In school year 2021-22, only 10% of spending nationwide went toward facility expenses, according to a new report from the . The researchers note that this is a decades-old trend, and that most district leaders spend on new construction rather than maintenance of existing buildings.

“Better management of existing assets will be needed along with the most up-to-date building codes and standards,” the report reads.

Among the most pressing infrastructure upgrades油are plumbing upgrades and installation of cooling systems to address lead in drinking water and rising temperatures, respectively.

Unfortunately, schools lack the funding necessary to make such changes. The annual funding gap to reach a state of “good repair” for public schools nationwide grew to $85 billion in 2021, the report adds.

More from 91心頭: School counselors are warning of these 3 big challenges

Another油problem is the sheer age of most school buildings. Twenty percent of all public schools report they do not know what year their building was built. Despite their age, fewer than half of public school buildings have undergone “significant renovations” since their original construction, and fewer than one-third have undergone improvement since 2010.

The researchers offer several recommendations for improving public school facilities, including:

• Adopting life-cycle cost analysis principles in planning and design processes
• Develop capital planning frameworks at the school district level to enhance resilience to extreme weather
• Explore alternative financing for public school facilities, including lease financing, as well as ownership and use arrangements

For more information, read the full report .

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Date & Time: Wednesday, December 4 at 2 p.m. ET

In the last two decades, facilities departments have begun to leverage data and technology to enhance their operational efficiency, while ensuring safe, comfortable environments for their students, faculty, and staff.

Yet, despite this increased access to more data than ever before, many schools and districts still struggle with translating this information into effective capital planning decisions. Without proper data interpretation solutions, this can result in the misspending of capital funds while the facilities team struggles to manage a massive backlog of aging infrastructure.

In this 30-minute 91心頭 Ed Talk, those in administrative positions will gain helpful advice on turning facilities data into actionable insights.

Attendees will learn:

• How to pinpoint and analyze datasets that will lead to more cost-effective funding
• Proven strategies to prevent capital fund misallocation through data-informed planning
• Best practices for facilities teams to justify their investment needs by leveraging data
• What administrators need to look for when decoding leveraged data from their facilities teams
• Data-backed approaches for facilities teams to build the best learning environments for students

***Attendees will be able to safely download an Asset Investment Planning (AIP) Infographic and a comprehensive guide for capital planning, budgeting, and asset management.

Speaker

Katie Gramajo, CEFP,油Senior Industry Marketing Manager for Education, Brightly Software

Sponsored by

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Hotchkiss, Pennsylvania’s 2024 superintendent of the year, says he’s eager to watch the progress his staff and students are making, particularly at the new middle school, which replaced a 40-year-old building and is now in its second year of operation.

“This was truly the largest construction project ever done in our community,” says Hotchkiss, who has led the rural, three-school district since 2011 and began planning the new school in 2018. “I’m excited to see students and staff utilizing the facility the way it was designed, which is with a lot of flexible space that promotes creativity and collaboration.”

When students or staff arrive at the new middle school, they enter a wide-open, two-story “Main Street” that leads to four identical academic wings. Classrooms have garage doors that lead to open areas where students and teachers can collaborate on a wide range of projects, such as building a food truck. All classrooms have a mix of furniture, including low and high tables and other forms of flexible seating, all of which have wheels so students and teachers can rearrange their learning spaces.

Making Bermudian Springs’ buildings safer after the 2018 Parkland shooting was one of the motivating factors in building the new middle school, which, for example, did not have a secure vestibule. “People could enter and go where they wanted to,” he points out. “When you walked in, you had to walk 80 to 90 feet until you got to the main office.”

The design process, which included students, teachers and the community, culminated with a bid going out just as COVID struck in March 2020, which drove up construction costs by millions of dollars. But low interest rates allowed Bermudian Spring to recoup much of that cost.

Because of the scope and prominence of the project, Hotchkiss had construction cameras installed so the community could watch the school take shape online. He even ran the occasional time-lapse video. “My goal was to build space can be flexible and adaptable for decades to come,” he notes.

