construction Funds
John C. Drake and James Vaznis , Boston Globe
November 28, 2007 MASSACHUSETTS: Eighty-three schools around Massachusetts have been selected as the leading candidates for millions of dollars in school construction money, potentially bringing relief to parents, educators, and school administrators frustrated for years by crumbling libraries, classrooms, and roofs. The Massachusetts School Building Authority will vote on whether to approve the list, which was culled from an initial pool of 423 requests representing 162 districts asking for state money. While not a guarantee of funding, the selection means the schools won the first round of a stiff competition for $2.5 billion set to be spent on school construction over the next five years. The state had delayed school construction spending for years in order to get the new building authority up and running. In its first year, the school building program is authorized to spend up to $500 million, which would cover repairs, feasibility studies, design work, and some initial payments for construction of new buildings that win approval. The the school building program, set up by the Legislature in 2004, is designed to force districts to justify their requests. The idea was that in working with the authority, districts in some cases would choose to seek state-funded repairs, rather than new schools. The feasibility studies will verify enrollment projections, investigate alternatives to expensive new buildings, and pore over bid documents. The new approach contrasts with the state's previous process in which state funding for school projects was either approved outright or summarily rejected. Now, the state monitors the process more closely.
$9.5 Billion Bond Measure Under Review for Clark County School District, Nevada
Antonio Planas, Review-Journal
November 27, 2007 NEVADA: Clark County School District staff unveiled to the School Board a school construction proposal that, if approved by voters in November 2008, would be the largest in state history in dollars generated. The $9.5 billion, 10-year plan is to build 73 new schools. The district is still building schools under a 10-year bond measure passed in 1998 for $3.5 billion. Superintendent Walt Rulffes said the proposal would be an extension of the 1998 bond measure so it would not increase the portion of the property tax rate that goes to schools. "This represents the continued growth that is on the horizon" for Southern Nevada, Rulffes said. "It also represents a program that could be sustained without a tax increase."The nation's fifth-largest school system has nearly 309,000 students. District officials predict the enrollment will grow to 473,000 students by 2018." The district's current bond program is funded through three measures. One, a property tax measure, sets the district's share of that tax rate at 0.5534 cents per $100 of assessed property value through 2008. As the district pays off its old debt, the measure allows the district to continue collecting the same amount of revenue for new construction. Before the legislation was approved in 1997, the district had been going to voters for property tax increases to build new schools. Of the district's $9.5 billion proposal, $7 billion is expected to be supported through property taxes, while the additional $2.5 billion will come from a hotel room tax and the real estate transfer tax. A major difference between the 1998 bond program and the 2008 proposal is the amount of money that would be spent to renovate or replace existing schools. Although district officials have not specified how many schools could be replaced or renovated, $4.375 billion of the $9.5 billion would be allocated for those purposes. Under the district's 1998 program, $366 million of the $4.9 billion was allocated to replace existing schools, said Jeff Weiler, the district's chief financial officer.
District Hopes Green School Will Save Money, Environment
Kristen Grieco , Gloucester Daily Times
November 27, 2007 MASSACHUSETTS: It may not have the glitz and glamour of solar panels or wind turbines, but the new Manchester Essex Middle and High School will be green all the same. Sarah Creighton, chairwoman of the School Building Committee, is the first to admit that some energy-saving features in the new building - waterless urinals, for example - are not likely to interest the average student. Other items might generate a bit more enthusiasm due to the technology. Photo sensors, for instance, will automatically dim the electric lights when natural light is sufficient. Of course, there will be some features that students and teachers might find downright inconvenient, such as the reduced air conditioning. But to the building committee, a combination of things that are both economically and environmentally sound - including some that may require sacrifice on a hot day - is the most responsible way to make the new school a green building. The greening of the building will have more of a benefit than just reducing its "carbon footprint," a measure of the impact of human activities accordign to how much carbon dioxide they produce. It will also reduce expenses over the years and make the school eligible for money-saving reimbursements from utility companies and the state, Creighton said. Utility companies such as National Grid, which provides the school's electricity, provide incentive programs that Creighton said the building committee will max out. With the incentives to help pay for some of the more expensive measures, such as a highly efficient air conditioner for some portions of the building, the committee expects a one-year return on the investment from the energy savings. Building a green school may also win the district more money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The building committee is waiting to hear whether it will receive money from the public fund. Creighton said that by erecting a green building, the district could receive an extra 1 percent or 2 percent in state reimbursement of school building costs. To be eligible to receive that money, the school will have to qualify as a high-performance green school under state standards. Creighton said that on most projects, experts are brought in during construction to do a third-party review of the effectiveness of the school's green measures.
Tennessee Officials Wary of Spike in School Construction Costs
Erik Schelzig, Associated Press, Jackson Sun
November 27, 2007 TENNESSEE: State officials are looking for ways to defray spiking projections for school construction costs amid fears of a tight budget year. The Department of Education’s budget requests includes an 18 percent increase in school construction costs next year, after several years where growth was in the single digits. The state has missed tax projections by nearly $136 million in the budget year that began in July, and officials are uncertain about the level of revenue collections through the rest of the year. Deputy Education Commissioner Tim Webb said officials are looking for an explanation for the big hike in construction costs. The formula uses regional averages compiled by a publication called RSMeans to calculate increases in annual construction spending. The state could instead decide to use its own historical data and inflation projections to calculate future costs, Webb said. Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, agreed that the state should find a way to lessen the blow of rising construction costs. Bredesen said changing the way the state calculates school building costs shouldn’t hurt existing building projects and that only a small number of school districts are embarking on new building projects this year. Local governments are responsible for all school construction. While the state’s funding formula includes the school building element, there is nothing that requires the money be spent for that purpose.
Lafayette Parish Schools Suffer Repair Shortfall
Amanda Bedgood , Daily Advertiser
November 27, 2007 LOUISIANA: Lafayette Parish schools are leaking, molding, overcrowded and the system doesn't have the money to fix the old or build the new, according to a recently released study. The League of Women Voters of Lafayette outlined the problems in Lafayette's aging facilities in its report Everybody's Schools: Addressing the Immediate and Long-term Facilities Needs of Lafayette Parish Public Schools. The study says the widely held belief that the district spends money on a top-heavy administration has kept the district from garnering support for a tax measure to fund facilities. But, the study found that 26 of 64 parishes have a higher millage rate for their schools than does Lafayette Parish. According to the study, Lafayette Parish has the third-highest per-capita income in the state, but it spends less than the state average on its students. The report released last week reiterated what some board members have been preaching for months and others for years: Facilities are deteriorating and overcrowded, the system has historically under-funded capital improvements and there's no money on hand to handle the problem.
Oregon's Green Schools Save Green, Impact Learning
Amy Troy, KGW.com
November 26, 2007 OREGON: Mr. Speakman's fifth grade classroom at Ash Creek Intermediate, in Monmouth, looks like a typical social studies class you'd find anywhere in America. His students are studying Christopher Columbus. They're focused on their lesson. They don't notice the lights are off. The don't notice the daylight spilling through the windows, flooding down circular skylights and pouring through skylight boxes in the hallway. They simply notice Christopher Columbus was way off target when he mistakenly landed in America. But teachers notice the difference. And so do taxpayers. "It's just tremendously positive." That's how Ash Creek Principal Barbara Whelander describes her "green school." She leads me through the hallways, points out the energy efficient florescent lights that automatically turn off when there's enough daylight. She says "we need to be good stewards of those dollars that the public trusts us with - I think we've done that here." Ash Creek Intermediate opened in 2002. It's one of Oregon's first green schools, designed by BOORA Architects of Portland. State numbers show it cost nearly ten-percent less to construct than a traditional school. It uses at least thirty-percent less energy and water each year. The annual savings add up. Brandon Adams, the School Programs Manager at the Oregon Department of Energy collects data from Oregon's eighteen "high efficiency schools". He says on average, the savings at each school "is enough to fund one teacher's salary a year." "It's a much more responsible use of taxpayer dollars, they're environmentally friendly." Plus, Adams says the Oregon Department of Energy and local power companies give school districts incentives ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to build green. There are currently five green schools in planning stages in Oregon. Adams says, per capita, Oregon leads the nation in "high efficiency schools." There's also the impact on learning. Several studies have found test scores actually rise, slightly, in green schools. Adams quotes raw data collected in a Seattle study. "It's a fifteen percent increase on reading, a twelve percent increase on math!" He's amazed. Adams says the use of daylight in the classroom, rather than artificial light, proves better for learning. And that's not all. Other studies suggest students and teachers get sick less in green schools, because the buildings are constructed with more natural materials on the floors and walls which emit fewer toxins. Plus, green schools use different ventilation systems that don't re-circulate air through an entire school, spreading air-borne illness or dust. Mike Kozisek, who supervises maintenance for the entire 13-J district, notices a difference at Ash Creek. He says "the ventilation system is just top of the line."
Watertown Elementary School Has Latest Security Design
Staff Writer, Education Week/Associated Press [free subscription required]
November 26, 2007 MINNESOTA: The building, designed to house and secure more than 600 people, has 23 security cameras inside and out that record 24 hours a day. The windows do not open, in part so no one can sneak in. They also are extra-large so the outside perimeter can be monitored, and they are scaled so even small children can easily look out. During business hours, all of the facility's doors except one are locked, forcing every visitor to enter through the office. Welcome to Watertown-Mayer Elementary School, one of the newest — and most unusual — schools in Minnesota. The Carver County school has all the latest educational accouterments — state-of-the-art computers, multimedia learning centers and ergonomic classrooms. But it also sports enough security features to make some prisons proud. That's because the school was built using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, concepts, principles that have been around for decades but which recently are becoming more commonplace. What makes the Watertown building unusual is that CPTED principles are being used not only in a small community — population 3,029 — but also at an elementary school. "We're responsible for children so (school security) is very important to us," said Principal Nick Guertin. "It's important that parents feel that their kids are well taken care of. We want to be able to control who comes into the building. We're the only school, as far as I know, that has a design that ensures that everyone passes through the office." The $16 million school opened in September to rave reviews from students, parents, teachers and staff. The school features the standard security cameras, low bushes outside so people can't hide, sight lines inside the building that keep students in plain view and a special entrance that funnels visitors through the school office. Another innovative and security-conscious design can be found in the lockers used by students. They have no doors, which makes it easy to inspect them and reduce clutter. The bathrooms also have no doors. Instead, large walk-in entrances are used similar to those found at sports arenas.
Manatee County, Florida Schools Work to Save $1 Million in Energy Costs
Kevin O'Horan, Herald Tribune
November 26, 2007 FLORIDA: Manatee County school district officials hope saving $1 million in annual energy costs will be as easy as flipping a switch -- or thousands of them, actually. Turning off lights, bumping up thermostats and switching to low-energy light bulbs are all part of a simplistic yet multi-layered effort to reduce energy costs across the district. Faced with rising energy costs and the likely loss of state funding, school district officials are looking to reduce costs so they do not have to cut services, programs or employees. One way they plan to save money is a tried-and-true method used by residents and businesses across the country: cut power use. In many ways, the plan is as straightforward as a family trying to keep the monthly power bill in check by shutting off lights when leaving a room or keeping the refrigerator door open only long enough to grab a drink or a bite to eat. The district, though, plans to implement such procedures on a much larger scale to include the district's 78 schools and charter facilities, a bus depot, a maintenance facility and an administrative center. The electric bill to run lights, computers, vending machines and the like in its facilities this year is expected to cost $12.8 million, according to Tim McGonegal, the district's finance director. Lights and fixtures across the district are getting energy makeovers, with high-efficiency fluorescents replacing existing bulbs, and the addition of sensors that turn lights on only when someone is in the room. Thermostats were bumped up a degree in October, then another notch this month, to take advantage of cooler weather and reduce the need to run air conditioning units. "We anticipate a quarter-million-dollar savings just from that alone," Dearing said. Even vending machines are getting the treatment, with "miser" units attached to many of the dispensers to shut down power use during weekends and holidays.
Columbus Elementary School Renovation Paves the Way for Historic Schools
Sue Hagen, ThisWeek
November 22, 2007 OHIO: The tin ceilings are still there, and the original wooden floors are polished to a soft gleam. Central hallways, brightly painted in cream and blue, are 16 feet wide and the terrazzo tile in the stairs has stood the test of time. These are features architects wanted to keep in the original 1898 Ohio Avenue Elementary building. On the other hand, a 1950s wing has been replaced by a new cafeteria - a bright space with soaring ceilings and a bank of windows. The computer lab is state of the art, and is supported by a technology room that the original designers of the 109-year-old building could never have dreamed of. Bathrooms have been replaced, air conditioning added and elevators and ramps make the building fully handicapped-accessible. Kathy Mast Kane, executive director of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation, said Ohio Avenue is an example of what can be done to preserve architecturally significant buildings. "Many people believe that historic buildings cannot be brought up to modern standards as far as state-of-the-art technology, etcetera," she said. "But they can. The Statehouse is an excellent example; it has a state-of-the-art communication system. "Most importantly even if the same amount of money was invested in a new school building, the end product is something that will not stand up to the quality of the historic buildings. ... The quality of materials, the detail of design -- these are not affordable to replicate today." Mast Kane said there are connections between old buildings and the community that extend far beyond bricks and mortar. "Schools are more than schools, they are a symbol," she said. "Frequently schools are designed to have a neighborhood built around them. People don't understand the dynamic of that until it's gone." Ohio Avenue is the first of Columbus City Schools' historic school buildings to be completely renovated with funding assistance from the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC), the agency that is overseeing school rebuilding and renovation projects statewide. The school, located east of downtown, reopened this fall. Work is under way on a number of other schools, according to Carole Olshavsky, CCS senior executive for capital improvements. "The interesting thing is that we actually have kept the historic buildings and torn down the more modern additions," Olshavsky said. "They were 1950s-era buildings which are not compatible with the original building and not of the quality of the original. It's a little bit ironic, tearing down the newer buildings and keeping the turn-of-the-century schools." The school district is able to make that statement only because of plenty of intense negotiations with the OSFC. "The state's normal rule was if the renovation is more than two-thirds the cost of new construction, they recommend going with new construction," said Olshavsky. She said a Landmarks Foundation study showed that the historic buildings could be kept and renovated for less than the cost of new construction, and the state agreed to help fund the renovations. As to actually being able to renovate for the same cost as building new, Olshavsky said, "it's been close.... There are little hidden things that no one knew about that add to the cost." "Depending on the decade the schools were built, some have plaster with asbestos and some don't," said Olshavsky. She said that restrooms were gutted and redone, and - in some instances - relocated. Ron Minekime, CCS project manager on the Ohio Avenue job, said that the district has "battled budget issues" throughout the project. For example, while each classroom did get new glass window panes, some of the old panes, which had a Plexiglas coating that clouded over time, were not replaced. And some new issues are popping up. The old plaster walls retained a lot of moisture over the years, said Minekime. "Now, with air conditioning, a lot of that old moisture is being pulled out of the walls and affecting the finishes," he said, pointing out places where new paint has bubbled.
Wyoming School Facilities Commission Allows More Flexibility in School Designs
Jasa Santos, Star Tribune
November 20, 2007 WYOMING: The Wyoming School Facilities Commission decided to rework its policy requiring districts to use one of six prototypes for building new elementary schools. The commission in 2006 approved six prototypes for districts to chose from, with the idea that doing so would cut down the time and money spent during the building process. The policy needed an update to allow for more flexibility in designing, said Ken Daraie, director of the School Facilities Commission. "It's neither saved us time nor money," Daraie said. "I think it meant well, but it didn't ultimately serve its purpose." Five of the prototypes were developed using designs from elementary schools around the state, and the sixth came from a school design in Shelley, Idaho. Concern over the prototypes not working for every building site was also expressed by those at the meeting.
California High School Mold Cleanup Millions Over Budget
Keith Reid, The Record
November 20, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Toxic mold cleanup at Tokay High School has run millions of dollars over its estimated budget, raising the total cost of the emergency project to $13.5 million and forcing the district to borrow close to $4.5 million to pay its portion of the costs. Originally, district officials hoped eradication of the mold, which was found in June, would cost between $8 million and about $11.5 million. To begin cleanup immediately, the district authorized the transfer of $8 million into facilities funds from other district accounts, essentially giving a loan to itself that has to be paid back in full. The rising costs stem from additional mold found in the school's performing arts and industrial arts buildings, Lodi Unified's assistant superintendent for facilities and planning.
Making a School a Masterpiece in Los Angeles
Evan George, Los Angeles Downtown News
November 20, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Although it will not open for almost two years, passersby already stop and stare at the Los Angeles Unified School District's most beguiling work-in-progress. The boulder-sized ocular windows, a winding helix tower and a library that looks more like a nuclear reactor all make the arts academy hard to miss. Officials with the school district say the $232 million High School for the Visual and Performing Arts is 70% complete. Starting in fall 2009, the campus will serve about 1,600 students. Its location on the northern edge of Grand Avenue - a street that contains structures designed by some of the world's most prominent architects - has raised expectations. Originally conceived in 2000 as a traditional high school, local leaders, including billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, pressed the district to make it an arts-oriented academy. As a result, the curriculum was retooled to focus on four areas: visual arts, music, theater and dance. Each discipline will be housed in its own building. LAUSD reopened the project to an international competition when the decision was made to shift to the arts academy. Ultimately, Vienna-based Coop Himmelblau was chosen to handle the designs. HMC Architects are also involved. Those behind the project say they hope the school will win the kind of international renown usually bestowed on cultural landmarks like museums and theaters. Wrapped in a steel helix that resembles an unwound number nine, the school's tower is meant to establish the school's location from afar, but also to give a unifying sense of identity to students. Whether eating lunch in the center plaza or trudging to third period in the sculpture department's glass studio, the tower is visible from most points on campus. It rises from a 40,000-square-foot theater complex that contains several performance spaces, including a 950-seat auditorium, an intimate black-box theater and an outdoor amphitheater carved into the backside of the building. The theaters are expected to host community events and outside artists as well as school performances. More than 60 classrooms and loft-style workspaces with 14-foot ceilings are split between two main school buildings that line Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues. Stairways look out to the street through huge circular windows.
Toledo Public Schools Going Green with New School Building
Ignazio Messina, Toledo Blade
November 19, 2007 OHIO: Wind turbines will power the lights and ice storage tanks will help cool the building when children enter the new Hawkins Elementary School in just under two years. Toledo Public Schools and the Ohio School Facilities Commission have endorsed a Toledo architectural firm to incorporate environmentally responsible systems in the new Hawkins school. Essentially, the district wants the new school to be as "green as possible" - more so than the other buildings under the new building construction program. "The numerous environmental features will support the Ohio academic standards," Hawkins' principal, Ann Baker, said. "Some of those features will include a rose compass in the front foyer, markings in the hallway to measure the earth's rotation around the sun, as well as a rain garden." There also will be more usable green space in the form of playgrounds and athletic fields, Ms. Baker said. "We're trying to design the sustainable elements to fit within the project's budget and the overall design direction," said Dan Tabor, a partner at The Collaborative Inc. The LEED rating system gives points to buildings like Hawkins - located within walking distance to public transportation and major services, such as banks, stores, and restaurants. The school is adjacent to Toledo Botanical Garden and collaborations are planned between the two. "Hawkins has all the sustainable initiatives - right location, efficient mechanical systems, white roof, bioswales [to remove pollution from runoff water] - already in the design," said Karen Walker, an architect with The Collaborative. "This translates into long-term savings in energy costs, water usage, and maintenance." Wind will generate supplemental power for lighting the school and students will be able to study wind energy from a computerized modeling system inside the school. A rain garden is planned to mitigate the pollutants from roof runoff. The garden, along with a series of vegetated swales, or depressions in the ground, will filter out impurities. Other design elements include a light-reflecting roof and ice storage tanks to reduce cooling-system loads.
25 Utah Districts Would See Tax Increase Under School Building Equalization Plan
Julia Lyon, Salt Lake Tribune
November 19, 2007 UTAH: One of the latest methods for equalizing school building dollars under consideration at the Legislature could increase taxes in 25 of Utah's school districts. Salt Lake City School District, one of the districts that would have to ask voters to take the largest financial hit, remains opposed to the current proposal. "We could not support any model that was an increase to our taxpayers," Janet Roberts, the district business administrator, said after listening to legislators discuss the plan. Salt Lake homeowners would pay an estimated $124 in additional tax dollars on a $250,000 home if the district were to raise taxes to replace money it contributed to the equalization formula. That model attempts to more equally distribute money for new construction and renovation throughout the state after pooling some property tax funds. Money is spread out based on growth needs, property tax value per student and other factors. Homeowners in 12 districts are expected to see their taxes go down as a result of the proposal. Three districts would have their taxes stay essentially flat. Legislators on the equalization task force continue to discuss multiple funding proposals and are likely to make a recommendation later this year.
Statewide Plan Unveiled to Repair Colorado Schools
Jennifer Brown , Denver Post
November 19, 2007 COLORADO: After touring rural schools with rotting roofs and moldy floors, a group of state leaders is proposing a nearly $1 billion plan to bail out districts that can't afford to replace decrepit and unsafe buildings. Top Democrats want to dip into a fund generated from the 3 million acres the federal government gave Colorado schoolkids in 1876. They are proposing to take $30 million to $40 million each year for the next 20 years - about a third of the amount the fund generates in interest and lease payments. The state could increase the first year's allotment up to $450 million by financing new school buildings through private investors, state Treasurer Cary Kennedy estimates. The poorest school districts in Colorado could start construction next year, leading an unprecedented wave of school construction during the next five years, she said. "We have students throughout Colorado who are attending school in buildings that are old and run-down and unsafe," Kennedy said. "Our proposal is to take this asset that belongs to the schoolchildren of Colorado and put it to its best use." Under the plan - which is up for debate by the legislature in January - the state would take up to $40 million from the nearly $100 million the fund generates each year for two decades. The annual withdrawals would pay back the state's debts on school construction projects. The Donnell-Kay Foundation has estimated immediate health and safety needs at $400 million. Modernizing classrooms statewide could cost between $5.7 billion and $10 billion, the foundation said. Dozens of school districts, mainly in rural areas, do not have the local tax base to build even one new school. It would cost Edison School in southern El Paso County at least $2 million to build an elementary school, but by law, the most the impoverished community could raise in a bond issue is about $610,550. The legal limit is 20 percent of the district's total assessed property value. The state gives extra money to smaller districts for classroom and operating costs, but when it comes to money for major building projects, local taxpayers are mostly on their own. A promise of construction money for the poorest schools came in 2000 with the settlement of a lawsuit brought by six districts against Colorado for not holding up a constitutional promise of "thorough and uniform" education. The state agreed to pay $190 million over 11 years from its general fund. But many say the money is insufficient. About 70 percent of school districts that apply for grants are turned down.