A little luck in Bermudian Springs

Math and science are the key focuses of the curriculum rewrite. As part of the process, Hotchkiss and his leadership team worked with the district teachers union to create content lead positions. These teachers get a stipend to take on additional responsibilities for rewriting the curriculum to align with and surpass state standards.

Read more from 91心頭: 5 first-time superintendents are moving into the top spot

“We have a lot of teachers spending a lot of hours, so I want them to be proud of their work,” he continues. “As a small district, I think we create a lot of opportunity for kids���we have college-in-high school courses, we offer AP courses, and our students can graduate with almost a semester’s worth of college credits.”

Still, Hotchkiss and Bermudian Springs are grappling with some of the unique challenges of being a rural district, with one of the most pressing being internet access. In the rolling central Pennsylvania hills in the western part of the district, some residents still have to use dial-up internet service. Teachers help students use district-provided iPads to download assignments so they can work offline at home. Students can also sign out Wi-Fi hotspots even as local governments are working to expand to broadband in the region.

The district recently filled three high-needs positions even as Bermudian Springs, like many other districts, copes with staffing shortages and a scarcity of new candidates. It took months for the district to find an educator to oversee its emotional support program. It also hired an experienced ELA instructor to teach college-level courses. “People are leaving the profession���not going to another school district,” he concludes. “I feel super lucky this week.”

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He and his team have spent a lot of time out in the community���which is about 35 minutes from San Antonio���sharing the stories of students and their needs. “I’m proud that our community has come to see the importance of investing in students. That is something Seguin has struggled with in some cases,” says Gutierrez, who just named a regional superintendent of the year and has been leading Seguin ISD since 2017. “What really got us over the finish line in these past three bonds was just being able to build that support and trust in the school system.”

Seguin ISD spent the $67 million bond passed in 2019 on technology infrastructure, a new football stadium and the extensive renovations of an aging middle school. Three years later, voters approved a massive $131 million bond to replace the district’s oldest elementary schools and build an agricultural science facility.

More from 91心頭: Crackdown on cellphones expands as 2023-24 school year approaches

Without the latter building, students have had to keep their animals at home, a relative’s house or elsewhere. Also part of that package are safety upgrades and renovation of the transportation facility to accommodate rapid growth in the community filling up with new residents from Austin and San Antonio seeking more affordable housing.

Every classroom will also get new furniture to improve learning experiences and serve as a teacher recruitment and retention tool and help Seguin ISD keep pace with neighboring districts. “In many cases, the furniture in our classrooms is decades old, and, in some cases, the same age as the facility,” Gutierrez explains. “Oftentimes, a teacher will come and interview, be offered a job and tour the camps, but then decline because they interviewed in a district nearby that has newer classrooms and newer furniture.”

The passage of this year’s much smaller bond, which will fund a new baseball and softball complex, was particularly gratifying as athletic facilities have been a tough sell with voters in recent years, Gutierrez notes.

“When you work with students, you have to be willing to advocate fiercely for what they need,” he adds. “You need the courage to go into your community to ask for their support, you need the courage to have crucial conversations with others, and you need the courage to advocate for what is needed to fund public education.”

Seguin ISD stays connected

Gutierrez, like many of his fellow superintendents, is concerned about staffing and funding, and how the latter impacts the former. Texas’ legislature did not increase education this year. Seguin iSD currently has 15 teacher vacancies and seven of those are in math.

���A year ago I told my team, ���It���s scary to think about what staffing is going to look like a year from now,��� he says. ���It���s even scarier to think about what staffing is going to look like a year from now.���

The state油did油mandate new school safety measures, many of which are unfunded, leaving K12 leaders to cover the costs on their own at the same time districts are working to provide expanded mental health care and provide more wraparound services for students and families. Meanwhile, superintendents in many districts are finding themselves caught in the middle of extreme political divisiveness and the spread of misinformation in their communities, he adds.