A Building Boom at L.A.'s Private Schools
Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times
November 19, 2007 CALIFORNIA: From Chatsworth to El Segundo, private schools are spending an estimated $600 million in a building boom that reflects the strong demand for their services and the intense competition among their ranks. Brentwood School is building an aquatics center that looks like a modern equivalent of the Greco-Roman baths of ancient Alexandria. Windward School, also on the Westside, is completing a new library with digital media studios and an indoor-outdoor reading area with a fireplace. Loyola High School near downtown recently opened a new science hall equipped with the most advanced instruments, and, across the new commons, it is restoring its historic brick Jesuit residence hall. The building frenzy is being driven by aging facilities, new teaching models that call for informal classroom settings, space for group projects and hands-on activities, and the need for new technology. It also is aimed, of course, at keeping these schools competitive. The building projects coincide with a massive public school construction program being undertaken by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is spending $12.4 billion to build 132 schools by 2013. Few of the private schools -- Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth and New Roads in Santa Monica are exceptions -- are building new campuses from the ground up, but private educators are looking over their shoulders at the government funds pouring into public school improvements and the potential competition from public charter schools, which are attracting curious families who previously might have selected private education. Unlike public schools, private school construction is mostly supported by donations from long-planned capital campaigns. An increasing number also are turning to bond financing, which -- tax-free and paid back over years -- allows schools to tap capital more quickly without waiting for fundraising pledges. Private schools do not have to submit plans to the state Department of Education, which reviews the educational function of public buildings, or to the Division of the State Architect, which ensures that public schools comply with the Field Act -- governing such things as seismic standards -- and the Americans with Disabilities Act. But they still face obstacles: Private schools often are located in residential neighborhoods, must adhere to city building and safety codes, and are required to obtain land-use permits from local planning departments. Conditional-use permits are subject to public hearings and can include hundreds of conditions restricting building height, parking (some mandate busing of students to minimize traffic, for example), and weekend hours. Still, independent school educators say they end up with more creative and bold designs than public schools, and campuses that can match the amenities and look of a small college.
Naming Schools: Dollars and Sense?
Joe Callahan, Star-Banner
November 19, 2007 FLORIDA: There may be a day when Marion County teenagers walk the halls of Yahoo High School, home of the fightin' Search Engines. They may attend theatrical events at Paramount Auditorium, eat at the Green Giant cafeteria or even watch games at Nike Stadium. But it would cost those sponsors millions. A public hearing is scheduled to consider the school district's revised facility naming policy. The policy is designed to reward businesses and philanthropists that wish to share their wealth. The policy would open the door for corporate, or even individual, sponsorships of schools - so long as the person or business is reputable and is donating 75 percent of the cost of the project. It would cost about $15 million, or 75 percent of the cost, for a business or person to secure naming rights for a new elementary school. The amount would jump to $24 million for a middle school and $36 million for a high school. If the cost of a new school is too much, a business or individual also could donate 75 percent of the cost of a cafeteria, wing addition or performing arts center, for example, in exchange for naming rights. The revised policy keeps the same language as it relates to the School Board's criteria for naming schools. A committee is formed to pick possible names for the school, and then the School Board chooses the final one. In order to name the school after an individual, the person must have made a large community impact and have been dead 10 years or more.
It Pays to Build Schools Better
Kathryn Lauria Horne, Charlotte Observer
November 19, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: A recent report on the condition of our nation's school facilities notes, "The needs of school building construction and repair present us with a tremendous challenge and at the same time, an extraordinary opportunity. With the investment of such large expenditures of taxpayer money comes the responsibility to be thoughtful as we approach the issue of school design." Voters' approval of a Mecklenburg County bond package that includes $516 million for school construction provides our community the opportunity to make decisions that will benefit not only today's students, teachers and our community, but future generations as well. Research shows evidence of a direct link between the quality of a school's physical environment and student achievement. A number of studies link student performance on standardized tests and teachers' ability to deliver education with building quality, newer buildings, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, daylighting and use of nontoxic materials, as well as specific building features such as science laboratories and libraries. A 2007 Wake County study shows that among fast-growing urban districts, Charlotte Mecklenburg schools are built at some of the lowest per square foot costs in the state and the country. But this "initial cost" is only part of the equation. We can be even more cost-conscious by taking into account the total life cycle costs to operate and maintain school buildings and not just the construction costs. In July, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted a resolution promoting green schools for these reasons: Sustainable, high-performance ("green") design promotes energy savings and reduces maintenance costs, improves student and teacher health and educational achievement, protects the environment and ultimately impacts the bottom line. The U.S. Department of Energy tells us that nationally, schools spend more than $8 billion a year on energy bills, making it the second-highest operating expenditure for schools after personnel costs. An energy-efficient school district with 4,000 students could save as much as $160,000 a year in energy costs. Over a 10-year period, those savings can reach $1.6 million and, over the lifetime of the facility, many million more. Those savings could be used to hire more teachers, buy more computers and upgrade instructional materials. Quality schools do more than just save energy. They offer direct advantages to students and faculty, while providing important benefits to society at large. High-performance schools promote energy savings, effect positive environmental change, improve health and educational achievement, and provide hands-on learning experiences. With new schools needed to serve the growing K-12 student population, and a third of existing schools needing repair or replacement, our community has a great opportunity to build better school facilities in which to educate our children.
Green Schools Caucus Sprouts on Capitol Hill
U.S. Green Building Council , Build Green Schools News
November 19, 2007 NATIONAL : A bipartisan House caucus created to promote green building practices in schools plans to host a formal launch next month and introduce its first legislation early next year. The Green Schools Caucus, founded by Reps. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), aims to raise awareness amongst fellow lawmakers about how sustainably designed schools could help lower building energy and maintenance costs and bolster student learning and health. Seven other lawmakers have joined the caucus, said Chris Huckleberry, legislative director to Hooley, a former teacher. A 2006 study sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers and USGBC found that building green could save a typical school about $100,000 annually in energy costs, enough to offset the average 2 percent premium cost of state-of-the-art building materials within a year. Even so, the study found that school administrators listed higher construction costs among their top reasons for not building greener classrooms. Members of the caucus hope to change that mind set by quantifying the benefits of going green. "Schools are vulnerable to the skyrocketing costs of energy," said Matheson, whose district encompasses parts of Salt Lake City and southern Utah. "When their energy budgets take a hit, kids' education suffers." The green schools effort received another major boost last week when former President Clinton announced that his nonprofit foundation would work with USGBC to help fund energy retrofits in K-12 and university buildings throughout the country. Among the 25 organizations working with the Clinton Foundation are Arizona State University, Chicago Public Schools, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Middlebury College and the Los Angeles Community College District (E&ENews PM, Nov. 7). The seven other members of the Green Schools Caucus are Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), David Wu (D-Ore.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Michael Honda (D-Calif.).
New York School Debt On The Rise Because of Building Aid
S. Alexander Gerould, Post-Journal
November 18, 2007 NEW YORK: Bob Niver pictures a house when talking about debt in school districts. The superintendent said, just like a homeowner, schools take out mortgages on which they make annual payments. Every year the district receives building aid, which helps to pay off costs the school may have incurred. ‘‘I know everybody’s in debt. The state came through in 1998 with an incentive and everybody got an extra 10 percent aid, so everyone did projects because with that kind of aid ratio you were dumb if you didn’t,’’ Niver said. ‘‘A year or two ago, they came out with EXCEL aid to bring facilities up to par ... and it was another real financial incentive so almost every school district in the state of New York took advantage of the EXCEL aid.’’ It’s the extra aid, and a new, streamlined foundation aid formula, which is partly to blame for the increase in district debt, according to a study recently released by the State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. In the report, the comptroller reviewed debt in local, city and state governments and in schools, finding districts saw ‘‘the most dramatic increases in debt.’’ ‘‘Total outstanding debt for school districts more than tripled from $4.2 billion to $15.6 billion,’’ the study said. ‘‘These increases were largely driven by state reimbursement formulas that encourage schools to borrow for capital projects and stretch out debt.’’ As a result, school districts’ share of the outstanding total local government debt has nearly doubled, from 25 percent in 1995 to 47 percent in 2005.’’ Schools throughout the state received extra aid — EXCEL —in an effort to update facilities and concentrate on improving educational technology, health and safety issues, handicap accessibility, expanding instructional space and conserving energy. The state also made the foundation aid formula much more easier for districts to use. Niver said districts, like a house, require maintenance every year which is usually addressed in annual budgets. However, larger projects — capital projects — are grouped together to receive more aid from the state. ‘‘Chances are if you did them altogether you might get a better price on it,’’ he said. ‘‘Well, it certainly works that way for schools.’’ Even with the new formula, New York State local, state and public authorities have the third highest total outstanding debt, according to the comptroller’s study. The state of Idaho had the least amount, nearly four times less than New York’s. For district’s, the study found outstanding debt grew almost 81 percent between 2000 and 2005, placing well above villages, towns, cities, counties and fire districts. The reason for the increase? A favorable interest rate, aging infrastructure, a demand for capital projects and the change in the state aid formula.
Indian School Construction Act Introduced in Congress
Staff Writer, Argus Leader
November 18, 2007 NATIONAL : Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., have introduced the Indian School Construction Act, which reaffirms the federal government's responsibility for repairing, renovating and replacing tribal schools. The proposed legislation will allow tribes to issue 15-year bonds. It would authorize the federal government to appropriate money and create an interest-bearing escrow account to repay the principal on the bonds. It also provides tax credits transferable to tribal financial partners to pay off interest on the bonds. "Too many tribal schools have exceeded their life expectancy, and it is the government's treaty obligation to make tribal schools safe and conducive to learning," Johnson said. "The bonding system approach in this bill will ultimately turn bonds sold into safer, stronger schools." The Department of Interior has acknowledged a $2.4 billion backlog of repairs and replacements in tribal schools funded through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Group Fights to Ban Synthetic Turf Fields: Health, Environmental Impact Studied
Andrew Brophy, Connecticut Post
November 17, 2007 CONNECTICUT: Environment and Human Health Inc. in North Haven, a nonprofit group of 10 doctors and public health professionals, wants a statewide moratorium on synthetic turf fields until more studies are done to see if they're harmful to children who play on them. Synthetic turf fields typically have more than 100 tons of ground-up rubber tire crumbs, which have been poured between ribbons of green plastic meant to simulate grass. The crumbs, several inches deep, provide a cushion when athletes fall. "We know ground-up rubber tires emit lots of toxic materials. They have a lot of zinc and semi-volatile organic compounds," said Nancy Alderman, EHH's president. "What we don't know is how much exposure each child actually gets while they're playing on the fields." The exposure would be from vapors that come off rubber tire crumbs, which Alderman said was proven to occur in tests at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. Dust from rubber tire crumbs, as well as the crumbs themselves, also would be a source of exposure since athletes who fall on the fields come into contact with them, Alderman said. The potential impact of synthetic turf fields on the environment comes from chemicals that leach from crumbs into water, which Alderman said also was proven in tests at the Agricultural Experiment Station. Alderman's group isn't alone in its request for a moratorium. Steven Englebright, a New York assemblyman, wants a moratorium on synthetic turf fields in New York until the New York State departments of Health and Environmental Conservation finish a study on their impacts on the environment and public health. Public health agencies in Norway, Sweden and Italy also have asked for a moratorium, Alderman said. South Korea launched an investigation into synthetic turf fields in July due to students' headaches and rashes, according to documents provided by Alderman. But Vincent C. McDermott, senior vice president at Milone & MacBroom, a Cheshire firm that designs synthetic turf fields, said the negative reaction to the fields was overblown. He also questioned the methodology of tests done at the Agricultural Experiment Station, saying they did not reflect on-site conditions. "When you place them in the natural environment of a field, as distinct from a laboratory, they're not harmful," McDermott said of rubber tire crumbs.
Illinois Schools Falling Further into Bond Debt
Jameel Naqvi , Daily Herald
November 17, 2007 ILLINOIS: Illinois schools spend a lot of money every month. They're also spending a lot of tomorrow's dollars today. Illinois schools owed a total of $16 billion in bond loans at the end of the 2005-06 year. That's $8,555 of long-term debt for each student in the state. "The primary reason you issue debt is to build buildings," said Luke Glowiak. Yet Illinois' average daily attendance grew only 8 percent over the 10 years. Experts cite other reasons the rate of school district borrowing grew 18 times faster than enrollment. Construction costs have risen 10 percent to 12 percent each year, much faster than the rate of inflation, says Harris Bank bond consultant Eric Anderson. Districts with older buildings and static enrollment face the task of upgrading, renovating and improving facilities -- costly steps in their own rights. While growing districts issue more bonds, older districts "could end up with a larger amount of debt than you might expect," Glowiak said. Forty-year lows in interest rates also encouraged schools to borrow or refinance, Anderson said. Some point to Chicago's extensive rehab work as a another driving force. But the city school system's bond debt grew more slowly than the state as a whole, from $2 billion in 1997 to $4.7 billion in 2006, an increase of 134 percent. Without Chicago's numbers, the long-term debt carried by the rest of the schools in Illinois rose 148 percent over the period. In the suburbs, the debt details are as varied as the districts.
Project to Take Learning Outdoors
Brett Bennett, Northwest Arkansas Times
November 17, 2007 ARKANSAS: Dirt work started this week on the planned “ outdoor learning environment” at Washington Elementary School. The project is part of a partnership between the Washington Parent Teacher Organization and the University of Arkansas School of Architecture to redesign part of the school’s northern playground area into an outdoor classroom setting. Architecture professor Michael Hughes and his students are overseeing the project. The PTO has been saving money for five years to fund the project and has donated $ 35, 000 for the architecture students to use. Hughes said the project would probably cost more than $100, 000 normally, but the student labor and several donations of labor and materials from area businesses will keep the costs near $ 30, 000. Workers have already been moving dirt with heavy equipment to prepare the area for the new construction. Hughes said the design includes a courtyard and a roof overhang for a gathering place. There will also be a stage with the potential for small assemblies. It should have dual uses both for academic instruction and as part of the playground, he said. “ Obviously, it’s a place for kids to come outside and have a class outdoors, ” Hughes said. “ It’ll also be more of a park. ”
Mold, Air-Quality Issues Ongoing Concern at South Carolina Schools
Editorial, Island Packet
November 16, 2007 SOUTH CAROLINA: Here in the wet Lowcountry, mold is a fact of life. That's why it is imperative the Beaufort County School District have in place a maintenance plan that includes quick response times to keep ahead of this potentially health-threatening problem. It's also imperative that we understand and account for any construction or structural issues that might lead to problems with mold. A leaking roof at the 3-year-old Bluffton High School is very disturbing, especially given past experience. And unfortunately, the school district has years of experience in tackling this problem. The district has paid millions of dollars for repairs and cleaning and has faced and filed lawsuits related to air quality and health problems. We've learned that turning off air-conditioning systems during our hot, steamy summers can be a problem, and that carpeting in hallways and classrooms, while good at reducing noise, can increase problems with mold and dirt. The community's first big introduction to mold problems came in the early 1990s with problems at the new middle school on Hilton Head Island. After the $9 million school opened in 1991, it was plagued with mold, high levels of carbon dioxide and other air quality problems caused by poor ventilation. District officials filed a lawsuit after spending an estimated $695,000 to correct air-quality problems at the school. The district received $275,000 from companies involved in the school's construction in a mediated settlement. District officials even blamed mold problems for the 1994 defeat of an $80 million school bond referendum. (Voters approved a $122 million referendum the next year.) In 2003, the district spent $2.7 million fixing problems at Battery Creek High School, and in 2002 and 2003 spent about $5 million fixing problems in the two older sections of the Hilton Head elementary school. The $3.5 million new HVAC system in the school's "Blue Building" came after teachers filed a complaint with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health about air-quality hazards at the elementary school. The agency inspected the building and found excessive carbon dioxide levels and fungal contamination. Given that history, it's troubling to learn that since the beginning of the school year, five schools in southern Beaufort County have reported problems with water leaking. District spokesman John Williams says systems are in place for teachers and administrators who find potential problems with mold or leaking ceilings to report them to the district. Maintenance crews are sent to inspect the problems to determine whether a fix is required. District officials should have a plan in place that's very proactive -- one that does more to prevent problems rather than fix them after they occur. If they don't stay on top of them, we can be sure another group will move in with another kind of fix -- lawyers.
CHPS Honors Best in Green, Healthy School Community
Ariel Dekovic , Schoolfacilities.com
November 16, 2007 CALIFORNIA: The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) recognized notable leaders of high performance school building at the Greentools for Healthy Schools Conference awards luncheon this fall. The Green Apple Awards were distributed to outstanding school districts, school projects and industry leaders for their contributions to the green school movement. Los Angeles Unified School District and San Diego Unified School District received awards for excellence in teamwork to design and build high performance schools. Los Angeles in 2001 and San Diego in 2003, were among the first districts to sign resolutions committing to building all new schools to CHPS high performance standards. Los Angles has completed three CHPS Demonstration Schools, and together the two school districts have over 80 CHPS schools underway. Several awards were given for successful school projects. EHDD Architecture took home an award for Chartwell School in Seaside, CA. Chartwell scored 57 points on the CHPS scorecard, the highest scoring project to date. Its solar array can generate 100% of the school’s energy needs, which are low due to daylighting and natural ventilation in the classrooms. An 8,000-gallon rainwater harvesting tank can supply half of the schools toilets with water. NTD Stichler Architecture was awarded for Heroes Elementary School in Santa Ana, CA. Heroes was a CHPS demonstration school sponsored by the CA Integrated Waste Management Board, and featured recycled materials such as tires, windshield glass, newsprint, paint and glass beverage containers. The project also exceeded Title 24 energy efficiency standards by 23.8%. Loyola Elementary School in Los Altos, CA earned Gelfand Partners Architects an award. This project qualified as a major modernization, and earned both Savings by Design and state grants for energy efficiency. Loyola is notable for its exception daylighting, electric lighting, HVAC efficiency and air quality. The designers reduced impermeable surfaces by adding learning patios and plantings to the campus. There were three 2007 award winners for demonstrating excellence in progressing, promoting and implementing high performance schools issues: Healthy Schools Network, Project FROG and Savings by Design.
10,000 Sq. Ft. Green Roof Approved for New York City’s P.S. 41
Staff Writer, Architectural Record
November 15, 2007 NEW YORK: Public School 41 received approval from the School Construction Authority for a 10,000-square-foot green roof. The school, located in Greenwich Village, will begin installing the roof next summer. P.S. 41 has retained the Jonathan Rose Companies to supervise the project, which is known as Gell- the Greenroof Environmental Literacy Laboratory. Gell will provide P.S. 41’s K-5 student body with an interactive learning center; each grade will engage in a different curriculum focused generally around educating students as to how they can improve their local urban environment. For example, fourth- and fifth-graders will head to the roof and study forests and other ecosystems, earth science, and environments. Gell will serve as the laboratory for these lessons which will be crafted around the roof’s natural environment and microsystems. P.S. 41 has also already implemented a school-wide green initiative that includes a recycling program, the use of environment-friendly cleaning products, and a school garden project that’s sponsored by Scotts Miracle Grow and HSBC. The Department of Education supports the Gell project, but isn’t providing funding; the PTA is leading fund-raising efforts, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has promised dollars from his office’s coffers. Ultimately, P.S. 41 and Jonathan Rose hope that Gell will become a blueprint for other schools throughout the city to access the incentives offered in Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC’s Water Quality Initiative No. 9.
School Construction Plan Totals $1.3 Billion in Virginia County
Norman K. Styer, Leesburg Today
November 15, 2007 VIRGINIA: Loudon County Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick proposed a six-year construction program that includes 20 new schools, an advanced technology academy and a series of renovations and land purchases with a total price tag of $1.3 billion. The proposed Capital Improvement Plan is based on projections of continued significant and steady enrollment growth-42 percent during the period from FY 2009 to FY 2014. Hatrick said that the results of last week's election, when county voters approved new bond financing for a series of school site purchases and new public facilities, showed that residents want high-quality services and are willing to pay for them. Over the term of the CIP, the cost of building a new high school is projected to grow from $99.5 million in FY 2009 to $140 million in FY 2014, when a new elementary school is expected to cost $37.7 million and a middle school $70 million.
Arizona School Construction Funding Formula Challenged
Jamar Younger, Arizona Daily Star
November 15, 2007 ARIZONA: The Joint Legislative Budget Committee approved a 2.2 percent increase for school construction financing last month, but some school officials don't think it's enough. School district officials say the state's funding formula is flawed because the School Facilities Board awards the money about a year before district officials actually receive bids from contractors and find out the cost of building the school. By then, construction costs have already risen and district officials have to sit back down with the School Facilities Board and recalculate the price of the school, which can delay construction, officials said.
What Will Colleges of the Future Look Like?