“I often talk about the superintendency pre-COVID, the superintendency during COVID and the superintendency post-COVID, I would say the superintendency post-COVID is probably the most challenging,” he concludes. “Seguin is a very conservative community, so there has been potential for almost anything to become a controversy. We���ve been able to avoid that because of the strong partnership we have with our parents and with our community keeping them apprised of what we’re doing in the school district.”

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Rather, leaders are focusing on issues such as mental health and staff shortages that stand in the way of student achievement.

“As a result of having few resources and the lowest-paid professional staff in the county, our students have not performed to their academic potential and some even suffer from self-esteem issues,” says Stephen Rodriguez, superintendent of the Pottstown School District in Pennsylvania.

Leaders are also priming their teams to tackle issues from inadequate funding to technology. Here’s a rundown of the top seven education challenges:

Beating the biggest education challenges

1. Supporting mental health and student safety

A concerning number of students experimenting with recreational drugs and others bringing weapons to schools are two signs of how the national youth mental health crisis is playing out in the north of Des Monies, Iowa, Superintendent Erick Pruitt says.

In response, Pruitt and his team are working to ensure students are involved in the arts, athletics or other extracurricular activities. The district is trying to educate parents about the mental health resources available at school and in the community. He is also looking at how to better utilize data around students who need more support.

“We also want to ensure parents are aware of how to keep kids safe at home and at school,” Pruitt continues. “We see what���s happening around us, and we want to make sure our facilities and classrooms are safe, and that our staff have the resources they need to react when issues arise. “

Bridgeton Public Schools in New Jersey now screens every student multiple times a year to track their social-emotional health as proficient, an emerging concern or at risk, Superintendent Keith Miles says. Teachers in Bridgeton have infused SEL lessons across all grades in health, physical education and social studies.

“While we provide all students SEL lessons across all grades, we have additional school counselors, SEL specialists, crisis counselors and clinical practitioners on hand to follow up with at-risk students with more frequent individual and group therapy sessions,” says Miles, who has reached a deal to become superintendent of School District of Lancaster in Pennsylvania this summer.

2. Tackling teacher shortages

The shortage of classroom teachers and aspiring leaders is like nothing that Principal Melissa Shindel has ever seen. “We had never started school year without a full staff,” says Shindel, principal of Glenwood Middle School in Maryland’s Howard County Public School System. “This is the second year in a row that’s happened. We’ll be in a real crisis if we can���t figure out how to better grows kids in college and attract them to this field.”

A colleague of Shindel described the situation as “emotional whiplash.” The same teachers who were hailed as heroes during remote learning in the darkest days of the pandemic are now being villainized over curriculum and other issues.

In Pottstown, Rodriguez says the “competition is fierce.” His district fills positions but often loses teachers to more affluent districts. His district has been forced to increase class sizes and “put other teachers on permanent overload schedules.”

“We have had multiple positions open throughout the entire school year, and some buildings have not been fully staffed,” Rodriguez says. “Our teachers who show up every day for students end up getting almost no break because they are covering classrooms that have no teachers.”

Bridgeton Public Schools has experienced unprecedented shortages in math, science, special education and bilingual instruction, Miles says. Teachers and support staff have had to fill vacancies while the district has contracted with a company that provides virtual teachers who can supplement the instruction provided by substitutes. “We have targeted students in courses with substitute teachers with one-to-one in-person and virtual tutors,” Miles says.

3. Sustaining success

The Pottstown School District has been a “highly underfunded entity for several decades,” Rodriguez says. As the community’s tax base has slipped, the district has struggled to pay competitive salaries to teachers, particularly in special education.

More from 91心頭: Ex-Broward schools superintendent is cleared of perjury charge from Parkland probe

The district’s No. 1 education challenge? Support in achieving financial security for the future. “Our biggest concern is in sustaining the excellent growth we started this year,” Rodriguez explains. “With more resources, we have been able to make a real difference for students and the community. Parents and other communities have noticed, but being able to continue on this path will require appropriate and fair funding, which is still a question mark for future years.”