Kate Hilpern , The Independent
November 15, 2007 UNITED KINGDOM: Forget classrooms. Forget blackboards or even interactive whiteboards. In fact, erase every preconception you ever had about college learning and step into the future. Here, you'll find yourself being educated anywhere from a mini space centre to the inside of an aircraft to a "learning street"– wide channels which form the heart of a department and run between workshop rooms. You'll find yourself just as likely to learn from a peer in Poland as a tutor in Telford and you'll find yourself on a course tailored to suit your timescales and with a guaranteed job at the end. How do I know? Two reasons. First, a look into the further education sector reveals that the trends are already becoming clear and second, Michael Heppell told me. As part of his research, he's been talking to college principals, students, employers and futurists to form a clear picture of FE tomorrow. "The first thing that became clear was that individual learning is going to become increasingly important," he says. "The idea of putting a lot of people in a classroom and feeding them information is already becoming a thing of the past. You simply have to go onto Google to gain information these days. What FE is doing is turning that knowledge into learning in ways that are both innovative and which are bespoke to an individual's needs." Tutors won't be the only leaders of learning, according to Heppell. "Nearly every principal we talked to was going through a new build programme in excess of £20m and a major focus of each design was around students being able to come together in their own groups and mini societies – ranging from state-of-the-art atriums to specially designed pods." Hastings College is among those with a bold approach to incorporating technology. Here, learners can use mobile technology to interact with their tutors, their timetables, their learning materials and each other. Principal Sue Middlehurst adds, "The building is designed to bring rapidly changing information and images to everyone in the building through display and interactive screens. This will include essential information, collecting student views, viewing real-time activities from the teaching areas and displaying student work. It is intended that this will include a large screen on the exterior of the building – like at Wembley Arena – used to illustrate all aspects of the college's activities." Like many colleges, Hastings is also focusing its efforts on the learning environment itself. "The college is presently exploring a number of sponsorship opportunities to ensure real work environments – for example, a fuselage for the cabin crew students. Also there'll be a satellite gallery for national art exhibitions." Keighley College even provides a mini space centre with, among other things, a state-of-the-art mission control and an artificial extraterrestrial landscape with an accompanying workshop, which is available for all science students. And Telford College boasts "learning streets", equipped with touchdown desks with computers for the students to work on assignments and use the internet. Stefan Jakobek, an architect at HOK, who helped design the streets, says, "Smaller, more informal teaching sessions are held on the streets and students are encouraged to blend learning with their socialising in a relaxed environment."
Cincinnati Schools May Incorporate Wood From Doomed Ash Trees
Barrett J. Brunsman, The Enquirer
November 15, 2007 OHIO: The emerald ash borer is expected to decimate the trees of Hamilton County, but Cincinnati Public Schools could gobble up some of the leftovers. An architect said that he’s studying how to incorporate into 51 school buildings some of the wood from thousands of ash trees in Cincinnati parks or along city streets that might be felled because of the invading Asian insect. The wood could be used to build everything from gymnasium floors and stages to simple cabinetry and shelving, said Robert L. Knight, a project manager for GBBN architects downtown. “My task is to partner with entities like the parks in the county to bring these ideas to the table and make them happen,” said Knight, who is the sustainable design initiatives coordinator for city schools. “There are 10 architects under contract now,” Knight said. “We have 26 (schools) in design and construction right now and another eight coming up next year. What I’m trying to do … is integrate these ideas into the projects.” Pleasant Ridge Elementary School might be the first to incorporate wood from local ash trees – as soon as the beginning of next school year, Knight said. Hardwood can be expensive, Knight said, but the ash available because of the insects might be more affordable to use than buying less-desirable materials. CPS has a vocational program in carpentry, and it’s also possible students could benefit by helping to build some of the furniture used in city schools, Knight said. Sam Sherrill, an associate professor of planning at the University of Cincinnati and a member of the waste district’s task force on the emerald ash borer, said the proposal might be emulated by other localities forced to deal with the insects. “If we make this happen, Cincinnati will be the first city in the country to create a comprehensive, public-private partnership that focuses on making the best use of the area’s urban trees once they come down,” Sherrill said. “Cincinnati will become a model for other cities.”
New Orleans Inventories Schools as Master Plan Hatched
Darran Simon, Times-Picayune
November 15, 2007 LOUISIANA: A team of architects and engineers walked the hallways of the boarded-up John W. Hoffman Elementary taking pictures and scribbling notes about the damage to the roof, water-stained ceilings and walls, and exposed wires dangling from air-conditioning units. The physical assessment of the flooded and shuttered Central City campus is one of about 60 campuses assessed since early fall as part of the early stages of a master plan for New Orleans public school facilities. The master plan could drastically change the landscape of the school system, whose enrollment was already declining before the storm, and could also determine the future uses of the about 130 campuses. Planners intend to wrap up the master plan by May and present it to the state-controlled Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish School Board, who each control portions of the city's schools and are partners in the plan. Officials hope to persuade FEMA to pay for the renovation and demolition of buildings, but finding other money will be a challenge, officials say. Therefore, the master planners will examine everything from the possibility of issuing bonds to creating public-private partnerships, because the state -- though it now operates a large chunk of the city's schools -- does not pay for school construction. That responsibility falls on Orleans Parish, and raising local money would require the School Board to seek a tax increase from voters.
Fences Crop Up at Louisiana Parish Schools
Kia Hall Hayes, Times-Picayune
November 14, 2007 LOUISIANA: Moving forward on a $700,000 security initiative, St. Tammany Parish school officials have installed perimeter fencing around the district's 21 elementary schools and plan to complete middle and junior high schools by early next year. One of many safety measures launched by the school district recently, the fencing was suggested by parents during meetings the district held last year to address school safety, Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse said. The district, which launched the project this fall, spent $138,000 on the elementary schools and has budgeted almost $700,000 to build 4- to 6-foot chain-link fences around all of the district's 52 schools. The fencing will help deter intruders by establishing a perimeter around school grounds and creating a single entry point, Folse said. The fences also help keep stray animals off school grounds and keep students within campus boundaries while school is in session, officials said.
Illinois Schools Look at Power by Wind
Ray Quintanilla, Chicago Tribune
November 14, 2007 ILLINOIS: A Carpentersville-based school district OK'd funds to study a $6 million wind turbine project that could provide enough electricity to power two schools, cutting energy costs, officials said. Though it could take as long as three years to get a turbine up and running, officials with School District 300 say it would save about $250,000 annually. "We think it's in the best interest of ecology, and in the long run it will help us save money," Supt. Kenneth Arndt said after the district approved spending $55,000 to study the feasibility of building a massive windmill on the grounds of a new high school in Hampshire. Preliminary plans call for constructing a turbine about 225 to 350 feet tall with 100-foot-long blades, officials said. The district's proposal joins a handful of others already under consideration in the Chicago area as local governments and organizations search for cleaner ways to generate electricity and trim utility bills. The Chicago-based Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, a group that invests in clean energy development and land preservation, said before anything is constructed, a yearlong study must be done to determine whether there is enough wind in the area to make a turbine viable.
Builders' Pain Brings Boon for Southwest Florida Schools
Tiffany Lankes, Herald Tribune
November 14, 2007 FLORIDA: The cost of building schools is falling all over Southwest Florida because of the slowdown in the construction industry, with districts reporting savings of up to 20 percent. The lower prices mean that school districts will have a chance to catch up with facilities for the thousands of new students that came during the state's real estate boom. And projects that were put off when costs were going up over the past few years are suddenly back on the table. The drop in construction costs comes after a period when a busy real estate market and hurricane rebuilding drove up demand for materials and labor, pushing school building costs up as much as 30 percent. As the construction industry slips by up to 70 percent, according to some indicators, the local school district has become one of the biggest clients in town.
Seattle School Board to Use Special Fund to Speed Rebuilding Projects
Jessica Blanchard, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
November 14, 2007 WASHINGTON: Facing the prospect of cutting corners or completely abandoning some school construction projects because of rising costs, the Seattle School Board decided Wednesday to tap into $14.5 million of the district's $20 million contingency fund and speed up the timeline for rebuilding some schools. The move should allow the district to complete all the planned projects within four years instead of six. With construction costs escalating as much as 10 percent to 15 percent a year, the shorter time frame could help save millions of dollars, said Don Gillmore, manager of the district's Building Excellence construction projects. Seattle voters approved the $490 million Building Excellence III construction package as a bond measure in February, allowing the district to begin working on projects immediately rather than having to wait to collect the money through annual property taxes. Still, even with that flexibility, the rapid inflation and high demand for materials and labor are expected to considerably boost the bottom lines of all of the projects. The district plans to hire extra staff members to run the construction projects simultaneously.
A New ‘Green’ School for Lower Manhattan
Jennifer Medina, New York Times
November 13, 2007 NEW YORK: The city will build a 950-seat elementary and middle school in Battery Park City, a recognition of the unanticipated surge in population in Lower Manhattan since 9/11, officials announced. The school, with about 125,000 square feet, is to be the “first entirely ‘green’ public school in New York City,” according to officials. Among other features, it will use occupancy sensors to turn off lights when rooms are not in use and photovoltaic panels to convert light into electricity. The construction materials are designed to improve indoor air quality, reduce the the emission of volatile organic compounds and conserve water. The Battery Park City Authority will contribute $3 million toward such “green” features. The new Battery Park City school will be built on the state’s last vacant building site in the area, according to officials. The state is providing the land through the Battery Park City Authority, at no cost to the city. The school, to be built at 55 Battery Place, will be fully air-conditioned and have 40 classrooms, including 10 for special education students; a kitchen and cafeteria; a medical suite; an auditorium; a library; wireless Internet access; art, science, and music rooms; a 5,400-square-foot gymnasium, and a 1,500-square-foot exercise room with rooftop educational and recreational spaces. Construction is expected to begin in June and to be completed by September 2010.
In Battling Microbe, Schools Seek Help From Germ-Busters
Katie Ash, Education Week [free subscription required]
November 13, 2007 NATIONAL : Responding to concerns about drug-resistant staph infections, schools nationwide have tapped into a network of professional cleaning services that come armed with heavy equipment, antibacterial foggers, and industrial-strength disinfectants to help kill the harmful germs—and quell the fears of the public. Recently reported cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, have even led to some temporary school shutdowns for cleaning, although health officials say that infections are prevented primarily through good personal hygiene practices rather than aggressive sanitizing of facilities.
Clinton Initiative to Launch Green Retrofits of Schools and Universities
Staff Writer, Green Building News
November 13, 2007 NATIONAL : The Clinton Climate Initiative will work with K-12 schools and universities across the United States to improve energy efficiency in school buildings. The organization, founded in August 2006 by former President Bill Clinton, plans to partner with the U.S. Green Building Council and the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to establish the Green Schools Program. Under the program, K-12 and university buildings will be retrofitted to reduce their energy consumption and help achieve climate neutrality. Additional partners in the program include the American Federation of Teachers; the Council of Educational Facilities Planners, International; the Illinois Association of School Board Members; Miami-Dade County Public Schools and several other organizations.
North Dakota High School Champions Education, Environment Over Aesthetics
Amy Perry , Green Building News
November 12, 2007 NORTH DAKOTA: Culture has several forms of expression. Music, art and literature are just a few of the ways in which ideas and values cease to be abstract and become tangible. Buildings, and what's inside them, are a public form of cultural expression. Their exteriors are an unchanging portrait of what is important to both owner and user, while their interiors provide room for changing modes of expression and growth. The new Turtle Mountain Community High School, in Belcourt, N.D., expresses several values that are important to the Belcourt School District, the students and the community. Located on a reservation belonging to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the school serves both students and community members. As a result, several values drove the design of the school. It was important that the school provide a quality learning space for students, establish a connection to the environment and serve as a place to hold community activities. The district and community also wanted a school that would allow for cultural expression, without impacting the budget or the educational program. Providing a good learning place for students was paramount to the school's planning committee, which consisted of tribal members, school officials, district representatives and some faculty. Committee members felt that space and resources should be dedicated toward educational components first, and aesthetics second. “The design team did not want a building that looked like a turtle, at the expense of providing a quality educational space,” says Lee Meyer, project architect with KKE. “They wanted a school first, and planned to incorporate the tribe's iconographic program later.” The two-story, 123,000-square-foot school has an austere look. A muted palette of white, gray and red — school colors — helps breaks up the heavy massing of the building, while the combination of different window sizes and a curtain wall system create a sense of depth along the façade. The BIA mandates that all new school facilities be designed and built according to LEED standards. This requirement integrated well with the district's vision for the school, which included a strong connection to the environment — both visually and operationally — and a minimal impact on the building's surroundings.
L.A. Unified Seeks to Clear the Air
Evelyn Larrubia, Los Angeles Times
November 12, 2007 CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Board of Education is beginning to explore policies that would preclude schools from being built close to freeways and reduce air pollution at the dozens of campuses that already are located near major roadways. The push for reform comes in the wake of an article in The Times in September revealing that more than 60,000 L.A. Unified students attended school within 500 feet of a freeway -- where large concentrations of pollutants are found. The district is building five schools within 500 feet of highways and had plans for two more. Those two -- Central Region High School No. 15 and Central Region Middle School No. 9 -- were taken off the table after The Times began asking questions about them, officials revealed this week. A 2003 state law prohibits schools from being built within 500 feet of major roadways unless the district can mitigate the pollution or space limitations leave it no option. The law was written in response to emerging science showing that pollution is highly concentrated close to major roadways. More recent studies have shown that children who live near freeways suffer from decreased lung function and development and increased incidents of asthma.
Buffalo's Renovated School Buildings Shine in a Sea of Blight
Peter Simon and Brian Meyer , Buffalo News
November 10, 2007 NEW YORK: Quincy Wilbon is thrilled with the $35.8 million renovation that has turned his Buffalo school into a sparkling, model facility for students interested in music, dance and visual arts. It’s the walk to school that tempers his enthusiasm — past rows of boarded-up buildings. Or when he looks out a classroom window at a grim picture of urban blight. “This is like your dream school,” said Quincy, a junior at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts. “It’s magnificent. But when you walk outside, you see houses getting ready to fall down. You get a feeling that you aren’t safe in this area.” The stark contrasts Quincy encounters every school day reflect a wider concern voiced across the city. An ambitious school reconstruction and renovation project, fueled by a generous state aid package, has already poured $500 million into physical improvements at 22 city schools. These include classroom additions, computer rooms, gymnasiums, science labs, cafeterias, refurbished auditoriums and exterior improvements. By the time the project is complete, major renovations are planned at 40 to 45 schools at a cost approaching $1.1 billion. Right from the start there was this agreement: The reconstruction project would upgrade schools and the city would clean up the surrounding neighborhoods. Yet many of the schools remain ringed by boarded-up homes and businesses, abandoned buildings or litter-strewn vacant lots. They are spirit-deflating distractions at best, and at worst breeding grounds for crime and illicit drug activity in the shadows of renovated city schools. Mayor Byron W. Brown said improving conditions around schools is a key priority. While he said his administration has done a good job since he took office 22 months ago, he acknowledges that much more needs to be done. “I’ve made it clear that I want to accelerate the pace of work in neighborhoods around schools,” Brown said. “We’re focused on this issue like a laser beam.” Brown’s advisers provided maps and data that document numerous efforts: Nearly 300 blighted properties have been torn down in neighborhoods near new or renovated schools since early 2006. Several hundred more demolitions are planned in these corridors over the next two years through a state-funded program called Restore New York. Numerous neighborhood cleanup efforts, including antigraffiti blitzes, have been launched around city schools. Multi-agency “Operation Clean Sweep” programs have focused on quality of life problems in these neighborhoods, ranging from housing code violations to disruptive animals. Surveillance cameras will be installed in some neighborhoods around schools as part of a citywide anti-crime initiative that will begin this winter. High priority has been given to repairing sidewalks and streets near schools. Even so, there remains a sense that those efforts are only putting a dent in neighborhood blight.
New School Design Draws Input From Administrators
Connie Cone Sexton, Arizona Republic
November 09, 2007 ARIZONA: When she was given the chance to suggest design ideas for a new school in the Deer Valley Unified School District, Julie Ruskey was more than willing to help. Ruskey, principal at Canyon Springs School in the far northern area of the district, was one of several district administrators asked to share features in a school that would help both students, teachers but also the community. In today's age of safety, a school design needs to have accessibility and security, Ruskey said. Principals suggested that the office be easily identified and have close proximity to classrooms. The new school includes a central area of the building that serves all classrooms. The classrooms feed off the center like a bicycle spoke. The central area allows student supervision with minimal staff, district officials said. For the new school, attention was paid to "site lines," aligning the size of the building and classrooms so that students can be easily monitored when at play, said Jim Migliorino, executive director of fiscal services. Migliorino said principals he spoke with suggested having younger kids separated from older ones on a campus. The new school has an upper grade play area and one for kindergartners. Another suggestion incorporated was creating a larger area for parents to drop off and pick up their children. "We've noticed that the numbers of parents doing this has increased," Migliorino said. One of Ruskey's suggestions was to give attention to a school's office because it serves so many people, especially parents who come into the school. "The arrangement of the desks should be close to the front counter so you can greet the public," she said. The new school will have another one of her suggestions, having the kindergartners close to the office and nurse. "It just makes it easier for the younger students," she said.
Bond Triumph May Speed School Building in Charlotte
Ann Doss Helms, Charlotte Observer
November 08, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: Resounding voter support for school bonds boosts the chance that commissioners will step up the pace of school construction, even if it means a tax hike, some Republicans and Democrats said. Populous suburban districts that helped defeat the bonds two years ago -- and whose elected officials have led the charge to scale back spending and taxes -- saw a huge swing in favor of bonds this year. County commissioner Dan Bishop, a Republican whose south Charlotte district experienced a surge in turnout and 71 percent approval for school bonds, said the message is clear. "Those like me who believe taxes are too high are not merely a minority," he said. "We're almost a fringe." Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hopes to open two new middle schools and four elementaries in 2009, but that depends on county commissioners letting CMS spend the money more quickly, said Associate Superintendent Guy Chamberlain. The $516 million bond package that got 68 percent of the countywide vote is essentially a voter-approved line of credit. Commissioners decide how quickly to tap into it, which in turn shapes how much tax money goes toward repaying debt. "Anything that we delay is only going to cost more in subsequent years," he said. "It will certainly be an easier decision now that the voters have overwhelmingly approved the bond referendum." Officials have estimated that the maximum tax hike needed to cover more school construction would be less than 5 cents per $100 of property value, about $71 a year on a $150,000 house. During the bonds campaign, opponents raised the "higher taxes" issue in signs posted around the county. But many voters said the clear need for new schools and the leadership of Superintendent Peter Gorman, who started in 2006, trumped those concerns. Every precinct except two on the county's western edge passed the bonds. Compared with two years ago, when only 43 percent said yes to CMS bonds, the number of "no" votes declined slightly while the number of "yes" votes skyrocketed.
Baltimore's 15-Year Effort to Remove Lead From Schools' Water Fountains Dropped
Sara Neufeld , Baltimore Sun
November 07, 2007 MARYLAND: The Baltimore school system is abandoning 15 years of efforts to remove the lead in its water fountains and will instead provide bottled water in coolers to all schools. The announcement came after the city Health Department discovered that 10 fountains that had passed previous tests still contained unacceptably high levels of lead. Once schools chief Andres Alonso learned that it would be cheaper to provide bottled water to all schools than to continue lead testing, he said, the decision was a "no-brainer." While other area school systems have brought in bottled water as needed to address water quality issues, Baltimore appears to be the first in the region to ditch water fountains entirely. Around the country, urban school systems with aging buildings have spent millions of dollars trying to get lead out of their water. Seattle brought in bottled water during the 2004-2005 school year as it replaced fountains and pipes. Last year, The Seattle Times reported, at least 35 schools were again found to have high lead levels. The system expects to spend about $675,000 a year on the bottled water. It is now spending $350,000 a year for coolers at schools without enough working fountains, plus $275,000 for staff and consultants to oversee lead testing and $50,000 for laboratory analysis -- amounting also to $675,000. But in addition, hundreds of custodians have been required to flush each water fountain daily, and other school and Health Department employees are regularly called upon to help. And officials said the fountains are regularly vandalized, resulting in further costs. The move to bottled water ends years of struggle to remove lead from the fountains in city schools. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered lead testing of school water in 1988. In 1992, Baltimore's results came back showing the presence of lead in many fountains. Most of the contaminated fountains were shut off, but over the years, some were turned back on. In 2003, the school system acknowledged that children were still drinking from fountains that were supposed to have been shut down a decade earlier. Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city's health commissioner at the time, ordered all fountains in the city schools turned off, and coolers were installed across the system on a temporary basis. After repairs and testing, the first fountains were turned on again in 2004. But school staff and students complained about losing their bottled water, and in some cases, schools continued receiving the coolers even after the fountains were on. Meanwhile, the testing of fountains continued with no end in sight.
Commissioners OK Green’ High School Construction Method
Scott Nicholson, Watauga Democrat
November 07, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: Watauga County is taking the “LEED” in building a new energy-efficient school, pursuing what could be the first high school facility in the state that is certified as “green.” LEED is a certified rating for structures judged on a “whole-building approach to sustainability” based on site development, water conservation, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. The county could pursue a “Silver LEEDS” certification, one of four different levels granted through achieving performance benchmarks. Among the green techniques discussed for the school are the strategic placement of windows for daytime interior lighting, capturing and reusing rainwater, and a geothermal collection system that would use underground pipes for heating and cooling. Commissioner Mary Moretz said while the county would face additional costs up front, the techniques would result in long-term savings, particularly given the collaboration with ASU. Supporters say green schools have better teacher retention rates, save enough money to fund additional teachers and supplies, and provide a positive environment that can help boost academic performance.
Ohio Voters Reject Many School Levies
Associated Press, Ohio.com
November 07, 2007 OHIO: Voters delivered blows to some of the biggest money requests by schools, laying the groundwork for education cuts in districts around the state. In some cases, such as Barberton near Akron, ballot defeats mean the loss of millions in state matching money — 60 percent, to the districts' 40 percent — that would have gone to school construction, retiring debt and maintaining existing programs. But voters were in no mood. In the Cleveland area, voters overwhelmingly rejected the Madison schools' request for a $34 million bond issue and a 0.5-mill tax increase. The money was intended to construct a new K-8 elementary school building. Levy requests in the Newbury, Ledgemont and Cloverleaf districts were also rejected.