Among the biggest education challenges for a high-performing like Ankeny is driving student achievement higher, says Pruitt. Some 85% of the district’s students are proficient in English and about 70% have hit the mark in math. “We’re asking what is our compelling ‘why’ around how we push for continuous improvement,” Pruitt says. “What���s our message moving forward in a district that does so well in serving kids from multiple backgrounds?”

4. COVID relief crunch

Sustaining success will be further complicated by the looming ESSER deadline that will put pressure on district leaders to make shrewd spending decisions, says Carl Dolente, superintendent of the Cumberland Regional School District in New Jersey.

“Many of the programs, positions, and technology will be hanging in the balance,” Dolente points out. “Trying to find ways to sustain these important and much-needed improvements we were able to make over the past three years will take a great deal of creative budgeting and resourcefulness.”

5. Holding assessments accountable

Superintendent Dana Bedden of the Centennial School District near Philadelphia urged Congress to change the current punitive nature of standardized testing and state accountability systems during a recent 100 Superintendent March to Congress (where he was accompanied by District 91心頭istration). ���Let���s make the system about spotlighting opportunities rather than a hammer for punishment,��� Bedden said.

Today���s school accountability systems are used ���as a hammer against districts,��� added , superintendent of the Adams 14 School District near Denver, during U.S. Capitol visit. she noted that most assessments do not account for the experiences of the whole student, such as race, background, poverty levels, disability and mobility, English-language learning and trauma.

Lor鱈a pointed out that every school and district monitored under Colorado���s accountability system is rural, poor or has high populations of English learners. She added that her district is trying to ���change the narrative��� by testing multilingual learners in their native languages and in English. And these students are showing growth. ���Our system fails to serve the whole child,��� Lor鱈a said.

6. Updating aging buildings

Outdated facilities have a direct impact on the quality of the education schools districts can provide, particularly when it comes to preparing students for their futures in higher education and the workforce, says Miles at Bridgeton Public Schools

Miles listed maintaining aging facilities and developing new buildings to accommodate population growth, particularly in grades 6-12, as his biggest education challenges.

New Jersey’s School Development Authority is currently helping the district plan a new middle school and is also providing funds for a high school expansion that includes a new gym, a three-story classroom addition, a bigger cafeteria, and additional parking and office space.

7. Distracting devices

During lockdown and remote learning, students’ mobile devices provided a critical connection to the outside world. Post-pandemic, those digital lifelines have become a major learning obstacle, says Dolente of the Cumberland Regional School District.

“Cellphones have become a major distraction in classrooms,” Dolente notes. “We are currently exploring creative ways to detach our students from their personal devices, which they were conditioned to utilize as their only means of communication, education and entertainment for almost two years.”

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At the Cherry Creek School District, south of Denver, conserving natural resources and the comfort of staff and students are two goals of an extensive energy-efficiency project that should油cut carbon emissions at its 87 facilities by 25% by 2026 and save油1.8 billion gallons油of water. The overall results should cover the cost of the work and generate an additional $20 million in savings,油allowing the district to beat a state requirement to reduce emissions by 20% by 2030, says油, Cherry Creek���s chief financial and operating officer.

“Colorado is feeling the effects of climate change as much as anywhere else,” Smith says. “CCSD is doing its part to safeguard our region against the negative impacts caused by climate change and secure Colorado���s economic future. We view this project as the first step in a journey toward long-term sustainability.”

The district started the work with LED lighting and HVAC upgrades because these will provide the most immediate benefits for students and staff. Fluorescent lighting is being removed from its classrooms, offices, hallways, and gyms in all elementary, middle and high schools. New lighting should better distribute light than older fixtures that concentrate light in the center of rooms, leaving some areas in shadow. Boilers and chillers will be replaced to catch the district up on deferred maintenance.

Better lighting prevents fatigue and eye strain while improved air quality can help students focus and has been linked to improvements in math and reading. Teachers can also expect students to be more engaged in more comfortable environments, Smith says.