Patrons Enjoy Look at Striking New Energy-Efficient Elementary
Jason Woods, Saline County Voice
November 07, 2007 ARKANSAS: Hurricane Creek Elementary School opened as the first ecofriendly elementary in Arkansas. A "green school," Hurricane Creek becomes the second Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified school in Arkansas, say Benton School District officials. Bryant's Bethel Middle School was the first. The school's design allows it to rely heavily on natural light. Though the project cost $10.4 million, reduced maintenance and energy costs save the school $65,780 and $24,280 a year respectively. The design is overall expected to save the community $8.5 million over the building's expected 50- year lifespan. Bryant patrons approved the millage increase to fund the project in 2003. In subsequent months, state Sen. Shane Broadway accompanied Dr. Richard Abernathy, Bryant school superintendent, to Austin, Texas searching for ideas for new schools in development. The two visited J.J. Pickle Elementary School, and were intrigued by the design. After discussing the options, as well as the various hurdles and potential obstacles, the idea to steer the Bryant district toward environmental friendliness was born. Principal Beggs said Hurricane Creek was an architect's dream. "It takes my breath away."
Charlotte Mecklenburg School Bonds Will Fund 40 Projects
Staff Writer , wsoctv.com
November 07, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: Two-thirds of voters approved the $516 million bond for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Tuesday, and Superintendent Peter Gorman called the approval a huge push forward, and a sign the community believes in public schools. The bond means that school construction funded by that money could begin as early as the start of 2008. CMS plans to fund 12 new schools with the bond, with six slated to open at the beginning of the 2009 school year. CMS officials said the money will bring quick relief for overcrowding. By 2010 there will be eight new elementary schools, two new middle schools and two new high schools up and running. Opening so many schools so quickly may sound like a daunting task, but school officials say they’re up to it. “I don’t want to say it’s easy, it requires diligence and perseverance and paying attention every single day, but that’s what we’ve been doing and so I really don’t see a problem doing that. And we’ve got some very talent people on our staff,” said Guy Chamberlain of CMS Auxiliary Services. For CMS the money is still just a drop in the bucket, however. School officials said CMS’s needs are really about $1.4 billion renovations and new school construction. They said another bond vote may be on the ballot in 2009.
M.I.T. Sues Frank Gehry, Citing Flaws in Center He Designed
Robin Pogrebin and Kate Zezima, New York Times
November 07, 2007 MASSACHUSETTS: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has sued the architect Frank Gehry and a construction company, claiming that “design and construction failures” in the institute’s $300 million Stata Center resulted in pervasive leaks, cracks and drainage problems that have required costly repairs. The center, which features angular sections that appear to be falling on top of one another, opened to great acclaim in the spring of 2004. In an interview, Mr. Gehry, whose firm was paid $15 million for the project, said construction problems were inevitable in the design of complex buildings.
AAF and Target Announce Winner Of The Redesign Your School Contest
Press Release, American Architectural Foundation
November 06, 2007 NATIONAL : Tyler J. Rush, an eighteen year old senior at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, is the grand prize winner in a national contest that asked high school students from across the country to design their ideal learning environments. Sponsored by the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) and Target, the first-ever "Redesign Your School Contest" has been the largest national design competition open to 9th through 12th grade students in the United States. Each year, the United States spends over $30 billion building and renovating schools, yet rarely are students ever asked for their opinion. Through this contest, AAF and Target sought to give voice to the creativity and vision of the nation’s youth. The "Redesign Your School" contest drew hundreds of entries from across the country as students voiced their opinions about how to design their vision of ideal places to learn in the 21st century. $45,000 in scholarships will be presented to the eight top winners. Tyler’s winning design, entitled "Light and Nature School," presents a vision of his ideal school, located in the Hill Country of central Texas that incorporates "as many of the elements of the outdoors as possible." The drawings and text focus attention on the principles of sustainability, various learning styles and classroom flexibility, and cutting edge technology. Buildings inspired by organic forms surround gathering spaces where students can interact and learn from one another both during school hours and after hours, as the school also serves as a center of community.
Designing Kid: Redesign Your School Winner
Mark Zaretsky, New Haven Register
November 05, 2007 CONNECTICUT: Oscar Lucero has never taken the easy route, and may not be what people immediately expect to see when they think of superior educational achievement. But just four months after becoming a father, and six months after becoming an American citizen, Lucero's ideas about architecture are attracting national attention. They are bringing national distinction both to East Haven High School, where he is a senior, and ACES Educational Center for the Arts, the regional magnet high school in New Haven that he also attends, and where he is doing much of his work. Out of thousands of U.S. high school students who sent in initial applications to the "Redesign Your Schools" national architecture contest co-sponsored by the American Architectural Foundation and Target Corporation, and hundreds of actual project submissions, Lucero, 17, is among the top eight winners. As part of that, Lucero, a product of the New Haven and East Haven school systems, who a few months ago wasn't sure if he would go to college, won a $5,000 scholarship. Lucero achieved that competing against students from some of the nation's top schools, many with far greater resources. Oscar's project, which began as an independent-study landscape design project and was converted into a school after he learned of the contest, is an elaborate, hand-built, 4-foot model of a school that also is a community park — with no above-ground vehicles to be seen. The project was inspired and influenced by such disparate traditions as ancient Mayan architecture, Soviet architecture, the work of architect Louis Kahn, New Haven's East Rock, where he envisions his school being built, East Haven High's campus and the recently demolished New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Lucero said. It features a parklike setting at the base of a hillside waterfall, with eight three-story cylindrical academic buildings above ground, each with concave, wavelike roofs. It has a basement parking garage two floors down — with a Coliseum-inspired helix ramp descending to it — and a centerpiece pond, stocked with fish, that drops down to an illuminated, glass-walled aquarium that serves as a dramatic floor-to-ceiling backdrop for the school's subterranean second-level auditorium.
Student Has Designs on Competition
Diane Gasper-O'Brien, Hays Daily News
November 05, 2007 Kansas: Alice Cao is getting an early Thanksgiving vacation this week, and in the process, she is giving one of her teachers an early Christmas gift. Cao, a junior at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School, learned last month she finished as a runner-up in a national design contest. That in itself might have been enough for Cao, an aspiring artist and a native of China in her second semester of attending classes at TMP-Marian. But, she admitted with a smile, the rest of the prizes were cool, too. The top eight finishers in the "Redesign Your School Contest" not only won at least $5,000 in scholarship money, they also were to receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington. The contest is co-sponsored by Target and the American Architectural Foundation, a national nonprofit whose focus is to educate people about ways architecture can improve their communities. A TMP-Marian teacher had run across the contest on the Internet last spring, and Pahls gave students in her art classes information about it. Cao took it and ran with it. She worked on three drawings for the contest about six weeks, then went home to China for the summer. Using nature as her focus, Cao redesigned the art room, a hallway and the library at TMP-Marian. Contestants also were required to submit a written explanation about their design entry. "There is a close relationship between the words and the images in Alice's vision of her ideal learning environment," read the contest jury comment for Cao's entry. "The imaginative and natural place she has portrayed points to the spirit of what schools could be -- places of inspiration and wonder." The overall winner was Tyler Rush, a senior from Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, who received a $10,000 scholarship. The seven runners-up each will receive a $5,000 scholarship. Hundreds of students from across the country entered the contest, with 20 semifinalists receiving $100 each and nearly 75 more earning honorable mention recognition.
Cheaper Schools Are Silver Lining to Housing Bust
Susan Jacobson , Orlando Sentinel
November 05, 2007 FLORIDA: School administrators across Central Florida are pleasantly surprised to find that what goes up sometimes really does come down. After years of breathtaking increases, prices for new schools and renovations to older ones are starting to level off and even drop. In Seminole County, an expansion and renovation project at Forest City Elementary cost $11.5 million in November 2005. Earlier this year, the same prototype addition at Lake Orienta Elementary went for $8.7 million, and there were a lot more bidders for the job. Construction experts say the reason is as simple as supply and demand. Just a year ago, the housing market was booming and contractors had plenty of work and little motivation to bid on complex government projects. Today, the market is much different. "Prices have pretty much stabilized," said John Dilworth, senior construction coordinator for Polk County schools. "The economy is slowing down. The market is slowing down." "There was so much work in the marketplace that subcontractors were able to pick and choose and elevate their profit margins." Now the field is more competitive, and school districts and taxpayers are getting more for their money. Subcontractors are willing to accept a lower markup in the hope of maintaining a steady flow of work. Some are being forced to look for jobs in other states.
LAUSD Plans to Charge For Use of School Grounds and Facilities
Naush Boghossian, Daily News
November 04, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Hundreds of nonprofit youth groups in the San Fernando Valley and across the city will have to pay to use LAUSD facilities and athletic fields starting in March. Saying the Los Angeles Unified School District's lean financial outlook requires the move, Superintendent David BrewerIII will institute a three-tiered fee structure to offset annual facilities costs of $3.8million. The move comes just two years after district officials abandoned similar efforts after a broad public outcry that it could force youth groups to cancel thousands of worthwhile after-school events. LAUSD officials said the final fee structure was the result of meetings with representatives of various organizations and is in line with fees charged by the city as well as other school districts. LAUSD is one of the few school districts that doesn't charge for use of its facilities, which it says costs the district about $3.8million a year for utilities, maintenance and other costs. The LAUSD issues about 2,850 permits annually to youth organizations. The district's facilities are used about 55,000 times during the course of a year.
Indiana School Construction Funding Change Debated
Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, Courier-Journal
November 04, 2007 INDIANA: Indiana school officials are gearing up to fight a proposal by Gov. Mitch Daniels to require voter approval in a referendum for significant local construction projects. Daniels said the change is necessary to give voters a greater say in what he calls "the biggest driver of property tax increases." Last year, one-quarter of all property tax payments went to debt, of which 75 percent were for school obligations, the governor's office said. Property taxes dedicated to debt are increasing 8 percent annually. But education officials worry that a referendum system will cause some voters to think only about their own pocketbooks while letting school buildings crumble around students. "When you put a project on a referendum, it becomes real easy to defeat," said John Ellis, executive director of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents. "The question becomes only: Do you want to pay higher taxes? There's no way to discuss the merits of the project." Currently, decisions about school and local government construction are left largely to school boards, city and county councils and other locally elected governing bodies. Taxpayers who oppose the projects can fight them through a process called remonstrance -- a petition drive in which the side with the most signatures wins. The state also reviews property tax-backed projects. In the past, that review has been largely perfunctory but, under Daniels, the scrutiny has increased. School officials say the current procedure works. Since 1995, opponents have forced 94 projects into a remonstrance. In 42 cases, the opponents won, stopping the project. In 52 cases, the school district won -- sometimes on a second try -- and was able to construct the project. "Where the community and the taxpayers want to stop a project, they can," said Dennis Costerison, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. "This idea that the public has no input and there is no one they can go to about a project is absolutely untrue." But Kim Matthews, who organized opposition to a construction proposal by Greater Clark Schools, said the process is cumbersome and expensive for voters. Although his group was ultimately successful in persuading the district to scale back its $165 million proposed bond issue to just $100 million, Matthews said he would have preferred putting the question directly to voters. Remonstrance "is an awful system," said Matthews, who prefers eliminating property taxes entirely. "It takes money. It takes a lot of people's time. That's why the schools like the remonstrance system. They know it is more difficult for the people to win." Indiana's remonstrance process is unique among states. Most require a referendum to approve school construction, said Judy Marks, associate director of the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. But the process can vary. In some states, approval requires as much as a 60 percent majority. In others, it's a simple majority. In some places, almost all projects are put on the ballot, Marks said. In others, only the most expensive require approval. Results of the votes are mixed. According to American School & University, a construction industry publication, about two-thirds of the nation's school construction referendums passed last year. But in some states, the results were much lower. In New Jersey, just 43 percent of all school construction referendums passed last year. That's the lowest success rate in at least a decade. Frank Belluscio, director of communications for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said that's because the state had previously matched property tax dollars for school construction. From 1999 through 2005, the state poured billions of dollars into buildings, the result of a state Supreme Court decision about inequality in school spending. Because the state money held down the impact of construction on property taxes, voters were overwhelmingly supportive. But now the money has run out, Belluscio said. Many states that require referendums for construction have been forced to step in to help schools. In Ohio, where such votes are required for all property tax increases, many fail. That has left schools without the ability to refurbish existing buildings or construct new ones and led courts to order state spending on the problem. Now, the state is spending $5 billion -- some of it backed by its tobacco settlement dollars -- on school construction. "School facilities were falling around kids' ears," Costerison said. Daniels is not proposing to put any state funding into school construction. Rather, the administration is pushing for just the opposite -- less money spent on buildings. He is enforcing new limits on the cost of construction and has issued guidelines for school buildings. According to his office, before 2005 Indiana's school construction projects were 27 percent larger, cost 15 percent more per square foot and resulted in construction costs 46 percent above the U.S. average. Since then, though, school projects have generally been scaled back. And earlier this year, the General Assembly created a new county board that beginning in 2009 will review construction projects before bonds can be issued. That's in part why school officials say the proposal for a referendum isn't needed.
CA District Officials Say Evacuation Shelters Hit Schools Hard Economically
Shayna Chabner, North County Times
November 03, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Even as school maintenance crews were putting down their brooms, high-powered hoses and rags last week after cleaning up their campuses for the return of students, district officials were trying to gauge the economic fallout from the fires that scorched much of the county. North County schools emerged from the Santa Ana-whipped blazes relatively unscathed, with reports of little fire damage. On the other hand, North County officials said last week that their school districts could suffer financially more this year than from the 2003 Cedar and Paradise fires that razed much of the county. Here's why: School officials said more ash -- as well as wind-ripped trees and debris -- blanketed campuses, the result of stronger Santa Ana winds that carried ash farther and faster than four years ago. There were more campus evacuation centers set up for the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the fires than in 2003. Last month, 640,000 people fled their homes, compared with about 50,000 people four years ago, according to figures provided last week by county emergency officials. The costs of running the centers added up quickly, district officials said. "We used a lot of our school and district supplies for our evacuation center," said Lou Obermeyer, superintendent of the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District, referring to a center set up at Valley Center High School. "We used food supplies, cleaning materials and made meals for 6,000 people." Obermeyer said the shelter also received animals and extra cars and motor homes that were parked on the school's football field throughout the week. The site was one of about a dozen shelters run at schools in North County as the fires raged. "It's going to take some time to go through and really be able to sort through the kinds of things that we pulled out of stock rooms and storerooms ... and assess the (financial) impact," Obermeyer said. And, finally, unlike in 2003, some school districts provided evacuees with bus transportation. School buses were used both to move evacuees to new centers and to help the National Guard transfer nearly 100 seniors from the overcrowded shelter at the Del Mar Fairgrounds to nine different facilities in Orange County. Local officials said it will take time to figure out exactly how much the fires cost school districts. "There could be a lot of other costs that we didn't have last time," said Lora Duzyk, assistant superintendent of business services for the San Diego County Office of Education. "I would expect (insurance claims by school districts) to be higher." The county education office will serve as a liaison among school districts, their insurance companies and federal and state emergency relief agencies. Expenses typically covered by insurance companies include overtime hours for employees, the replacement of air-conditioning filters clogged by ashes, and the restocking of cleaning and food supplies that were depleted, Duzyk said.
Nashville School Security Cameras Go Cutting Edge
Thomas Frank, USA Today
November 02, 2007 TENNESSEE: The Nashville school system plans to become the first in the nation to use security cameras that spot intruders with controversial face-recognition technology. Starting Dec. 1, the 75,000-student district will equip three schools and an administration building with cameras that can detect an unfamiliar face or someone barred from school grounds, said Ralph Thompson, assistant superintendent for student services. "This will give us an edge in providing safety for our students and teachers," Thompson said of the $30,000 camera system. Several intruders have entered Nashville schools in the past year, he said. A successful test in Nashville could prod other schools to try the technology, said Peter Pochowski, executive director of the National Association of School Safety and Law Enforcement Officers. He said Nashville is the first to use face-recognition cameras. Nashville will take digital photos of students and workers at the three test schools and store them in the new camera system, Thompson said. When a camera spots a face in a school that it cannot match to a stored photo, it will alert security. The system also could detect suspended and expelled students and fired employees, Thompson said. The technology is denounced by civil libertarians and has been discarded by police in Tampa and Virginia Beach, which found face-recognition cameras in downtown districts did not help in spotting wanted criminals.
New Jersey Lawyers for Poor Schools Question Construction Aid to Suburbs
Dunstan McNichol , Real -Time News
November 01, 2007 NEW JERSEY: While state funding has dried up for new school projects in the 31 needy communities where the Supreme Court ordered decrepit school buildings rebuilt, wealthy suburbs are enjoying a state-subsidized school building boom, according to a report issued by the lawyers for the needy communities. "It is a cruel irony that the state school construction program, enacted to address long-standing facilities needs in poorer districts, now only funds projects in more affluent and middle income school districts," said David Sciarra, attorney for the needy communities covered by the state Supreme Court's Abbott vs. Burke rulings. The so-called Abbott districts have received the largest amount of state construction aid under a program set up in the wake of the court's 1998 construction mandate. Lawmakers authorized $8.6 billion in borrowing to pay for school construction statewide; $6 billion to cover the full cost of schools in the so-called "Abbott" districts, and $2.6 billion in partial grants for suburban and vocational schools. Those funds have been tapped out. But suburban communities that win voter approval to borrow for new school projects are still eligible for a separate program in which the state covers at least 40 percent of each year's repayment costs for school construction bonds. Payments under the program have jumped from $36 million two years ago to almost $50 million this year, Sciarra's analysis shows. "I think it's outrageous, frankly," said Sciarra, who has sued seeking immediate action on the state Schools Development Authority's request for an additional $3.25 billion in borrowing capacity. Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington), an author of the original school construction legislation, said he finds it outrageous that Sciarra is seeking additional funds for the Abbott projects when audits revealed hundreds of millions of dollars in waste.
Indiana Schools Oppose Voting on Construction
Niki Kelly, Journal Gazette
November 01, 2007 INDIANA: School officials are uniting in opposition against one plank of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ property tax overhaul package – a requirement that significant local construction projects be approved at the ballot box. Many other states have a referendum process in place for capital projects such as schools, jails and libraries that will cause increases in property taxes. In fact, according to a review by the Legislative Services Agency, Indiana is the only state using the petition and remonstrance process. Currently, Hoosiers opposing a project must gather 100 signatures to launch a full remonstrance. From there, those supporting and opposing the project enter into a dueling signature battle in which the side with the most verified signatures wins. “I feel strongly that (a referendum) is appropriate,” Daniels said. “A straight referendum process, which exists in many states, would be more clear and clean than the sort of clunky petition and remonstrance business of today.” Daniels said the primary driver of rising property taxes statewide is debt – three-quarters of which relates to school construction. Statistically, about half of school projects survive the petition-remonstrance process. But many are never contested in the first place. Daniels’ proposal doesn’t set a threshold for what projects would be decided by referendum, but school officials in general fear that taxpayers will reject bond issues and buildings will fall into disrepair. Frank Bush, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association – said the General Assembly has adjusted the petition and remonstrance process in recent years, including a brand-new provision allowing all voters to weigh in instead of just property owners. And he said a local capital projects review board is set to be implemented in 2009 that can turn down projects. “It seems more prudent to let those statutes work and maybe prevail before we move into a referendum process,” Bush said. Bush also said he believes referendums will exacerbate the divide between poor and wealthy districts because taxpayers in districts with higher income would be more likely to approve improvements. Bush and others almost unilaterally use Ohio as an example of a referendum state in which taxpayers rarely approve building projects. As a result, he said, the state of Ohio had to infuse billions of dollars into school buildings that were falling apart.
Declining Fort Worth Area School Growth Rates Affecting Building Decisions
Eva-Marie Ayala, Star-Telegram
November 01, 2007 TEXAS: The area's worst housing market in seven years is affecting some of Tarrant County's fastest-growing school districts. Northwest continued its robust growth, but others districts saw their numbers tumble. The enrollment slowdown comes as officials were announcing a big decline in housing starts, which were down 31 percent during the third quarter compared with the same period last year. New home closings also declined 19 percent during the quarter. The slowdown really has not given the school districts a lot of breathing room this year, said demographer Bob Templeton, who works with area districts. "The downturn won't affect the need for new facilities, but it will affect the timing," he said. "The downturn is expected to last 18-20 months, so that could give some of the districts a chance to catch up or reschedule when they open a school." Officials from several districts said they have not delayed any construction so far. If the growth slowdown continues, though, they'll have to decide whether to continue building schools or delay construction and face higher building costs.
Halt to School Furniture Money Upsets Des Moines Parents, Teachers
Megan Hawkins, Des Moines Register
November 01, 2007 IOWA: Some Des Moines parents and teachers are upset that school officials will no longer give an automatic allowance to purchase new furniture when buildings are constructed or renovated. Building administrators had been given a lump sum - between $100,000 and $150,000 at most elementary schools - to buy desks, chairs and other furnishings once their schools opened. They will now be required to draw from leftovers stored in the district's warehouse and make purchases on an "as needed" basis. While construction is paid for with money from a 1 percent sales tax that expires in 2010, furnishings are covered by a separate levy. Jaynette Rittman, principal at the newly renovated Garton Elementary School, was uncertain how much her school received for furnishings, but said student tables and chairs; teacher desks and chairs; bookshelves; filing cabinets; and cafeteria tables were bought. "It gives everything a fresh look. ... New furniture just enhances the appearance of school buildings, and in turn that supports learning in the classroom because people are excited to be there," she said. Woodlawn kindergarten teacher Patti Fiderlick, who is in charge of her school's furniture committee, said new furnishings are important to students in new and renovated buildings. "It's a sense of pride," she said. "Furniture which is their size, something they use ... they feel like it belongs to them. That's something a child can relate to."
City School System to Seek Federal Funds to Build Sturdier Classrooms
Jeremy Wise, Enterprise Ledger
November 01, 2007 ALABAMA: The Enterprise Board of Education approved a plan that could allow the city school system to seek federal funds to build sturdier classrooms. City Schools Administrative Assistant Bob Tomberlin said the Coffee County Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Litigation plan allows Enterprise City Schools to apply for Federal Emergency Managemaent Agency funds for building safer schools. Tomberlin said FEMA will offer up to 75 percent of funds to build classrooms and/or hallways that would withstand winds up to 200 mph. The process involves using reinforced concrete and storm doors and windows, Tomberlin added.