In the coming years, the district will complete an extensive retrofit of its plumbing fixtures and sprinkler systems with weather-based web-enabled smart controllers. Finally, it will connect its buildings through Johnson Controls’ , an AI-enabled monitoring platform that provides school personnel with data to optimize operations and chart energy use roadmaps. The system’s油Green Hub interface will allow students, staff, and members of the public to track the district’s energy conservation efforts on their mobile devices.

On the equity front, the district has contracted with油minority- and women-owned businesses on various aspects of the projects.油“The opportunity to enhance the learning environment, reduce our carbon footprint, and save money on utilities while not requiring additional taxpayer funding is a no-brainer,” Smith said. “The era of smart, optimized and sustainable infrastructure is here, and no one deserves to be safe and healthy more than our children.”

Districts can start their journeys toward energy efficiency by first reducing demand through behavior and smart technology, such as the equipment being installed at Cherry Creek, says Jennifer Stentz, Johnson Controls’油vice president and general manager for HVAC controls and sustainability infrastructure in North America. The data and insights provided by technology such as OpenBlue can help conservation become a part of a district’s culture and better direct maintenance activities, Stentz says.

91心頭istrations looking for more guidance on energy efficiency and sustainably can use released last month by the White House.

3 superintendents to watch: Charting a new normal for education油

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And, as most educators know,油 are much less conducive to learning.

On the way to school, diesel buses create other health concerns, both for the students on board and those who live in the neighborhoods where the vehicles travel. In fact,油diesel exhaust exposure can cause increased school absences. Now, $500 million worth of help is on the way for K-12 leaders who want to create cleaner buildings and buses. That’s the size of the油 grant program launched this week by the Biden 91心頭istration to assist schools in making clean energy upgrades such as energy-efficiency retrofits, electric school buses and resilient design.

The overall goal of the initiative is to help schools promote the油, which shows students are more likely to thrive when safety, belonging and health are at the center of school climates, the administration says.油“Public K-12 districts spend roughly $8 billion a year on energy bills���the second-largest expense after teacher salaries,” the administration says. “Energy efficiency improvements to HVAC systems, lighting, insulation, and other energy upgrades can not only protect the health of our children but also unlock significant savings to go toward students and learning.”

K-12 leaders should know about these five key components of the油油initiative:

1. More efficient, energy-saving schools: The Department of Energy’s $500 million grant program will fund comprehensive energy efficiency audits, HVAC and lighting upgrades, clean energy installation, and training to help staff operate and maintain new equipment. The program will prioritize rural and high-poverty schools, and help district leaders leverage additional private, philanthropic, and public funding to maximize facilities projects.

More from 91心頭:油Why free lunch may no longer be the best way to measure student need油

2.油Improving air quality: To help schools access funding and technical assistance,油the administration is releasing a油 available across the federal government. The administration has also announced the first round of honorees in its油,油which provides technical assistance for air quality improvements. The districts are:

• Adams 12 Five Star Schools, CO
• Boulder Valley School District, CO
• Charleston County School District, SC
• Columbia Public Schools, MO
• Davis School District, UT
• Greenville County Schools, SC
• Mariposa County USD, CA
• Newark Board of Education, NJ

3. Expanding clean transportation: The $5 billion , which launches later this spring, will include technical assistance to school districts that are adding clean and electric buses to their fleets. The Environmental Protection Agency is producing webinars to show district leaders how to apply for the clean bus grants.油The Department of Transportation is also helping communities find funding to create safer routes for students to walk or bike to school.

The ���created by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, the Association of School Business Officials International, and the National Association for Pupil Transportation���will provide additional assistance to districts seeking Clean Bus grants.

4. Supporting rural, tribal and Puerto Rican schools: The Department of Agriculture will leverage its array of rural development loans and grants to help these districts acquire electric buses and charging stations and make other energy-efficiency investments.

5. Training and workforce development: School construction projects will be accompanied by new investments in training workers in trades that can lead to better-paying careers. These initiatives will also target under-resourced schools and communities.

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Over the past several months, we conducted a research investigation of the role natural light plays in contemporary campus design and construction. Fortunately, our national network of campus design colleagues provided a broad range of technical and experiential resources.

Remarkably, the most impactful and sustainable research targeted the effect of natural light in the intellectual, emotional, and physical development of school children.

Indeed, the preponderance of industry thought leaders recognize that natural light plays a key part in mood, motivation, awakened focus, and positive attitude. Importantly, light improves test taking, GPA, class rank, reading comprehension, retention, math and verbal proficiency; timely and successful completion of a college degree; and placement and advancement in a chosen career. Learning and light have always been connected. Think ���enlightened���.

Beyond these demonstrable learning and behavioral outcomes, natural light reduces utility expense and, as a result, conserves energy which can be fractionalized and allocated to prime time energy demand.

This cost avoidance results in the preservation of Planet Earth’s ecosystem by reducing carbon emissions generated by the utility industry. This reduction can sometimes be transformed into carbon credit exchange and tax incentives.

Enter the new Attleboro High School campus in Massachusetts. Uniquely, the Attleboro design process focuses on optimizing the use of natural light in classrooms, libraries, labs, cafeteria, and athletics. This frame of reference and design perspective provides a dramatic WOW sense of arrival on campus.

Attleboro Public Schools’ Architects offered this perspective on the role played by natural light on design thinking and design learning:

���Natural light and views to the exterior were a priority for multiple reasons when designing the new Attleboro High School. The school features a ���daylight harvesting��� system that measures the amount of natural light entering the room and adjusts the amount of artificial lighting in the room accordingly. This both reduces the electrical use in the building and lowers utility costs.油 It has also been shown to result in a better learning environment for students.油 Students display longer attention spans and have better attendance and behavior performance under these conditions, which directly translates to better testing performance.���

Significantly, the Attleboro campus plan incorporates state-of-the-art systems to manage environmental conditions, air ventilation, temperature control, acoustics, and most impactful, controls, levels, and spaces for lighting.

At least one recent research study observed that over one school year, students who were exposed to more sunlight during their school day displayed 26 percent higher reading outcomes and 20 percent higher math outcomes than those in less sunny classrooms. Other campus design research investigations have shown that replacing artificial lighting with blue-light bulbs accelerates cognitive development.

A descriptive prelude to Henry Plummer’s, provides this cogent and incisive reflection: ���Shelter and natural light are fundamental elements of architecture. The first is concerned with protection from natural elements; the second with the creative and sometimes spiritual interaction between the man-made and the natural worlds. One is solid and static, the other illuminates and animates.���

For teenagers, natural light exposure resets the circadian cycle of sleep based on the natural secretion of melatonin – resulting in longer, deeper sleep, daytime alertness, and peak performance.

Mental health commentators indicate that more than one out of three students feel depressed and anxious to reconnect with other students, faculty, and staff. In these dark times, anything and everything that can lighten students’ moods should be employed. Providing natural light in both learning and living space can be a game-changer for campus-bound students.

In the midst of this Black Swan Pandemic, we learned that natural light helps students’ resilience and resourcefulness in the face of sometimes daunting feelings of isolation and anxiety.

Attleboro Public School Superintendent David Sawyer put it nicely this way:

To maximize the opportunity provided in an educational setting, schools must be designed not only to support the intended instructional practices of a given space, but to nurture the learners themselves as biological realities. Light has been used as a metaphor for learning since at least ancient times for a host of reasons, not the least of which being that like most things that grow, our natural development is stunted by its absence.

James E.��俗Samels��俗is president and CEO of The Education Alliance and senior partner in the law firm, Samels��俗Associates, Attorneys at Law. Arlene Lieberman is senior consultant of The Education Alliance and senior associate, Samels Associates, Attorneys at Law.

More from 91心頭

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The feeling of being safe, secure, and seen are psychologically foundational to providing a learning environment where students can thrive. For students to learn, process and retain the knowledge and skills they are taught in school, a level of comfort must be established in a learner’s mind before attention and focus can be given to their best efforts.