Money for Connecticut School Construction Is On the Way
Maria Garriga, New Haven Register
November 01, 2007 CONNECTICUT: After months of missing payments for local school construction projects, the state plans to release money again the middle of this month. The $2.8 billion state bond bill has $1.34 billion dedicated to school construction over the next two years. Of that total, $409.6 million will be immediately released for towns, once the State Bond Commission approves the package as expected Nov. 9. The annual bond package usually gets approved in June, and some school districts have been waiting for the money since August. The delay in bond approval occurred when Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed lawmakers' original $3.2 billion bond package. "She said it was well-intentioned but the state just couldn't afford it," said Rell spokesman Adam Leigeot. "In other words, the state had almost maxed out its credit card in bonds." Rell eventually approved a bonding plan that cut $400 million, much of it originally destined for state universities and local earmarks. The impasse proved costly for communities in the middle of school construction projects. New Haven, which has the largest school construction project in the state, valued at $1.5 billion, had to pay an additional $150,000 in interest in high-interest bridge loans because of the delay in state bonds. "Let the building begin," Rell said in a statement released Thursday. "State money for school construction will soon be back in the pipeline to several Connecticut towns and cities. Local officials will now have access to money to pay contractors who have already begun school construction work." The $409.6 million in school construction funding includes $2 million to reimburse any cities and towns that sought expensive short-term loans to keep their school construction projects going while the bond package was in limbo. "Municipalities will now be able to recoup additional interest costs and other expenses stemming from the delay," Rell said.
Houston School District's Costs Rising Due to Mold in School
Erika Mellon, Houston Chronicle
October 31, 2007 TEXAS: The controversy over possible contaminants at Key Middle School has cost taxpayers more than $127,000 since August, and the tab could rise as employees incur more medical expenses that they blame on mold. Eighty-eight employees from Key — about 80 percent of the staff — have filed workers' compensation claims with the Houston Independent School District. Almost all said they were in good health before falling ill at the northeast Houston campus, and the most common symptoms reported were skin rashes, difficulty breathing and headaches, according to a Houston Chronicle review of the claims. An initial report from the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health confirmed the presence of mold in some classrooms, hallways, the teachers' lounge and other areas, but the report did not address whether the conditions were unsafe. The federal agency is working on a more complete analysis, although Burton said inspectors may never pinpoint the specific cause of any ailments. But Burton said conditions at Key, a 50-year-old school, were ripe for mold and humidity problems because the air conditioning was out of operation at times during the summer while heavy rains were falling.
Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere
Joseph Berger, New York Times
October 31, 2007 NATIONAL : The university classroom of the future is in Janet Duck’s dining room on East Chocolate Avenue here. There is no blackboard and no lectern, and, most glaringly, no students. Dr. Duck teaches her classes in Pennsylvania State University’s master’s program in business administration by sitting for several hours each day in jeans and shag-lined slippers at her dining table. Welcome to the brave burgeoning world of online education. It’s a world most of us, whether we like it or not, will have to grapple with, as students, tuition-paying parents or employees. Nearly 3.5 million college or graduate students, one of every five, took at least one online course last fall, double the figures of five years earlier, according to a survey of 2,500 campuses published last week in a collaboration among the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the College Board and a Babson College research group.
Geothermal: New York School Uses Closed-Loop System for Housing Complex
Staff Writer, Green Building News
October 31, 2007 NEW YORK: In a climate of rising energy costs and growing interest in environmentally sustainable campus design, officials at the State University of New York at Brockport turned to sustainable technology and geothermal ground-source pumps to support the heating and cooling needs at the college's recently completed 208-bed student housing complex.
HVAC Systems Improve Efficiency, Health at Schools
Maureen Lally , Green Building News
October 30, 2007 NATIONAL : Through the combination of more efficient technology and adoption of green building guidelines, officials can be responsible to both the classroom and the environment, receive a payback on their investments, and achieve their operating goals while improving teacher and student comfort, productivity and performance. School districts can save 30 percent to 40 percent on utility costs each year for new schools, and 20 percent to 30 percent on renovated schools by applying sustainable, high performance, energy-efficient design and construction concepts to improve classroom comfort, according to the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council. Creating a high performance, comfortable classroom environment requires an integrated approach between sustainable design and construction standards, and the corresponding selection, implementation and ongoing maintenance and operation of building control systems and technologies.
Ohio's $5 Billion Sale of Tobacco Settlement-Funded Bonds to Go to Schools
Mark Rollenhagen, Plain Dealer
October 30, 2007 OHIO: Ohio banked $5.05 billion with the sale of its future payments from a national settlement with tobacco companies. The cash will allow Ohio to speed up its planned school construction program and avoid piling up long-term debt, officials said. On top of that, the deal - described as the largest sale of tobacco settlement-funded bonds in the nation - will pay for a real estate tax break for seniors and disabled Ohioans. Governor Strickland said that the bond sale would allow the state to build 250 new schools over the next three years. "This will create a construction boom in Ohio at a time when we need job creation," Strickland said. If it hadn't sold the tobacco payments, the state would have had to sell bonds backed by tax dollars to pay for new schools.
Maryland County Hopes to Eliminate More Portable Classrooms
Daniel de Vise, Washington Post
October 30, 2007 MARYLAND: The Montgomery County school system has begun to wean itself off portable classrooms, the boxy trailers that multiplied in school athletic fields over the past decade, school officials said. The number of portables in use countywide fell about one-third to 462 this fall, down from the 2005 peak of 685. Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said he plans to use his capital budget to trim the number to 256 by 2012, a reduction of about two-thirds. "It will certainly send a message that these were temporary and we want to move people into regular facilities," Weast said. Weast's projection was part of a $258 million spending plan for school construction and renovation for the fiscal year that begins in July. The capital budget proposal reflects an increase of $19 million, or 8 percent, from the $239 million budget approved by the County Council for the current year. Portable classrooms tripled in number in 10 years, driven by three factors -- rising enrollment, class-size reduction and expansion of kindergarten from a half-day to a full day. Now, enrollment has stabilized, and the other goals have been reached. Those adjustments, along with a number of multimillion-dollar school expansion projects, have allowed school officials to reduce the number of portables in use countywide to 462, with further reductions to come in each of the next five years.
New Jersey Seeks Time to Get Funds for Abbott Projects
John Mooney, Star-Ledger
October 30, 2007 NEW JERSEY: The Corzine administration again asked the state Supreme Court for more time to come up with money for the stalled school construction program, saying it needs a few more months to develop a long-term fiscal plan for the state. Advocates for schoolchildren in the state's most impoverished districts have gone to the high court demanding the state meet its obligation to repair and reconstruct scores of aging and crowded schools in these communities, as mandated under the court's Abbott vs. Burke rulings. Many of the projects were put on hold when the state's construction program stalled last year after spending $6 billion and coming under criticism for widespread waste and abuse. The Abbott schoolchildren's chief lawyer said the state's response fails to provide much hope to the long-beleaguered districts. "It's very disappointing that again no specific time frame for securing the facilities funds has been presented, and that we have no assurance when this will get done," said David Sciarra, director of the Education Law Center, which requested the court's intervention. "It's the same position that has been taken for over two years now and was presented to the court last spring," he said. "This comes at a time when we have thousands of students in buildings that are unsafe, overcrowded and not adequate." The state's lengthy response and certifications from top education and treasury officials provided some new details on the fate of the plagued construction program. For one, the vague timeline of presenting a restructuring plan "by early 2008" is the first time the Corzine administration has made such a pledge in writing, let alone in a legal filing to the state Supreme Court. In addition, the state's filing indicates the currently funded projects should keep the state's revamped Schools Development Authority in operation through August 2010. "The program ... is not at a standstill," the brief read. "There has been and continues to be substantial construction work -- work that will be ongoing through the next several years even without additional funds being secured." That's not much consolation to those in Paterson, where two projects are finished and two are nearing completion, but three are stalled and another dozen have yet to begin, advocates said.
Reduced Retiree Debt in Alabama Could Benefit School Construction
M.J. Ellington, Decauter Daily
October 30, 2007 ALABAMA: Alabama is getting out of debt for retiree benefits faster than the state’s financial experts thought possible and schools may benefit. Financial experts expect to earn a lower rate on $1 billion in school construction bonds the state plans to sell in December. State Finance Director Jim Main said Alabama has reduced the unfunded liability for the state’s portion of retiree costs by $2.1 billion. The lower debt should help Alabama get a better bond rating. That means the state will sell the bonds at a lower cost to the state. The result should be more money to improve schools.
Wilson College Breaks Ground for Green Science Center
Jim Hook , Public Opinion
October 29, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA: A new $25 million Complex for Science, Mathematics and Technology will meet strict environmental standards for energy efficiency and is to be the first building in Franklin County certified for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of "green" buildings. The interior of the science center will be modular so space can be reconfigured. Such flexibility will be necessary for teaching science in the future, said Dr. Dana Harriger, associate professor of biology and head of the school science division. The front of the math and science building will be constructed of Pennsylvania limestone and will blend with existing campus architecture. The 25,000-square-foot new construction will feature a greenhouse, aquatics room, atrium and natural science museum.
Home-Construction Woes Don't Slow Arizona School Building
Paul Davenport, Tucson Citizen/Associated Press
October 29, 2007 ARIZONA: New schools are built at state expense to accommodate enrollment growth, but Arizona is seeing a big slowdown in housing construction. Shouldn't that add up to welcome savings in the state's costly school-construction program? After all, the work carries a $370 million pricetag in just this fiscal year alone and the $10.6 billion state budget faces a projected $600 million shortfall. Not so far, officials said. The state School Facilities Board has dropped a handful of school projects because planned housing developments dropped off the drawing table, reducing projected enrollment growth in the scattering of districts involved. But so far there hasn't been a major retrenchment in school The School Facilities Board's staff is analyzing more than 100 long-range planning reports recently submitted by districts under a new state requirement and Arizona's population continues to grow, Executive Director John Arnold said. That means more schools will be needed, he said. "While we're in the midst of a slowdown right now, everyone we talk to suggests the state is still going to grow and that we should be coming out of the slowdown in some future time," Arnold said.
Is Fort Worth School District Up to Bond Challenges?
Yamil Berard, Star-Telegram
October 28, 2007 TEXAS: As its front line of defense against waste, fraud and mismanagement, the Fort Worth school district plans to add several positions, including an in-house architect, an internal auditor, a financial manager and a chief construction executive, to oversee the $593.6 million bond package. The district is also improving its accounting and business operations. Among the changes is new accounting software, slated to be deployed in March, that will allow the district to track bond expenditures project-by-project from start to finish. Still, Superintendent Melody Johnson and her top lieutenants in technology, maintenance and operations, and finance face daunting tasks if voters approve the bond package Nov. 6. District officials will have to hire, assimilate and train the new employees, get the kinks out of the new accounting software and implement checks and balances while trying to launch the largest bond program ever undertaken by a Tarrant County school district. The massive effort is intended to avoid a repeat of the 1999 bond program debacle and a 1980 school bond scandal, both of which were blamed in part on shoddy financial controls. "You learn by your mistakes," Johnson said. "I don't think anybody sets out to do any harm." To get it right will be a juggling act, say those experienced in education, business and school construction. "Any major bond program that is important to taxpayers and educators does require a lot of time and attention to detail," said David Brewer, a deputy director at the Texas Education Agency's service center in Fort Worth who has decades of experience in school finance. Ideally, the district should have new financial controls in place before the bond package begins, say officials in other districts. To carry out the new bond package, the Fort Worth district must fulfill numerous responsibilities. Those require tight controls. [The article describes] what the district plans in response to past problems with construction projects. The Star-Telegram also talked with several experts about what they advise.
University of West Florida Campus Going Green
Sara Rabb, Pensacola News Journal
October 28, 2007 FLORIDA: Utilitarian and well-kept, the earth-tone buildings of the University of West Florida generally blend well with the rolling hills and many trees on a campus noted for its natural beauty. But there is very little "wow" factor in campus architecture. But a major change to UWF's look is on the horizon. Construction of three new buildings is to begin early next year, part of an evolving master plan to take the sprawling, 40-year-old university into a new era in campus building. University officials say they aim to create a more compact, more organized space that encourages walking, biking and energy conservation. The plan includes a $1.1 million demonstration house, built with private funds, to showcase building materials and construction practices that are environmentally friendly, wind-resistant and energy-efficient. Each of the three new buildings will follow U.S. Green Building Council standards, considered the national benchmark for design and construction standards in energy use, waste disposal, landscaping and irrigation.
Schools Embrace Environment and Sow Debate
Winnie Hu, New York Times
October 25, 2007 NATIONAL : With posted signs decreeing “No Idling Zone” the school pickup line has become the latest front in a growing school-based environmental movement that has moved far beyond recycling programs and Earth Day celebrations to challenge long-accepted school norms. Since 2004, dozens of public and private schools in Westchester and New York City and on Long Island have adopted no-idling zones, switched to plant-based cleaners in their buildings and, to a lesser extent, banned pesticides from playgrounds and playing fields, according to Grassroots Environmental Education, a nonprofit group that began a campaign this month promoting all three measures. Similar efforts have spread across the country. The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education, a nonprofit group, has recognized 163 Maryland Green Schools — nearly one-third of them in the last two years — for taking initiatives like preserving wetlands, banning disposable plastic water bottles or assigning environmentally themed readings. No effort is deemed too small. In a light-bulb exchange in Southern California, students in 26 schools in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties replaced 15,734 incandescent bulbs — and counting — in their homes with energy-efficient compact fluorescent versions. Some educators contend that the environmental focus is a waste of taxpayers’ money and a distraction for schools at a time when many students are ill-prepared for college and struggling to meet minimum standards on math and reading tests. But school officials counter that they have a responsibility to help students become better citizens, and that in that sense teaching them to protect the environment is no different from teaching them ethics or social norms. Many parents and local officials also support environmental measures at schools because of growing concerns over health risks from exhaust fumes and toxic chemicals. Last week, New York City Council members, citing asthma cases among elementary school children, proposed legislation to prohibit people from idling their vehicles more than one minute next to schools. The green schools movement, which grew out of earlier efforts at colleges and universities, has already changed the way some schools are built. Today, an increasing number of classrooms have ventilation systems, natural lighting and automatic light and heat sensors. The U.S. Green Building Council, which sets standards for environmentally friendly construction, has certified 60 green schools, including a new building at Sidwell Friends School in Washington that is constructed partly from recycled wine barrels. More than 400 other schools have applied for certification, and last month that number rose by one school a day. While environmentalism does not come cheap, many school officials and parents say that building green schools or adopting recycling programs not only benefits the environment, but can also be good for the bottom line. The largest suburban school district in New Jersey, Toms River, has spent $20 million in the past two years to install solar panels at seven schools, and plans to retrofit 11 more schools by 2012. District officials said their annual electricity bill of $3 million dropped by $239,000 in the first year alone. Increasingly, schools have also sought to integrate environmentalism into their curriculums — the Ethel Walker School in the Hartford suburbs features a course called Literature of the American Environment — so it becomes a way of seeing and thinking about the world.
Indiana Educators Cool to Voter Referendums to Fund School Construction
Oseye T. Boyd, Star Press
October 25, 2007 INDIANA: As part of his property tax relief plan, Gov. Mitch Daniels called for the state to move to voter referendum for school construction projects. That's unnecessary, local superintendents say, because Indiana already has a process in place for local residents to support or oppose school building projects. It's called a remonstrance, and so far, local school officials say, it has worked. In the remonstrance process, supporters and opponents of a project collect signatures on petitions; a project can be defeated if more signatures are collected against it than in favor of it. Statewide, about half of all school projects are defeated by local residents and the project doesn't proceed, according to Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller LLP. We're a prime example of a school corporation that failed," Wes-Del Community Schools Supt. Steve McColley said. "Our remonstrance -- this happened back in the '90s -- the proposal on the building project failed; the community did not support it. Then, after several years, we came back with a proposal the community supported. "The system works. People should look at Ohio," he said. "Ohio did that and now they sued the state.The state has to pay for the building projects. They're using tobacco money. We have a system that works. It's a local decision, not a state decision." Since 1997, Ohio has used a referendum process under which voters decide whether to fund a school construction project. State funds are given to schools for the project, but no state funds are dispersed unless the project is backed by local voters. The passage rate for school construction projects is around 85-90 percent, said Rick Savors, chief of communications for the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission. In Delaware County, remonstrators defeated a $29 million building project for Mount Pleasant Township Community Schools in 2006. More recently, the Liberty-Perry Community School Board reduced the scope of a building project proposal from $13.4 million to $6.9 million in response to taxpayer protest. The race to collect enough signatures for or against the scaled-back project begins soon.
North Carolina School Design Saves Water
Kira Mathis , news14.com
October 24, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: From the outside, Northern Guilford Middle School looks like an average school, but with its solar panels and slanted roof, the school conserves energy and water. "We have a reservoir that contains 360,000 gallons of water and that water is supplied through the roof that drains on both the high school and the middle school," said Joe Hill, a project consultant for Guilford County Schools. The reservoir is hidden underneath a basketball court in front of the middle school. The water is primarily used for flushing toilets, which accounts for 75 percent of the school's total water usage. "We specify the very low-flow toilets and other plumbing fixtures and then we use rain water for flushing toilets. By doing that we do that 9 million gallons of water saving," added Bae-Won Koh, the architect who designed the building. Even with the drought, the water saving continues. "The current amount of water we have is about 170,000 gallons, which will last us about seven weeks of flushing the toilets and things like that," explained principal Dr. Sam Misher. Koh says there are many aspects to the building that help the environment, from re-using rain water to relying on sunlight to light classrooms. "We bring the day lighting into the space and that slated roof strategy is to bring the day lighting into the space," he explained. Dr. Misher says signs are posted throughout the school to keep students informed on the "green" school. "Many times they do say they feel like they're going to the laboratory instead of going to school, in particular in the classrooms where it's the natural sunlight and they say they just feel better," he said. Officials with Guilford County Schools hope to incorporate the green design into other projects.
Pennsylvania County Demonstrates School Safety System
Staff Writer, wfmz.com
October 24, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA: If something were to happen at schools in Montgomery County, police are now just a button-push away. The county unveiled its new school safety system that includes a wireless, silent, panic button providing an extra layer of security for schools. When pushed ... 9-1-1 is immediately notified. The Countywide Law Enforcement Alerting and Safety System or CLASS allows responding officers to call up floor plans of the school on their laptop computers so they have a better idea of what they're dealing with. The system is currently in place in 59 schools throughout the county. They hope to have it installed in the rest by the end of the year.
L.A. Unified, Nonprofits Join on Construction Projects to Boost Student Health
Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
October 24, 2007 CALIFORNIA: After decades of simply trying to build classroom space, Los Angeles school officials have embarked on construction projects meant to enhance students' physical health, well-being and safety outside school hours. The Board of Education approved plans to install a YMCA on a Westside campus and a Boys & Girls Club at a South Los Angeles middle school and to set up mobile health clinics at dozens of campuses. The projects attempt forward-thinking in a school system that is still building its way out of a decades-old campus shortage. Voter-approved bonds being used for that effort, as well as for repairing and modernizing hundreds of other Los Angeles Unified School District schools, were also set up to include some money for "innovative" projects. At University High School, near the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus, the district was in a particular bind. The school sits directly over an active earthquake fault, and state law stipulates that no school building can lie over or within 50 feet of such a fault. The district faced demolition of the boys gym, a girls physical education building, the music building and numerous modular classrooms. Replacing these facilities had not been part of earlier school bond budgets. "This partnership allows us to complete for that school what they didn't have otherwise," said school board member Marlene Canter, who represents the area. For the University High project, the Y intends to spend up to a year raising an estimated $20 million to replace its outdated, undersize building just north of Pico Boulevard. The district's replacement school buildings will cost $23.8 million, which includes federal funds for seismic upgrades. The YMCA collaboration grew out of a geographic consonance in mid-Wilshire. The district had bought land from the Y for a school project, pushing the Y to an adjacent parcel and prompting both parties to contemplate new possibilities of working together. Already the Y provides on-campus before- and after-school programs at about 50 district schools and physical education programs for about 40 schools. It also took part in a five-year South Los Angeles program to teach swimming to third-graders. The Boys & Girls Club project is at Markham Middle School, near four low-income housing projects and within the territory of seven major gangs. The Los Angeles city attorney's office is contributing $100,000 for modular buildings on campus that will house the club branch, and the district will cover the balance. The club in turn is committing $150,000 initially while promising to manage ongoing activities. The third project, the mobile health clinics, features two sets of outside partners. One group providing free health services is the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America, working with the county Department of Health Services and County-USC Medical Center. The other provider will be Little Company of Mary San Pedro Hospital, which is part of the Seattle-based nonprofit Providence Health & Services. Little Company runs RVs outfitted with two exam rooms and a nurses' station; they already make regular stops at L.A. Unified schools. The school board's vote authorizes up to $1 million to build stations at 28 sites. These parking spots are expected to have concrete pads to support the weight of the RV, electrical outlets and Internet access.
Getting a Greener Education in Houston
Erika Mellon, Houston Chronicle
October 24, 2007 TEXAS: At Walnut Bend Elementary School, the building boasts plenty of windows to bring in sunlight, energy-efficient light bulbs and — a favorite among students — toilets that flush automatically. As an added bonus, the toilets help conserve water, too. The new Walnut Bend campus, which opened in August, is one of two facilities that the Houston Independent School District has built according to nationally recognized green standards. Last month, HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra vowed that the 24 new schools slated for construction in the most recent bond proposal would be environmentally friendly. If that promise is realized, Houston would be one of the largest school districts in the nation to go green, said Rachel Gutter, who manages the school program for the U.S. Green Building Council. The nonprofit building council certifies green buildings through a program known as LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. To meet LEED standards, buildings must show energy efficiency, water savings, use of green materials, good air quality, sustainable site development, and more. "This is not something the majority of America has committed to by any stretch of the imagination," Gutter said. "It sounds as though Houston is looking to strike out as a leader in the state, and it could be a national leader." Last month, Ohio became the first state to require new public schools to follow the green council's standards and has devoted $4.1 billion from tobacco settlements to the effort. Nationwide, about 60 schools have met the standards, and nearly 400 — including Houston's Walnut Bend and Thompson elementary schools — are applying for certification. Support for green schools gained some momentum in the recent Texas legislative session, but a bill that would have required districts to follow tight environmental standards never made it out of committee hearings. Fast-growing school districts are worried about the potential cost. "Basically, a totally green school would be very expensive," said Mary Ann Simpson, spokeswoman for the Fort Bend school district. "We are aware of the LEED standards, and we strive to incorporate them when it fits within our budget." The Texas Education Agency estimates that green schools could swell construction costs between 5 percent and 10 percent, although the U.S. Green Building Council says the increase would be much lower.