So many aspects of school design are aimed at providing that level of comfort. However, design can’t provide this alone ��� it is created through the convergence of design principles, policy prescriptions, and day-to-day routines in the learning environment. This extends into literally thousands of aspects of school life, but it is typified in how violence is addressed in schools from a design standpoint. While school shootings are a small percentage of the gun violence that takes place in the U.S., the fear they have created has changed the way kids feel about going to school.

The desire for comfort and recognition of the real fear students experience has changed the way designers think about school design. Since K-12 architecture is focused on creating the best possible learning environment, designers must be conscious of the array of possible risks on a school campus. Incorporating built solutions that protect students and faculty from these risks instills the sense of safety that has become a top priority.

However, there is more required to create a safe school campus than physical security measures ��� preparation, partnerships and social programs are paramount to maintaining the quality and safety of the educational environment. It takes intention and focus for everyone involved to create the right conditions and the best environment for learning.

Physical security measures

Incorporating physical security measures into K-12 schools must be done with care and tact; overt security and surveillance equipment can make students perceive risk and feel uncomfortable. In many ways, these measures can psychologically induce the opposite of their intended effects.

���Research shows that schools need to be welcoming and encouraging to draw students into the building,��� said Dr. Joanne Avery, retired superintendent of Anderson School District 4 in Pendleton, South Carolina. ���This welcoming environment leads to less aggressive behavior, vandalism and absenteeism.���

However, this doesn’t mean security measures and appliances should be completely avoided. It means careful thought must be lent to their location, visibility, and prominence in the design of schools.

Entry points

Creating multiple layers of access supports the administration’s ability to control who is on campus. Clearly identifiable entry points into and out of the building for different occupants (student bus riders, student drivers, teachers/faculty, service providers, and parents during school hours) can help limit congestion during typical school days.

If possible, there should be only one visitor entryway. This entryway should have a security vestibule with limited physical contact with staff for visitor check-in. Upon check-in, visitors should then be moved to a waiting area without access to main circulation paths within the school, and finally a controlled entrance with access to the interior of the school. Entrance to the school proper should be guided by staff.

Devices that control the locking mechanisms of all entrances and exits should be installed. Consider augmenting or ���hardening��� entry and exit points based on risk and/or operational use. Since teachers don’t always have time to lock the door when responding to school shootings, classroom door hardware should stay locked by default. This can be handled any number of ways that don’t impede normal movement.

Interior campus security

Arrange pedestrian walkways and landscaping to encourage circulation toward secure points when considering the scenarios of campus and building use. Some might include pick-up and drop-off times, after-hours athletic events, performances, outdoor learning activities during the school day, and physical education or playground use.

While maintaining openness and visibility, divide the school into manageable zones separated by barriers or doors. This can be accomplished by breaking academics into wings or ���houses,��� or providing zones for shared core areas like fine and performing arts, media centers and dining rooms.

Consider using more glazing on the interior of schools. This may seem counterintuitive, but providing passive visibility can help reduce bullying to produce a more positive social environment. Augment passive visibility with active security systems ranging from classroom door locks to security cameras.

Thoughtfully arranged landscaping and fencing can further enhance access control by reducing or eliminating public access to outdoor learning or athletic areas where possible.

However, each safety and security measure provided in the design of a school can fail without robust practice and procedures from administrators, teachers and staff.油 Controlling access is often simpler in elementary schools ��� it can be easier to enter a busy high school, so receptionists must be empowered to deny entry to unauthorized visitors.

Bringing natural light inside the building and into the learning environment has been proven to have positive learning effects. Instead of decreasing outside windows into spaces, arrange and design with risk in mind. For example, in areas where students are on the inside of a large window or wall of windows, colorful one-way vinyl coverings allow occupants to see outside the building while blocking the view into the building from the outside. Another way is to orient the learning spaces to capture natural daylight in a secure courtyard arrangement. Above all, designers should be as intentional in design as teachers are when instructing.