Oregon Schools Warm to Excise Tax
Anne Williams, Register-Guard
October 24, 2007 OREGON: The Bethel School District is poised to become one of the first districts in Lane County to take advantage of newly granted authority to collect taxes on new construction to help pay for school facilities. Senate Bill 1036, approved by the Oregon Legislature and governor with the blessing of the Oregon Homebuilders Association, allows school districts to impose an excise tax on residential, commercial and industrial development. Through intergovernmental agreements with cities and counties, districts may collect up to $1 per square foot on new homes or additions and 50 cents per square foot (up to $25,000) on new commercial or industrial development. At least four Oregon districts — Oregon City, North Clackamas, Molalla and Cascade — have already adopted the tax, said David Williams, legislative coordinator for the Oregon School Boards Association. He said he knows of more than two dozen others that have had it on board agendas since it took effect nearly two months ago.
School Impact Fees Set to Soar in Florida
David Damron, Erika Hobbs, and Dave Weber, Orlando Sentinel
October 24, 2007 FLORIDA: Developers are warning that the state's struggling housing market would be further crippled if Orange and Seminole county leaders sharply increase school-impact fees. They're asking Orange County commissioners to delay a 69 percent spike in the fees -- from $7,000 to $11,829 for each new single-family home -- arguing that last-minute legal questions about the use of those funds and special sales-tax revenues need to be sorted out first. County staff members, however, support the increases and are pressing ahead for a vote. In Seminole, home builders oppose an effort to nearly quadruple the existing school fees levied on new homes, saying the jump from $1,384 to $5,068 on a single-family home is too drastic. The fees haven't climbed since they were first set in 1992. After previous delays, it's unclear whether the Seminole increase has enough political support. Both fights today pit home builders against school leaders, with county officials who control the fees in the middle.
New Pasadena High School Has Built-in Sense of History
Deborah Schoch, Los Angeles Times
October 24, 2007 CALIFORNIA: The leaders of the private Waverly School in Pasadena set out to build a new high school campus. Instead, they created what looks like a well-groomed rural hamlet, with seven wood-frame houses and bungalows wrapped around a grassy quadrangle. These newly renovated homes-turned-classrooms reflect the personality of Waverly, a kindergarten through 12th grade school rooted in a progressive philosophy of hands-on learning and a strong sense of community. The project also stands as a bright spot for Pasadena preservationists, who pride themselves on working to save the city's architectural treasures, whether Old Town storefronts, the beaux-arts City Hall or these freshly painted sage-green houses. The project includes two Victorian-era homes and four mid-1920s bungalows. While most people tackle one building at a time, Waverly School officials decided to renovate a collection of dilapidated homes. The high school program was outgrowing its quarters in an office building on Pasadena Avenue just as six old houses went on sale on nearby Waverly Drive. The school spent $2.4 million for the properties, which had been divided into apartments and sorely needed attention. As it built the new campus, the school added a seventh old home, known as the Dearth House after the family that once occupied it. The gracious 1 1/2 -story home is the most elaborate on the campus, with its gables, decorative vent covers, Eastlake trim and fish-scale shingling. More work remains to be done. A covered patio is planned, but for now, a cluster of large Japanese-style umbrellas provides shade on the quad. School officials say the new classrooms are more airy, and those in the little bungalows have windows on four sides. The age and history of the buildings add a new dimension to students' education, Johnson said as she stood outside the 1888 administration building. "Young people are used to everything new -- the new cellphone, the new iPod," she said. "This gives them a sense of history, and it gives them a sense of the importance of preserving what is old."
$90 Million School Question: Consolidation or Renovation?
Stephen Igo, Kingsport Times-News
October 23, 2007 TENNESSEE: Cost estimates to renovate all six of Wise County’s aging high schools compare favorably to building three new facilities on the consolidation side of the equation. School Superintendent Greg Killough presented a detailed analysis to compare cost estimates and other projections on renovations versus consolidation. School division administrators project about $90 million is needed to renovate all six existing facilities, all but one built in the 1950s. Or $91.5 million would suffice to build three new ones to replace the six old schools with a student population of about 700 students to each of the three new facilities. Two new schools would cost about $81 million, with 1,050 students enrolled in each new high school. One new school to replace all six existing high schools would also cost $81 million to house all of the county’s 2,100 or so high school students. The administration’s analysis contains other interesting assertions, including a projection that a whole new Appalachia High School could be built at roughly the same cost to renovate the existing facility, or an estimated $14.85 million to build a new AHS compared to $14.81 million to overhaul the old AHS. The school board has wrangled with renovations versus consolidation for at least the last three years, and the countywide debate crashed in resounding fashion in February when renovations recommended by four architectural firms carried a projected price tag of nearly $110 million for all six schools. The board set a goal to pare that down to $70 million and managed to slash the recommendations down to the just-under $90 million neighborhood, but voted 5-3 to have the administration gather consolidation data instead of sending a renovations funding proposal to the county Board of Supervisors.
Guest View: Our Future is Always Under Construction in Winona, Minnesota Schools
Paul Durand , Winona Daily News
October 23, 2007 MINNESOTA: It is a widely held belief that public education is essential to the local economy. Schools are a significant part of the infrastructure of a community and can have a direct impact on real estate values, employment, wages and countless other economic factors in the life of our citizens. Healthy public schools are often as much an indicator of economic progress as the numbers of people employed locally or the profit and loss indicators of area businesses. Often people judge the quality of a community and the educational institutions that serve them by what they see on the outside of the buildings. Is there a link between the overall maintenance of our buildings, the condition of school facilities, and student academic achievement? According to many research studies on this issue, the answer is yes. Studies conducted over the past 20 years have shown a direct correlation between the overall qualities of learning environments and enhanced academic outcomes. According to a report sponsored by the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, “The overall impact a school building has on students can be either positive or negative, depending upon the condition of the building. In cases where students attend school in substandard buildings they are definitely handicapped in their academic achievement. Correlation studies show a strong positive relationship between overall building conditions and student achievement.” The Winona Area Public Schools also face these same challenges with our facilities. We have worked hard to make real improvements to our school buildings and grounds over the past few years, yet we hope to make even greater progress on them in the years to come. I believe our community must come together and ultimately decide how we will address the long-term facility needs for the public schools in Winona. Under Minnesota’s current funding system it will be virtually impossible to maintain our school buildings and grounds without local taxpayer support. Your decisions to sustain quality facilities and building maintenance for our school district can affect the daily performance of the generations of students and teachers who use them. Every day our students’ futures are under construction in the Winona Area Public Schools. We strive to enhance long-term, positive effects on academic achievement through the quality of our school facilities.
L.A. Board May Shift $1 Billion to School Construction
Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
October 23, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles school district officials want to close most of a staggering deficit in the school-construction program by using more than $1 billion in bond money that was meant for other purposes. The Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the shift. The proposal, expected to pass, would use for new schools money that would have repaired and modernized existing schools, improved Internet access and other technology on campuses, and built and repaired preschool centers. Instead, the funds will backfill the plan to build 145 schools in an effort to provide all students with a neighborhood campus that operates on a traditional two-semester schedule. The $20-billion construction and modernization program is the nation's largest and frequently touted as a seminal accomplishment. But the effort has run up against spiraling increases in property values and construction costs. When voters passed Measure Y in 2005, they authorized nearly $4 billion in school bonds. The breakdown included $1.6 billion for new schools, $1.48 billion for existing schools, $325 million for technology and $100 million for early education. The resolution before the school board would take $790 million from repair of existing schools, $200 million from technology and $60 million from early education. Each cut is greater than half of the bond money allocated. Van Ginkel said the loss would not be felt for perhaps two years, because of money left from other bond measures and elsewhere. But he acknowledged that from the start, the backlog of district needs surpassed all available funding. No local school bonds had been approved for 34 years before four won passage starting in 1997. "We're building to make up for 20 years where the district built very few new schools," he said, adding that enrollment grew by 226,000 students from 1980 to 2002. In the past, he said, the district got by with 10,000 portable classrooms, a year-round schedule and involuntary busing.
New Security System for D.C. Schools
Allison Klein, Washington Post
October 23, 2007 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA : In an effort to make the District's most crime-prone schools safer, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced a new security system for school doors and assured the public that the buildings would no longer have padlocks, chains or other measures considered a fire hazard. To deal with both emergency access and security issues, the Fenty administration has decided to install surveillance cameras and magnetic locks on the doors of some D.C. schools. For the better part of the past decade, Ballou and Anacostia senior high schools in Southeast Washington have had chains and padlocks on their exterior doors -- an extreme measure taken by staff to combat truancy and crime problems in the schools, officials said. But last month, the city's fire marshal declared the locks a hazard and ordered them removed. Under the new system, the doors will remain locked from the outside; when someone tries to open a door from the inside, an alarm will go off for 15 seconds before it opens. The principal's office will be immediately notified, and a camera will record any activity at the door. The doors will open automatically if the fire alarm goes off, and authorities will have the ability to open them at will. The new system will cost from $750,000 to $1 million at Ballou and $4 million for the other eight schools selected by the city: Anacostia, Cardozo, Coolidge, Dunbar, Roosevelt, Spingarn and Wilson senior high schools and Johnson Junior High. If the magnetic door system works in the first handful of schools, authorities said, they will consider implementing it citywide.
Warren, Michigan Students Respect the Innovative New Building
Dan Cortez, Detroit Free Press
October 23, 2007 MICHIGAN: The students at Westview Elementary School in Warren are enjoying their new digs. They like the outdoor classroom, the new cafeteria and the new classroom layout. With its unique design and technology upgrades, it is being billed as a model for elementary schools of the future. Denise Kluck, the school's principal, said it all adds up to students and parents who are taking more pride in their school. "I've seen a change in student behavior in a positive way," Kluck said Friday. "I'm wondering if they feel they have to treasure this building. They're so much more respectful in their behavior." The $16.7-million school was built over the past year and opened to about 800 students at the start of the school year. A grand opening ceremony showed off the 95,000-square-foot building to south Warren residents. The expansive classrooms are nearly double the size of the rooms in the old Westview. Classrooms surround a large center room, where students from each of the classrooms can gather. "These resource areas provide opportunities for both small group and large group instruction," said Janette Brill, superintendent of Fitzgerald Public Schools. Kluck attributed the school's design to two years of research. Focus groups of parents, teachers, administrators and architects discussed the options and toured other schools. That translated into ideas including lots of natural lighting, LCD projectors and classroom-wide Internet access. "We took the best of everything and put it into one building," Kluck said. "It has turned out very nice." The previous Westview was a 1950s building with classic rows of desks and chairs crammed into small classrooms. Now students can sit at desks or lie down, depending on which is more comfortable. Previously, a space crunch meant that lunch was served in the gymnasium between gym classes. Now the cafeteria and gym are separate. "It was just an old school," Kluck said of the old building. "I think this is beyond most of our expectations." The money for the project was voter-approved as part of a $31.8-million bond proposal in 2003. At a time when Warren's south end is feeling the impact of Michigan's struggling economy, the new school is a bright spot. "This is kind of a, 'We believe in you,' to the community," Kluck said. "This is very much a rebirth for the whole community."
Building Code Enforcement Lax in Idaho Schools
Lora Volkert, Idaho Business Review
October 22, 2007 IDAHO: The Jefferson County Joint School District last week settled a lawsuit against two contractors that built Midway Middle School and Jefferson Elementary School in Rigby. But the issues that led to the lawsuit are far from resolved. The two schools have been in poor condition since opening in 2002. The roofs leak, the insulation was poorly installed, fire sprinkler systems are inadequate, some doors don’t meet building codes, the bathrooms are not Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant, and it’s questionable whether the roofs can support rooftop mechanical equipment, according to reports in the Idaho Falls Post Register. The district settled with the contractors, Pacific West and Harris Brothers Construction, but has not yet settled with the buildings’ architect, Jay Christopherson of Utah. The Idaho Division of Building Safety, which by law must review school building plans, is investigating what happened to the Rigby schools and analyzing its building plan review program to try to prevent future problems, Public Information Officer Bill Hatch said. The main problem is the Division of Building Safety doesn’t perform a final building inspection for schools, he said. Without doing the final inspection, the division has no way of enforcing conditions for approval or ensuring buildings are built to code. Inspections are left up to local jurisdictions, Hatch said. Most city and county building departments do that, he said. But not all Idaho cities and counties have building inspection programs. Jefferson County didn’t have one when Midway and Jefferson were built. Without a city building inspection program, it’s up to schools to make sure that a certified building inspector or a licensed architect or engineer inspects the building. The division has no way of knowing whether schools have actually been inspected, Hatch said.
Green Schools
Samantha Cleaver, Plenty
October 22, 2007 NATIONAL : Every day, 20 percent of Americans wake up, eat breakfast, and walk, bike, or drive to school. Once there, many students and teachers spend their days in classrooms with walls covered in toxic paint, breathing congested air, and squinting from inadequate lighting. But as baby boomer-era school buildings become more and more outdated, many districts are building green schools to replace energy guzzling, polluted learning environments. School construction is big business—it makes up 27 percent of the US construction market. Building a school that complies with LEED standards costs 2 percent (or $3 per square foot) more upfront, but it’s worth it—green schools use up to 30 percent less energy, 30 to 50 percent less water, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent compared to traditionally built schools. In Fort Collins, Colorado, the Fossil Ridge High School saves the district $100,000 each year in energy costs because of its green design, says Principal Dierdre Cook. There’s also evidence that green schools help educators teach and students learn. In a 2005 survey of executives that planned and built green K-12 schools, 71 percent said that students performed better and 72 percent said that there was less absenteeism compared to other schools. A report put out in October 2006 by the American Federation of Teachers and the US Green Building Council noted that Washington state saw absenteeism decrease by 15 percent in its first green school.
Birth of a White Elephant?
Jessica Durkin, Times-Tribune
October 22, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA: A future parking lot can be discerned where bulldozers have carved out a wide swath from a slope at the 60-acre site of Covington's North Pocono High School project. Concrete has been poured and building walls have started rising. Some see it all as the beginning of a major accomplishment. Others see it as a huge mistake that must be stopped, even if that means risking a lawsuit. In 15 days, voters in the district’s three regions will decide whether to keep a board majority that vows to shepherd the $35.6 million project through to its scheduled 2009 completion; or to usher in new board directors who want to stop the high school, opting instead to build a new elementary school and upgrade the district’s other campuses. On this much, both sides agree: North Pocono School District taxpayers stand to lose millions of dollars if opponents of a new high school succeed in stopping its construction. But the project’s supporters and detractors are debating just how many millions of dollars the district will lose if construction stops — and whether taxpayers will benefit in the long term from an alternate plan to build a new elementary school. Supporters estimate taxpayers will lose upwards of $16 million on the project — $3.3 million already paid in soft costs for surveying, architecture, environmental, and real estate fees, plus $12.9 million paid to contractors through December, if the plan is stopped under a new majority. Opponents of the high school project acknowledge the district would lose the $3.3 million in soft costs, but they say the real contractor costs are closer to the $1.1 million paid for materials delivered and work completed so far. Those who would stop the project say they could do so and still realize their vision of a new elementary school and other upgrades using the existing capital fund balance. Both sides would draw from an initial $46.5 million bond amount, not including $3.6 million in interest. However, $9.5 million spent on various new high school items and existing infrastructure renovations to date has reduced that capital fund balance to $40.5 million.
With Care, Schools Can Reuse Old Buildings
Bob Maginnis, Herald-Mail.com
October 21, 2007 MARYLAND: At a time when the cost of a new high school can top $50 million, is it time to start thinking about turning more old buildings into public schools? Washington County school officials believe it is. That's why they asked Brien Poffenberger, president of the Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce, to bring it up in a recent meeting some local business leaders held with Michael Busch, Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates. In July, school officials said they were accepting proposals for a study of the feasibility of turning the former Allegheny Power building on Downsville Pike into a school or offices. And there are other vacant buildings that might be transformed into classroom space, including the old Sears building on Northern Avenue and the sites of two former Lowe's stores, one on Maryland Avenue and the other on Wesel Boulevard. According to an April story done for the Columbia News Service of the Columbia School of Journalism, conversions of shopping centers and other old buildings into schools have been concentrated in areas with rapidly growing enrollments and increasing land prices. The story also noted that such reuse fits in with the idea of "smart growth" because it puts schools into already developed areas where they can double as community centers. Conversions can also be done in as little as six months, as opposed to the two years it can take for new school construction.
Rehab or Build a New School?
Gena Kittner, Wisconsin State Journal
October 20, 2007 WISCONSIN: The classrooms are hot. Some of them have wasps. Sections of the three-level school are unreachable by elevator. The roof needs replacing. Some look at the Primary Center here — built in 1918 — and see a deteriorating school building that is expensive to maintain. Others see an irreplaceable example of Wisconsin Prairie School architecture that should be preserved. In February, Mount Horeb voters could be asked to support fixing the building that houses the district's first- and second-graders for $10 million, or possibly to replace it for $22 million. The district is hardly alone. Several other area districts face similar dilemmas about whether to maintain stately old schoolhouses that many consider historic but others — especially teachers — consider problematic. In Dane County alone, districts are dealing with at least 15 buildings that are as old or older than the Primary Center. Statewide, at least 130 schools date to the same era, according to a 1999 survey by the state Department of Public Instruction. And rather than pay to renovate or replace them, some districts are turning to a third option: selling the buildings to someone who will preserve them by converting them to another use. Oregon, for example, sold its Red Brick School, which for many years was used for storage until developer Gary Gorman renovated it into its Gorman & Co.'s corporate headquarters. Old schools in Deerfield, New Glarus and Stoughton have been sold and turned into retail spaces or condos. It's a national trend that school districts are looking to abandon their historic schools and build new schools on the edge of town," said Jim Draeger, deputy state historic preservation officer for the Wisconsin Historical Society. "It's always easier to get money for a new building than maintain an old building."
Education's Rising Costs for School Facilities in the Philadelphia Area
Juile Zauzmer, The Bulletin
October 19, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA: Over the next few years, many students throughout Philadelphia's suburbs may be starting school in new, expensive - and in some cases - controversial high schools buildings. As more and more suburban schools age, many districts are struggling with the cost and rationale for replacing their school buildings. Lower Merion, Neshaminy, Souderton and Upper Dublin, among others, are all planning new schools or doing major renovations on the existing buildings. Private schools like Episcopal Academy and the Haverford School are also undergoing construction projects that range from minor to massive. Several more schools are rehabbing or expanding existing locations, upgrading facilities, or investing in new athletic fields or small stadiums. According to a Pennsylvania School Boards Association survey, 32 percent of public schools in Pennsylvania were built between 1941 and 1960, and another 44 percent were constructed between 1961 and 1980. Six percent were built between 1900 and 1920. As these physical plants age, new school construction or renovation becomes increasingly necessary. Many older buildings do not meet current safety codes, and aging facilities cannot support modern technology. The survey found that districts rebuilding or renovating cited age of existing facilities as the number one reason for new construction. Insufficient technology and space constraints were second and third. Although new facilities are becoming more necessary and more desirable, it may be more difficult for districts to gain permission to construct them. Act One of 2006, "Pennsylvania Taxpayer's Relief Act," requires school districts to allow taxpayers to vote on proposed tax increases. Such referendums are unlikely to pass easily in most school districts, which restrict schools' abilities to finance future construction projects. Upper Dublin is currently the only school district in the state that has voted to build a new school under an Act One referendum. In the district, 62.5 percent of voters agreed to incur $119 million in debt to built the new high school, resulting in a tax increase for the average household of $601 per year after five years.
Officials Seek Millions to Build New Schools in Reno
Ray Hager, Reno Gazette-Journal
October 19, 2007 NEVADA: Washoe County school officials told a committee searching for new tax sources they will need $403 million to build nine schools by 2014 to accommodate more than 8,000 new students in the next six years. The district will need to build five elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school over the next six years, officials said. The committee of state lawmakers, business people and community leaders was told by the Legislature to prepare a list of possible tax increases to support the construction for placement on the 2008 ballot.
Schools in Several States Report Staph Infections, and Deaths Raise the Alarm
Ian Urbina, New York Times
October 19, 2007 NATIONAL : School officials around the country have been scrambling to scrub locker rooms, reassure parents and impress upon students the importance of good hygiene. The heightened alarm comes in response to a federal report indicating that the bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, are responsible for more deaths in the United States each year than AIDS. MRSA (pronounced MEER-suh) is a strain of staph bacteria that does not respond to penicillin or related antibiotics, though it can be treated with other drugs. The infection can be spread by sharing items, like a towel or a piece of sports equipment that has been used by an infected person, or through skin-to-skin contact with an open wound. Scores of schools were closed and events were canceled in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia as cleaning crews disinfected buses, lockers and classrooms. More closings are planned. School officials in Mississippi, New Hampshire and Virginia reported student deaths within the past two weeks from the bacteria, while officials in at least four other states reported cases of students being infected.
AIA Supports New Bill to Promote Sustainability in Higher Education
Staff Writer, AIArchitect
October 19, 2007 NATIONAL : On September 24, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced legislation, The Higher Education Sustainability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3637), to create a new grant program for colleges and universities to promote sustainability. Under the bill, institutions of higher education may apply for federal funding for the development of programs and initiatives that address sustainability, specifically in the areas of green building, energy management, and waste management. If enacted, the Higher Education Sustainability Act of 2007 would provide $50 million in grants in the new fiscal year to universities for a variety of sustainability-related initiatives, including developing sustainability curricula and administrative or operations practices that analyze the principles of sustainability, as well as establishing sustainability literacy as a requirement for degree programs. Universities are especially encouraged to use the grant monies to integrate sustainability concepts in architecture, business, engineering, and science programs.
Hawaii Bill Would Help Teachers Buy Homes
Jenny Sullivan, Builder Online
October 19, 2007 HAWAII: Hawaii loses more than 1,500 public school teachers each year, and education advocates say exorbitant housing prices are partly to blame. The median price of a single-family home on the islands is nearly $700,000. The starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree is $42,000. Hawaii State Teachers Association president Roger Takabayashi is hoping to curb the state's 10 percent turnover rate with a proposal that would allow teachers to buy new or resale homes at a deep discount. Under his teacher affordable-housing plan, the state would buy new or resale properties, then resell the homes to qualified teachers at 20 percent of the assessed value, with the state retaining 80 percent ownership. Teachers buying homes through the program would assume responsibility for property taxes, mortgage payments, and insurance. They would be required to work full-time in the Hawaii public school system and would not be allowed to own property elsewhere.
Design Makes Large Friendly
Patrick Cady, Eudora News
October 18, 2007 KANSAS: Making size manageable is the driving force behind the design for a building that could house the district's first- through fifth-graders as early as the fall of 2009 should a $45 million bond referendum pass. Bond architect Kevin Greischar of DLR Group presented the Eudora USD 491 Board of Education with new renderings of the proposed building. If the bond passes, the $27 million school will be built on 46.6 acres. The proposed building consists of five separate pods, or neighborhoods, surrounding one common area. The campus will have the capacity to educate up to 1,000 students, with each five-classroom neighborhood would accommodating 200 students. The central area, or Main Street, will have library, gymnasium and cafeteria areas that will be shared by all the grades, Greischar said. In addition to the five classrooms, each neighborhood will have a shared discovery area. Shared areas between the classrooms will be built to make collaboration between teachers easier. The discovery area also will make lessons involving larger projects possible.
Report Examines High Cost of School Construction in California
Press Release, Business Wire
October 18, 2007 CALIFORNIA: A group of more than 20 leading representatives from California’s governmental, educational, legal, design, and construction communities recently authored a 27-page report detailing why construction costs are so high for kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) educational facilities and community colleges in California. The document, titled “A Report on the High Cost of Construction for K-12 Schools and Community Colleges in California,” examines possible reasons for these high costs, including economic and construction market conditions, increases in the number and complexity of designs, and legal restrictions for project delivery and contracting processes. The report also identifies initiatives to lower costs without sacrificing public and educational objectives. The main conclusions and recommendations emerging from the panel of owners, educators, architects, engineers, contractors, developers, economists, and program management firms were that legislators must enact regulations to broaden the choices for project delivery and contracting; facility owners must develop clear mission statements when designing and building educational facilities; and industry leaders and facility owners must work in a highly collaborative manner to standardize and deliver design and construction.
Seattle School District Cites Cost Overruns in Rebuilding Plans
Jessica Blanchard, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
October 18, 2007 WASHINGTON: Seattle Public Schools will have to shorten its construction timeline, tap into its $20 million contingency fund and find other creative solutions to be able to complete its next wave of rebuilding schools without cutting corners or abandoning entire projects. Even though the district anticipated above-average inflation when budgeting for the projects in the Building Excellence III construction package last year, costs have continued to escalate rapidly -- about 15 percent in the past year alone, according to district figures. Seattle voters approved the $490 million package as a bond measure in February, allowing the district to begin working on projects immediately rather than having to wait to collect the money through annual property taxes. Still, even with that flexibility, the rapid inflation and high demand for materials and labor could dramatically boost the bottom lines of the seven school remodeling projects and infrastructure improvements planned. Already, bids for the first two projects -- remodeling Hamilton Middle School and building a new South Shore K-8 on the site of the building that housed the New School -- are expected to come in $10 million over budget. School construction costs have climbed in the past few years, and in the Puget Sound region, schools have proven to be especially expensive. The remodeled Garfield High is expected to cost more than $100 million when it's completed next year; Roosevelt High's renovation last year totaled about $93.8 million; and Stadium High in Tacoma reopened last year after a $106 million school restoration. Building a typical high school now can cost $125 million, if not more, Seattle district facilities manager Fred Stephens said. The higher construction costs have largely been driven by the increasing global demand for raw materials such as steel and cement, and by local competition for labor and materials to build housing and retail developments in Ballard, Belltown or South Lake Union.
Design Matters: Cool Schools
Albert Chao, Artvoice
October 18, 2007 NEW YORK: The crisp edge of the water mirrors the mass of the building. Set in Wybourn, just outside of Sheffield, UK, carefully positioned windows create viewports of a breathless beautiful view of the landscape. Inside, natural daylight softly illuminates the building. Architecture becomes dynamically intertwined with landscape. The description is that of the Emmaus Primary School built in 2007, which replaced two faith schools that had been gradually losing students. Though built on a small budget, the detail of the design elevates an ordinary school into a dynamic learning environment. The project of award-winning architectural firm DSDHA in London, the primary school, situated in a town that has suffered from industrial decline, is part of a master plan to reinvigorate the area. The firm has designed more than 12 school and university buildings, and has won three Royal Institute of British Architects Awards for buildings that are not only of high architectural standards but also positively impact the community. DSDHA has critically engaged contemporary social issues in relation to the design of spaces. The practice of DSDHA reflects the increasing interest in school design. Contemporary approaches move beyond code, regulations and budget for schools and instead incorporate and balance feasibility and safety with exciting possibilities and dynamism.
Hard Choice: More Trailers or a School
Editorial, Lynchburg News & Advance
October 17, 2007 VIRGINIA: With 19 mobile classrooms in 11 trailers at Forest Middle School, the question is not so much whether Bedford County will build a new middle school, but when. It’s the latest school construction issue facing the school system in a county that appears to be growing faster than its schools. The crowded conditions at the middle school are one of several reasons the Bedford County School Board is considering building a fourth middle school. The school houses 300 more students than it was built to accommodate. Gary Hostutler, who represents Forest on the school board, said the school wasn’t built large enough from the start. The first mobile classroom was added in 1995, a year after the school opened, he said. “Now, you go around and it’s a trailer village,” he told The News & Advance recently. “Things weren’t done for so many years that mobiles were just continually added,” he said. So what’s wrong with that? Hostutler answered the question this way: “There’s all kinds of security and safety issues with mobiles, and they’re just not a good learning environment - the wind blows and the walls shake.”
CEFPI Unveils New Logo
Press Release, NewsReleaseWire.com
October 17, 2007 NATIONAL : It’s official. The Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) has a new look. CEFPI, considered the world leader in improving educational facilities planning and design, marked the beginning of a new era in its history with the unveiling of a new logo at the Council’s 84th Annual International Conference. The new logo and the slogan, “where great schools begin” were adopted to better reflect the Council’s position as an international educational facility planning association. The conference was attended by more than 900 educators, architects, planners, environmentalists, suppliers, manufacturers and researchers representing a number of countries, including Israel, India, Australia, Singapore and Brazil. Merle Kirkley, who assumed the presidency of the Council’s International Board of Directors at the conference, said the new logo is indicative of the council’s endeavor to expand its horizons and increase its international presence.
U.S. Green Building Council Launches Green Schools Web Site
Press Release, U,S, Green Building Council
October 17, 2007 NATIONAL : A new Web site launched by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) gives students, parents, teachers, school administrators, elected officials and community members a new resource in the effort to ensure a future of green schools for every child within a generation. “The new site, Build Green Schools (www.buildgreenschools.org), will be a vital tool for the grassroots green schools movement, helping the site’s visitors to promote healthy, nurturing, environmentally friendly schools in their own communities,” noted Rick Fedrizzi, President and CEO, U.S. Green Building Council. Build Green Schools is filled with facts on the benefits and costs of green schools, including the ways green schools foster learning, decrease student and teacher absenteeism from respiratory and other illnesses, reduce energy and water bills, and provide models for teaching the world’s future leaders about sustainability to benefit communities for generations to come. It is complete with profiles of schools that have already gone green, examples of policies governments and school districts have instituted to ensure future schools are green, an extensive list of resources and links, and even a social networking site for visitors to share their experiences, best practices, and creative ideas.
Wake County, NC to Push Ahead With Public-Private School-Building Concept
Ron Gallagher , WRAL.com
October 16, 2007 NORTH CAROLINA: The Wake County school board told its staff to proceed with plans for creating a public-private partnership to have a new elementary school ready to open in 2010. At its meeting, the board told Assistant Superintendent for Facilities Michael Burriss to push ahead with guidelines for creating the new arrangement in which a private developer would propose to build a school and lease it to the district as a profit-making enterprise. The school would meet Wake County Public School System standards, Burriss said, but the private-sector partner would design and build it. The first attempt at a partnership would use a site the district already owns, but future projects might involve a developer looking at a school as an investment that could compete with retail or other projects as the best way to use land the developer owns or controls, Burriss said.
Connecticut High Performance Schools Program Receives Commitment of $1,375,000
Press Release, Connecticut Clean Energy Fund
October 16, 2007 CONNECTICUT: The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), a ratepayer fund administered by Connecticut Innovations Inc. (CI), announced that the Connecticut Clean Energy Investment Committee has approved a funding allocation of up to $1,375,000 to enable CCEF to launch a new initiative, the High Performance Schools Program (HPSP). The goal is to transform how Connecticut schools are designed and built and to move towns to include energy efficiency features and clean distributed energy generation as standard components in newly constructed schools or major renovation projects. By CCEF supporting this portfolio of initiatives, the development of high performance school design, construction and operation per “An Act Concerning Electricity and Energy Efficiency” will be properly addressed and accelerated across Connecticut leading to the incorporation of on-site clean energy resources.
L.A. Unified to Get $600 Million for Construction
Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
October 15, 2007 CALIFORNIA: Despite declining public school enrollment, Los Angeles will be able to count on more than $600 million in state school construction funds because of a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, local officials said. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, area legislators and top officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District staged a last-minute lobbying blitz to urge Schwarzenegger to sign the measure. The money is needed to close part of an estimated $2-billion deficit in the district's $20-billion construction and modernization program, the nation's largest school building effort. L.A. Unified had long expected to claim these funds, but the money was at risk because of declining enrollment in the country's second-largest school system. State rules, school officials said, magnify the effect of declining enrollment on eligibility, a flaw the bill aimed to address. Even with fewer students, the district still has thousands in year-round schools and thousands more bused away from their neighborhoods, a situation the district wants to eliminate. Ultimately, enrollment is expected to rise again. Space could be tighter still with a reduction in the dropout rate, which is close to 50% by some estimates. The goal of the building program is to allow every student to attend a neighborhood school that operates on a traditional, two-semester calendar by 2012. Even under the best scenario, thousands of students still would attend campuses with portable classrooms that limit space for recreation.
Teacher Housing Plan Borrows an Old Idea
Verena Dobnik, Seattle Times
October 14, 2007 NEW YORK: Over the years, teachers have fled New York City looking for affordable housing. They soon may have a new option; a 234-unit housing project is being developed for educators. The project, backed with $28 million from the New York City Teachers' Retirement System, could become a model in other cities where soaring rents are forcing out essential workers such as teachers, police and firefighters, observers say. The apartments will be open to teachers in public, private, parochial and charter schools, and administrators.
U.S. Green Building Council Launches “Green Schools Advocates” Program
Staff Writer, Consulting-Specifying Engineer
October 11, 2007 NATIONAL : Dozens of architects, PTA presidents, school board members, school superintendents, and others from across the country are ready to begin a grassroots effort to further the vision of green schools for every child within a generation. Some 64 “Green School Advocates” from U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) chapters nationwide were in Washington, D.C., during the last week of September to receive training to go back to their communities and organize green school committees. Local chapter “Green Schools Advocacy Committees” will work with decision-makers, parents, teachers, and others who are passionate about giving children the healthiest, safest places to learn and grow—all while saving school districts money, contributing toward mitigating climate change, and improving our environment. “The local USGBC chapters are a critical component in the council’s vision of green schools for every child within a generation,” said Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC president, CEO, and founding chair. “There are now chapter members from across America who are engaging in local outreach and education.” A 2006 study sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the American Institute of Architects, the American Lung Assn., the Federation of American Scientists, and USGBC found that building green would save an average school $100,000 each year in energy costs along—enough to hire two new additional full-time teacher, purchase 5,000 new textbooks, or buy 500 new computers. In addition to superior IAQ, said USGBC officials, green schools on average use 33% less energy and 32% less water than conventional schools, which would bring the United States closer to reducing reliance on imported energy. According to USGBC, green schools’ better lighting, temperature control, ventilation, and IAQ contribute to reduced asthma, colds, flu, and absenteeism, helping improve learning, test scores, and lifetime student earnings. Greening all school construction would also create more than 2,000 new jobs each year from increased use of energy-efficient technologies. And green schools improve teacher retention.
Voucher Program Puts D.C. Kids at Risk, Study Says
Theola Labbé, Washington Post
October 11, 2007 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA : A voucher program designed to send low-income children in the District to better-performing private schools has allowed some students to take classes in unsuitable learning environments and from teachers without bachelor's degrees, according to a government report. The shortcomings are detailed in a draft prepared by the Government Accountability Office about the $12.9 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. The GAO said the program lacks financial controls and has failed to check whether the participating schools were accredited. The report, obtained by The Washington Post, assesses how the D.C. government, federal education officials and the nonprofit Washington Scholarship Fund have handled the voucher program, which is in its fourth year with 1,900 students and 58 participating private schools. In a random sample of 18 schools reviewed by the GAO, two lacked occupancy permits, and four lacked permits needed for buildings used for educational purposes. At least seven of the 18 schools were certified as child development centers but not as private schools. In one case, a school was operating in a space designed for a retail store, the report says. The schools were largely allowed to self-report that they were in compliance with city regulations, the report says, increasing the possibility that students were being ill-served without proper oversight. Some schools told fund officials that they had certain amenities, such as a gymnasium or an auditorium; the report says they did not. Parents might have been misled when they reviewed the list of participating schools and their programs, the report says.
New High School Art Center Looks for Corporate Sponsor
Associated Press, the Minnesota Daily
October 10, 2007 MINNESOTA: A top-of-the-line fine arts facility planned for a new Woodbury high school opening could include a black box theater, an art gallery and additional classroom space. But these amenities don't come cheap, and the fine arts center could also come with corporate sponsorship. The Arts Connection, a Washington County-based nonprofit leading the arts center effort, said that corporate naming rights could be a way to help raise the $1.5 million in pledges it needs by March 1 - a seeming first for public schools in Minnesota. Officials at two state education associations and prominent arts educators don't recall any precedent. In exchange for the land, students at the planned East Ridge High School, set to open in 2009, would be able to use the art center throughout the year. It would be adjacent to a 900-seat theater already planned for part of the school. The Arts Connection has already received a $1.6 million pledge, which it will use as an endowment for operational costs. The additional donations being sought are for building costs. The group has no sponsorship offers yet, and only elements of the fine arts center - not the high school theater - would take on a corporate name. School district officials are open to the idea. "My personal belief is districts have to look at it," board chairman Ron Kath said. "Donors aren't looking at a big marquee. It's a great way to show how private businesses can partner with public schools." Public schools statewide are looking for ways to increase funding. This fall, a hundred districts are asking voters to approve referendums for higher property tax levies, and 32 districts are holding bonding elections to finance new schools, additions or other construction. Raising money for school construction projects by selling naming rights has caught on in other parts of the country. In 2004, the Philadelphia school district sold naming rights to a high school for $5 million, and in the last two years high schools in Michigan and Wisconsin offered up the names of playgrounds, stadiums and lunchrooms. Corporate tie-ins at public schools only became legal in Minnesota in 2003, and some school athletics teams play in local community centers that carry names of corporations. Minnesota Education Theater Association president Gregg Sawyer praised the East Ridge project for finding an innovative way to include fine arts space, but he disagreed with the idea of students performing in a corporate-sponsored facility.
Shades of Green: School Energized for Future
Ngoc Nguyen , Sacramento Bee
October 09, 2007 CALIFORNIA: There is momentum building worldwide for environmentally sound school designs. Increasingly, green schools are viewed as sound investments in the environment, student performance and the bottom line. Now, schools looking to incorporate green design into new or revamped buildings can apply for state funding. The state Department of General Services' Office of Public School Construction(OPSC) said last week that schools can apply for $100 million in High Performance Incentive Grants. High performance schools are defined as those that feature energy- and resource-efficient classrooms. "Studies have shown that there's a 20 percent improvement in math and reading test scores for students in well lit classrooms," said Rob Cook, an executive officer with OPSC. "Maximizing natural light is a great element to integrate into schools." The Natomas Unified School District has a head start. In 2005, the school district passed a resolution to build more green schools and has already put up or planned environmentally minded buildings. On a tour of the school, students are quick to point to heating and cooling columns -- white and blue metal cylinders -- popping up from the ground like trees around the atrium. "It comes from the bottom and depends on the weather," said Julian Scott, 17, explaining how the geothermal pillars work. "If it's cold (outside), heat is stored underneath, and the heat goes up through the vent. If it's hot (outside), the cold air from underground rises up through the vent." Teacher Chris Castro said he uses the heating and cooling pillars in his chemistry and earth science classes to illustrate the unique properties of water. The school taps the natural heating and cooling of the groundwater vent system in the atrium to trim its use of a central heating and cooling system. From the rooftop, solar panels supply about 35 percent of the school's power need. According to Cannon, the panels have shaved about 15 percent to 20 percent from energy bills. The school is looking into upgrading the current panels with more efficient, next-generation solar panels. In his classroom, Castro tried to show his students that there is no perfect renewable energy. "With solar energy, where do solar panels come from? What energy is involved in making solar panels and recycling them? ... Even solar panels need to be maintained, because they wear out. Do we recycle them or do they go into landfills?"
Chicago Public Schools Cutting Energy Costs for Administration Building
Mary Wisniewski, Sun Times
October 09, 2007 ILLINOIS: The Chicago Public Schools expects to save $1.3 million a year in utility costs by renovating its main administration building. The fixes include replacing the massive 43-year-old steam boiler system, which was used to heat several buildings, with a smaller, more efficient unit that will serve only the 20-story administration building, according to Joseph Clair, managing engineer for the Chicago Public Schools. CPS also will replace light fixtures and bulbs with higher efficiency models, and put in new windows to stop leaks. A digital building automation system will cut energy costs by making sure lights and heat are turned off on individual floors when no one is using them. CPS also wants to get its own chiller for its air conditioning, instead of getting chilled water from a central business district cooling system. The total cost of the 12-to 18-month project is $17 million, which will not come out of school-related funds, Clair said.
Texas Schools Study How to Cut Energy Use
Molly Bloom, American-Statesman
October 09, 2007 TEXAS: A new law has Texas schools scrambling to find ways to cut energy use. Many have started by dimming the lights and keeping an eagle eye on the thermostat, but at least one small-town school district is worried that it could be forced to limit community groups' usage of campus buildings in order to meet that goal. The law, which took effect last month, requires school districts and other public agencies to adopt a goal of cutting their electricity use by 5 percent a year for six years. The conservation measure is included in a larger energy-efficiency bill. Supporters say the new law will help focus attention on energy use in schools. Districts only have to say they'll try to use less electricity; they don't have to actually take steps to reach that goal. And they don't face any penalties for missing the goal. But administrators in some school districts say they've already worked hard to reduce their energy use and are stuck searching for cost-effective ways to meet the goal to cut even more.
Houston's Bond Campaign Should Stress Green Construction and Energy
Editorial, Houston Chronicle
October 08, 2007 TEXAS: Startled by complaints about the Houston Independent School District's $805 million bond proposal, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra pledged to spend the next month and a half explaining its importance: where the bond dollars will go and how they will be spent. As he does so, HISD should offer a comprehensive accounting of its overall energy policies — and how the proposed renovations and building projects would squeeze the most from community dollars. Publicizing these details would let voters better evaluate the bonds' effect on efficiency, and encourage residents to offer suggestions. HISD generally has a positive approach toward energy conservation. Already, it has built two "green" schools in compliance with national environmental standards; officials say the district is creating an Energy Management Department to find new conservation projects and to craft a districtwide policy. Getting green might seem a luxury in a mammoth school district in which some science labs lack beakers and bathrooms want for toilet paper. But green policies save money. This is why, across the country, state legislatures and school districts are investing in green projects. California offers schools $100 million in green building incentives. Last month Ohio became the first state to require its new public schools to conform to national green building standards. The initiative will use $4.1 billion from tobacco settlements. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, New York and Maryland also have established green guidelines for new school construction. In addition to lowering emissions, these measures can save districts hundreds of thousands of dollars and even improve student performance. Many of the techniques are cheap, sometimes free. According to California's Sustainable Building Task Force, an added 2 percent investment to make new construction green can save 10 times that sum over a school's lifetime. Using green construction design, districts can save up to 30 percent on utility bills in a renovated school and up to 40 percent in a new school. Thoughtful lighting, meanwhile, can measurably improve energy savings and student achievement. A year-long study of 2,000 classrooms in three school districts showed that students with the most natural daylight in their classrooms advanced 20 percent faster on math tests and 26 percent faster on reading tests than did their peers with the least amount of natural light. According to Global Green, a nonprofit environmental group, replacing conventional lights with efficient fluorescent lamps could save older schools tens of thousands in electricity costs, while bathing their classrooms in a better quality light source. "In terms of low-hanging fruits, lighting hangs the lowest," Global Green school specialist Walker Wells said. If the bond proposal passes, HISD officials say, the district plans to build all 24 of its new schools in compliance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This is a farsighted goal, one that deserves wider explanation and publicity. But the district should also commit to do more in existing schools, such as upgrading to energy-stingy fluorescents and more natural daylight, and instituting energy-saving policies throughout the system. In selling its bond proposal, HISD needs to show that it's aware of best energy-saving practices nationwide, and that it's prepared act on them.
Lavish School Buildings Throw Taxpayers for a Loss
Editorial, Indianapolis Star
October 07, 2007 INDIANA: Eleven cents of every dollar of property taxes statewide is spent on repaying debt used to finance lavish athletic fields and other school construction projects. Controlling such costs is key to long-term property tax relief. Homeowners in Marion County and the rest of Central Indiana know this all too well. Homeowners in Pike Township bear the brunt of the school district's debt service costs for construction and other purposes, which increased by 19 percent between 2005 and 2006. More debt will come due to George C. Grosskopf Stadium at Pike High School, which opened in August. The 3,500-seat stadium, featuring locker rooms for each sport and an elevator to the press box, was completed at the cost of $10 million -- more than twice what Franklin Township spent to build its controversial stadium three years ago. Washington Township homeowners, angered by double-digit increases in tax bills, are fuming about the school district's decision to proceed with the renovation of North Central High School's natatorium, which will now cost $1 million more than its initial budget. In Boone County, plans by the Zionsville school district to build a $20 million athletic complex, originally part of an effort to build a second high school, are now on hold, according to Superintendent Scott Robison. But taxpayers are still on the hook for the $113 million bond issue floated by the district two years ago to fund this and other projects. Certainly, athletics can help keep kids out of trouble and connected to school. They can also bring pride and prestige to a community. But the costs of such projects are too much of a burden for homeowners already struggling to pay their taxes. It is also about priorities. The fact that 20 percent of school property taxes are devoted to paying down debt means less money to shore up underfunded teacher pensions. The need to improve academic performance ought to make construction a lower priority. The spending spree also exacerbates the inequities between wealthier and poor school districts, ultimately hurting at-risk students whose schools don't have such amenities. But stadiums and swimming pools aren't the only elements of school spending in need of scrutiny. Even with new state guidelines on construction projects, per-square-foot costs remain higher than the national average because of gimmicks such as electronic signage. The state's remonstrance process, under which homeowners must duel with school districts to petition neighbors, make it difficult to keep spending in check. By the time projects reach state officials for approval, it's too late to curb expenses. The state, on average, provides 83 percent of school operating dollars, meaning fewer local tax dollars going to the classroom. Thus, school districts have little reason to exercise discipline. School officials in Brownsburg are looking to alternatives to finance the renovation of an aging stadium. Noblesville has already exploited the sale of naming rights to help pay for new turf. Other school districts should follow their examples. They should also partner with other local government agencies and community groups, such as parks departments, to help defray costs. The state, as part of its expanding role in education policy, already picks up most of the school operating tab. Moving school construction funding to the state level would dovetail nicely with that effort and help reduce property tax bills. Making local governments less reliant on property taxes, an effort led by Mayor Bart Peterson over the past two years, would be especially helpful. Schools, after all, account for 54 percent of the property tax bill. Rising tax bills are no longer tolerable for struggling homeowners. Schools should do their part in reducing the tab.
Fort Worth District Seeks $60 Million for High-Tech Classrooms
Diane Smith, Star-Telegram
October 07, 2007 TEXAS: More Fort Worth teachers will be using interactive whiteboards and other advanced technology if voters approve a $593.6 million bond program that school district leaders say will pave the way for high-tech, interactive classrooms. "We want to have digital classrooms for kids who are born into the digital world," Superintendent Melody Johnson told parents, students and educators. A Star-Telegram analysis of the district's campus-by-campus plan for existing schools shows that more than $60 million of the bond package will be used for technology-related work, including buying and installing interactive whiteboards, videoconference centers, dataports and fixed projectors. District officials estimate that $3.1 million will be spent on technology in the six new schools. Johnson says Fort Worth is 10 years behind the times, and she is committed to transforming the traditional urban district into one that is tech-savvy, graduating students prepared for college and the global economy. The technology plans call for using bond money to refit 4,804 classrooms to make them interactive. In middle and high schools, that includes installing interactive whiteboards -- budgeted at $4,175 each -- in every classroom. District officials estimate there are about 100 interactive whiteboards in use in Fort Worth classrooms. Featured prominently in the bond proposal are interactive whiteboards, or "digital chalkboards." The boards are popular teaching tools because they interact with computers. Teachers can access a Web site and display information on the board. They can use templates -- maps, graphs or music sheets -- to explain geography, math or fine arts. A screen can display a spreadsheet that changes in real time as a teacher fills it in with information. Students say its best asset is that it lets the teacher store and retrieve lessons. For example, a teacher can manipulate the board to math problems from a previous lesson. A teacher can print out copies of lessons or notes for students to compare or add to theirs. Don Knezek, chief executive of the International Society of Technology in Education, said more educators are using the whiteboards because they are easy to use. "It's a hot item," Knezek said. "It's like an easy digital camera." About 1.2 million interactive whiteboards are in classrooms worldwide, with a forecast of 5.3 million by 2011, according to Decision Tree Consulting, a market-research company in the United Kingdom, where whiteboards are extremely popular. Decision Tree said there are 35 million classrooms worldwide and predicts that by 2011, 1 in 7 classrooms will have an interactive whiteboard. In Texas, the boards appear in technology portions of school district bond packages across the state, from Cypress-Fairbanks and Spring Branch in the Houston area to Fort Worth. In Cypress-Fairbanks, voters are being asked to approve $68 million for technology.
Sustainable Classroom Design Captures San Francisco Bay Breezes and Sunlight
Russell Boniface, AIArchitect
October 05, 2007 CALIFORNIA: The Windrush School in El Cerrito, Calif., located on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay, recently broke ground on a new 14,000-square-foot, two-story classroom wing that will use sustainable design techniques to take advantage of the region’s moderate climate. Emeryville, Calif.-based Ratcliff created the K–8 school to capture and distribute sunlight and bay breezes using clerestory windows, a combination natural ventilation and radiant heating system, photovoltaics, and a green roof with a water runoff system. The project makes up the first phase of the Windrush School’s four-phase development plan and will meet the 2010 requirements for 50 percent carbon neutrality. In addition to significant energy cost savings, Windrush is expecting to be the first LEED certified project in El Cerrito. The classroom wing will be completed for the 2008 school year. The Windrush school hopes to save an estimated $10,000 per year with the new classroom building, with an annual energy cost of just $500.
Architects, Administrators Reinvent High School Designs in Missouri
Tori Moss, Columbia Missourian
October 05, 2007 MISSOURI: Except for the teachers, students and desks, many high schools being built today barely resemble those of the past. Innovations in architecture, technology and teaching methods have led to unique environments, but the focus continues to be students’ learning. Andy Anderson, the office leader of DLR Group in Kansas City, is working with Columbia Public Schools to design the district’s next public high school, which is scheduled to be completed in 2010. He said that over the past 10 years there have been a number of changes and trends in high school design. Many relate to the buildings themselves, others to curriculum and instruction.“There is a lot of interest in making buildings more sustainable,” Anderson said. Using recycled as well as local — Anderson called them indigenous — products saves dollars and fuel. He said building “green” also means designing systems, such as roofs, that are environmentally friendly. Other trends in high school design focus on creating environments that enhance students’ learning and retention. Examples include buildings that have better indoor air quality, maintain optimum temperatures and humidity levels and incorporate more daylight. Anderson said studies have shown students learn more when they can see the changes in daylight. Another favored design feature is sound reinforcement that reduces noise from outside the classroom and ensures students can hear their teachers. Anderson said teachers are being equipped with microphones, and speakers are being placed throughout the room. Configuring rooms into squares that create a shorter distance from the primary teaching wall to students in the back of the classroom helps as well. Finishing the room with materials that have a high noise reduction coefficient, meaning they absorb sound well, also improves classroom acoustics. These materials might include carpeting, acoustical ceiling tiles and fabric-wrapped tack boards. Another new design feature tries to support teachers’ collaboration. Anderson said the old practice was for teachers to plan their lessons in the classroom. He said new design plans offer teacher planning centers based on subjects. For example, all of the math teachers would plan their curricula together and learn from one another by using the same space. Anderson said the center would have storage for shared teaching materials and technology outlets to provide an atmosphere conducive to collaboration. Anderson said smaller learning communities are being designed to create more personal climates for the students. For example, a smaller community could include 180 students who share the same teachers for core classes. Anderson said students feel more valued and known when in a school within a school, such as these learning communities. Ninth-grade students, who are making the transition from junior high to high school, benefit the most from the clustering of classrooms, Anderson said. The classroom has undergone a makeover as well. Wireless Internet access, SMART Boards, overhead LCD projectors and sound systems all can be found in today’s learning environments. A SMART Board, for example, is an interactive white board with a touch-sensitive display that connects a computer and digital projector to show the computer’s image on the white board. The teacher can then control the computer’s applications directly from the display on the white board, write digital notes and save work for later. An LCD projector is the modern version of the slide or overhead projector. It displays video, images or computer data.
Connecticut Towns Consider Suing State Over School Construction Aid
Associated Press, Newsday
October 03, 2007 CONNECTICUT: Some Connecticut cities and towns are considering suing the state because millions of dollars for local school construction projects are tied up in a political impasse at the Capitol. The state has missed more than $100 million in construction reimbursement payments to municipalities in August and September because Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democrat-controlled legislature cannot agree on a new borrowing package. Many cities and towns have had to take out short-term loans and incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexpected borrowing costs to keep their school projects going. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities is deciding whether a class action lawsuit is warranted. The impasse is saddling 60 cities and towns with extra costs, according to CCM.
Regulations Passed to Begin Funding 'Green Schools' for California
Press Release, Business Wire
October 03, 2007 CALIFORNIA: The Department of General Services' Office of Public School Construction announced that regulations have been approved to allow it to begin the process of awarding $100 million in High Performance Incentive Grants to California schools for more energy and resource efficient "green" classrooms. The funding was approved by California voters last year as part of Proposition 1D. In December 2004, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an Executive Order that ushered in the State's Green Building Initiative and encouraged schools built with State funds to be resource- and energy-efficient, while creating safer and healthier learning environments. The High Performance Incentive Grant program will promote the use of high performance attributes in new construction and modernization of projects for K-12 schools. These attributes include using designs and materials that promote energy and water efficiency, maximize the use of natural lighting, improve indoor air quality, use recycled materials and materials that emit a minimum of toxic substances, and feature acoustics that help the teaching and learning process. The regulations include a High Performance Rating Criteria modeled after the Collaborative for High Performance Schools program. The criteria will be used to determine the high performance attributes in a project and to assign a score that will directly correlate to the increased amount of funding a project receives. The high performance grants will provide incentives of between 2 - 10 percent of the base grant for high performance facilities.
New York High School Sits on Toxic Ground
Staff Writer, Environment News Service
October 03, 2007 NEW YORK: Parents of the 503 students at Information Technology High School in Long Island City are outraged that state Department of Education officials did not inform them that the school was built over a plume of hazardous chemicals. They became aware of the toxics only after Fox 5 News aired a report on the toxic site late last month. A metal-plating factory once occupied the site where the school now stands and left a mess of hazardous chemicals that can damage the central nervous system and can be fatal if people are exposed to high levels. Students may have been exposed to high levels of the chemicals because a soil vapor extraction system, located in a shed outside the school, was often shut down due to technical difficulties. The DOE and the School Construction Authority spent $20 million converting a metal-plating warehouse in Long Island City into a school building and in 2003 began leasing the building for $1.6 million per year.
Ohio Pledges to Help Pay for 'Green' School Construction Upgrades
Ben Fischer, The Enquirer
October 03, 2007 OHIO: Officials in charge of Cincinnati Public Schools’ massive rebuilding project say they’ll be able to install more environmentally friendly “green” features in every new construction project because the state of Ohio has pledged to help pay for the upgrades. In September, the Cincinnati school board ordered architects to pursue certification from the nonprofit U.S. Green Buildings Council in new schools, but stopped short of requiring specific goals at every site, citing potential money problems. But last week, the Ohio School Facilities Commission agreed to contribute to the cost of the extra upgrades as well as the certification process itself. Without the state help, fund-raising campaigns at each individual schools would have been necessary. Under that scenario, inequalities might develop. For any particular project, the state’s additional investment will be minor compared to the overall construction costs. The state agreed to pay for its standard 23 percent of the green upgrades – which add about 1 percent to the overall cost. Also, it will cover the cost of the certification process, about $5,500 per building, on average. Advocates argue that the upfront increase in construction costs will be paid for over time, because the environmentally friendly features cut operational costs such as utilities and water. The state’s offer extends to 21 schools – 12 in development or under construction, and nine more yet to begin. Schools that are completely done are not included.
High-Tech High
Staff Writer, Government Technology
October 03, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA: At 8 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2006, a school bell rang for the first time at Philadelphia's School of the Future, officially opening one of the nation's most advanced high schools. The school, conceived by the School District of Philadelphia, Microsoft and the community of West Philadelphia, delivers a new approach to curriculum, school design and the integration of technology into the daily lives of teachers and students. Instructional, environmental, architectural and technical elements focus on building a sustainable, curriculum-driven environment to help students learn, and help teachers and administrators succeed. Each student receives a tablet PC, wireless Internet access on campus and broadband access at home. The school is packed with technology - it features a performance center with two hydraulically rotating lecture halls to create small performing spaces for school and community performances; smart-card accessible lockers; a water catchment system on the roof to collect rainwater for use in nonpotable applications; and photovoltaic panels in the building's glass windows and the roof. The panels reduce heating and cooling costs by converting sunlight into direct current, contributing electricity for the building and transmitting real-time data to students so they can assess the positive impact on the environment. In addition, a virtual teaching assistant, created by Microsoft specifically for the school, each student's progress, allowing teachers to tailor deeper instruction for the advanced student or plans incorporate extra review for students needing additional time to master a topic.
Classroom Technology Evolves from Blackboard to SMART Board
Tim Hare, Mexico Ledger
October 03, 2007 MISSOURI: Today, the interactive whiteboard system is at the forefront of technology in the classroom. The electronic teaching tool consists of three inter-connected pieces of equipment - a computer, a digital projector and the interactive whiteboard itself, which acts as a touch-sensitive screen. In addition to Web pages, interactive whiteboards - which typically measure 77 inches diagonally among preferred education models - can be used to display computer software, CD-ROMS, and DVDs, and can also incorporate audio. Also, editing can be done on the screen, or lessons can be prepared in advance on a computer or a laptop. Too, classwork can be stored onto the computer using the interactive whiteboard. And comparable to the manner in which room-centered blackboards revolutionized teaching methodology in the mid-1800s, interactive whiteboard technology provides flexibility for students and teachers.
There's More Than One Way to Manage Schools' Pests
David Harrison, Roanoke Times
October 03, 2007 VIRGINIA: Fairview Elementary School's recent rat infestation has nudged the Roanoke school system toward more modern methods of dealing with pests. The school system is putting together what's known in pest-control circles as an integrated pest management plan. It relies more on building maintenance, regular cleaning and record keeping than on the liberal use of pesticides. Instead of hiring an exterminator to apply pesticides regularly, the school system wants its employees to take on more responsibility for keeping rats, roaches and other pests out of school buildings. "The goal is to keep rodents out of the facility and keep it very inhospitable for them which they [school staff] are completely in charge of," said Dini Miller, an entomologist and urban pest specialist at Virginia Tech who is working with the Roanoke school system. "That is not something your pest control company can do for you." Although there's always going to be some evidence of pests in school buildings, the goal is to keep it to a minimum and to deal with the unwanted visitors promptly, she said. That means keeping classrooms uncluttered to deny rodents a place to burrow. It means plugging up the gaps in the walls through which they come in. And it means getting rid of low-hanging vegetation around buildings that attracts rodents. More than anything, however, it means keeping a record of all droppings and evidence of rodents and turning that over to the school system's pest management company. The company then uses that information to apply pesticides and rodenticides more selectively.
$38 million Renovation Impresses University of Colorado Business School Students
Karen Rouse , Denver Post
October 03, 2007 COLORADO: It was the building. When officials at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder asked students why they rejected the school after having been accepted, the No. 1 response was "the facilities," Dean Dennis Ahlberg said. The 100,000-square-foot building offered a breathtaking view of the Flatirons, but it had not been updated since it opened in 1970. It lagged behind a business-school culture that puts a premium on technology - such as wireless classrooms - and student interaction, said Ahlberg. "The building was a competitive disadvantage for us," he said recently. "In the business school, students demand a higher level of technology, and if you don't provide it, they'll go somewhere else." This fall, the school opened to roughly 3,200 students with a $38 million renovation to its existing building and a 65,000-square-foot addition. The new Koelbel Building features 25 team rooms with whiteboards where students collaborate on projects or prepare for presentations. There are two classrooms wired for distance learning and an "information commons" - a media center that also houses a cafe. Throughout the building are e-mail kiosks and inviting sofas. There are a new dining area where meals can be catered and community rooms for outside groups to use. "We changed the emphasis from the traditional 'Come to class, sit there, listen, go away' ... to 'This is where you're learning,"' said Ahlberg.
New N.J. School Construction Sought
Tom Hester Jr. , Forbes/Associated Press
October 02, 2007 NEW JERSEY: Advocates for children in poor urban schools asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to force lawmakers by year's end to provide money to restart stalled school construction work. The filing by the Education Law Center on behalf of poor students is latest move in a decades-long struggle over what one of the nation's wealthiest states should do about schools in impoverished cities. "We file with the court today as a last resort, out of frustration with the continuing lack of action in Trenton to provide the funding necessary to restart long overdue and urgently needed building projects," said David Sciarra, the center's executive director. Under an order from the state Supreme Court, the Legislature agreed in 2000 to spend $6 billion for construction projects in 31 poor cities. Another $2.5 billion was set aside for new schools in other districts. But the process was plagued by allegations of mismanagement and waste and the state spent most of the money with hundreds of projects left undone. While some legislators want to borrow an additional $3.25 billion to restart building projects, legislative leaders have been unwilling to consider the idea.
Schools Going up in Minnesota, But Will They Open?
Emily Johns, Star Tribune
October 02, 2007 MINNESOTA: School districts say new buildings will sit empty if voters don't approve operating levies. One problem is the law forbids asking for funds to build and operate a school simultaneously. Asking for operating funds too early means taxpayers' money could sit in district coffers for years while buildings are constructed. Asking for the money right before the school opens means the district runs the risk of having to mothball a brand new school if voters reject a referendum. Across Minnesota, 100 school districts will ask voters in November to raise their own property taxes to fund school operations. In the south metro, school funding problems are exacerbated because the vast majority of school districts are growing and need to make room for students while cutting budgets. Understanding the difference between bond and levy referendums is critical to understanding the school finance issue. Bonds are used to finance new school buildings, and bond referendums may be posed to voters any time. Levy referendums, on the other hand, pay for day-to-day school operations, and can only be held during regular November elections. School districts may not ask for money to build a school and operate it in the same ballot question.
New Orleans School Designs Unveiled
Darran Simon , Times-Picayune
October 02, 2007 LOUISIANA: After huddling in conference rooms and sketching designs over the past two days, teams of architects unveiled preliminary plans to build and renovate several new public schools in New Orleans. Recovery School District officials hope to break ground on the three new schools and two renovated buildings by the end of the year, the first wave of construction before the completion of a larger master plan sometime in 2008. The renovated and rebuilt schools are scheduled to open in 2009. New construction under the master plan, which will govern the rebuilding of the entire New Orleans public school system, is expected to wrap up in 2010. Architects are following mandates to make the schools more energy-efficient and incorporate elements of "green" construction. Global Green, a national environmental organization, has pledged to donate $1 million to the construction program. Educators have long said that up-to-date school buildings foster a healthy learning environment. New Orleans public school officials built three schools earlier this decade but had not built a new school in at least a decade before that. Some buildings are at least a century old and many are crumbling from years of deferred maintenance.
Ruling Clarified; Florida Schools Relieved
Tia Mitchell, Times-Union
September 30, 2007 FLORIDA: School districts statewide rejoiced when the Florida Supreme Court clarified an earlier ruling, clearing up questions about a certain type of financing used in new school construction. Last month, the court ruled that voter approval is required before government entities use bonds that are repaid through property tax revenue. But the ruling failed to make a distinction among certain types of financing, raising questions about the use of certificates of participation, widely used by school districts for large-scale capital projects. School officials had worried that subjecting the certificates of participation to a public vote would cripple construction projects. Statewide, districts already have $13 billion in outstanding certificates of participation and plan to issue another $8 billion over the next five years, according to the Florida School Boards Association. That association and others representing cities, counties and school districts filed motions asking the court to clarify its ruling. The revised opinion deleted references to certificates of participation and added a footnote indicating that the opinion applies only to bonds that mature in more than a year after issuance. Certificates of participation mature in less than a year.
New York State Education Department Wants Schools To To Green
Randi Weiner, Journal News
September 28, 2007 NEW YORK: The state Education Department has added construction to its list of initiatives that can improve student learning, announcing a partnership with other state agencies to promote energy-efficient "green" school buildings. The team effort, named the Collaborative for High Performance Schools includes the state Education Department, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and an advisory council of representatives from the state Department of Health, the Healthy Schools Network and an extensive list of professional organizations for school administrators, members of the building trades and architects. The state Education Department must approve all school construction projects. It reimburses part of the expenses school districts incur when they build. This year, the state approved $1.7 billion in building project aid. Under the new initiative, districts will be given a set of voluntary "green" guidelines for upcoming construction and renovation projects. They include using low-consumption plumbing fixtures, insulated glass with a light-filtering coating, solar shades and increased number of windows to take advantage of natural light. Right now, the state is not providing extra money to a district if it goes green. The energy authority already provides some reimbursement money for eligible projects, as do other government programs. Instead, the savings for schools will be in reduced utility costs and a more welcoming and allergy-reduced environment.
D.C. School Construction Czar Seeks Control of Maintaining Schools
Theola Labbe, Washington Post
September 28, 2007 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA : Allen Y. Lew, the D.C. schools construction czar, asked the D.C. Council for power to take over the routine maintenance of school buildings, saying that to fully transform crumbling schoolhouses, he needs funding and staff members now assigned to the school system. City education leaders also said, for the first time, that they plan to close some schools next year. Lew said his Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization should acquire the school system's Office of Facilities Management, a $33 million department that responds to routine maintenance requests such as repairing roofs and does long-term planning for multimillion-dollar construction projects recommended in the Master Facilities Plan. He also asked for a one-year extension to submit an updated Master Facilities Plan. Lew testified in a public roundtable that he has run into "bureaucratic slowdowns" because the school system retains control of construction contracts. "The system is in gridlock and paralysis," Lew said. If he managed that office, h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