Partnerships help with preparation, prevention and response

On top of providing student resource officers to schools of all age levels, local law enforcement partners can act as a threat assessment team to help schools to identify any vulnerable areas and develop a facility-specific plan for active shooter events. As we’ve tragically witnessed with recent deadly events like the shooting at Oxford High School, threats can include drawings, writings, and social media posts. No threat should be ignored and when concerning student behavior is identified, parents need to be educated on intervention methods that can be applied at home as well as school.

Local law enforcement, community outreach organizations and mentorship programs can also help provide community-specific services to students and their families. These resources can make all the difference for at-risk students outside of the classroom who may need access to mental health services, academic assistance or healthy socialization.

Teachers, staff, and any adult who is in the building on a regular basis should have a thorough understanding of all of the protocols in place that prevent bad actors from gaining access ��� things like keeping exterior doors locked and using visitor control systems and practices. They should also be well-versed in the plan of action that must be followed in the event of an active shooter and participate in active shooter drills.

Social programs

Bully prevention programs are very important. Schools should have zero tolerance for bullying and offer support to those who are bullied. It’s imperative to also teach students the right expectations, fairness, respect, and compassion. This helps establish actions and behaviors that compel them to speak up instead of being a bystander when they witness someone being bullied.

In cases where a student has committed an expellable offense by harming themselves or others, administrators and law enforcement must become heavily involved in outreach and intervention efforts. Not necessarily only through expulsion or the juvenile justice system, but by offering mental health resources and support for the student and their family.

���I am strongly opposed to expelling students who are at risk of hurting themselves or others,��� Avery said. ���The school system must create a path for these students to continue their education while providing mental health assessments and resources to improve their lives and uphold the safety of the community.���

Creating the safest educational environments requires a holistic approach that goes beyond physical security to address the social and emotional needs of at-risk students while preparing faculty with comprehensive action plans that take over when the unthinkable happens.

Ben Thompson, AIA, ALEP, is a principal and K-12 studio director of McMillan Pazdan Smith, a regional, studio-based design firm with offices in Greenville, Charleston and Spartanburg, SC; Asheville and Charlotte, NC; and Atlanta, GA. He can be reached at bthompson@mcmillanpazdansmith.com.

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The action advances the portion of the bill to be included in the to be considered by the House in coming weeks, a $3.5 trillion infrastructure package that the Biden administration and congressional Democrats are working to pass through the budget reconciliation process. It includes $450 billion in funding for early childhood care and universal pre-K programs for 3- and 4-year-old children.

“As our K-12 schools reopen this year, many students and educators are returning to crumbling and unsafe buildings that have asbestos, leaking roofs, lead pipes, and other safety hazards. The bill invests $82 billion in repairing, modernizing, and rebuilding our nation’s outdated school facilities and dedicates urgently needed resources to update public school infrastructure,” said House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-Va. “In addition, this funding will ensure that we rebuild energy-efficient and environmentally resilient public school facilities and ensure they are built to withstand extreme weather events. By upgrading our school facilities, students will learn, and teachers will teach in safer environments, while also helping to create more than a million good-paying jobs in communities across the country.”

Republican members of the committee criticized the proposal for increasing spending and imposing new requirements on employers. “This monstrous spending package recklessly increases what was already the highest sustained spending spree in American history,” said House Education and Labor Committee Ranking Member Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. “It asks taxpayers, their children, and grandchildren to pay for radical socialist proposals that will harm our economy now and obliterate economic prosperity in the future.”

Rep. Joe Burgess, R-Utah, said the school construction funding program in the bill would raise costs while providing support for a handful of schools across the nation, and would require “more sacrifice from taxpayers and forces schools to wade through more regulations from D.C.”

The Senate is set to return to legislative action the week of Sept. 13, while the House will return the week of Sept. 20.

Following are some key elements of the bill for K-12 education:

Rebuild America’s Schools Grant Program (Section 20001): This program would provide nearly $81 billion in funding from FY 2022 through FY 2024 for schools to “repair, modernize, or rebuild crumbling and outdated school buildings.” Under the grant program, $1.27 billion in funds would be made available in FY 2022 using the most recent Title I, Part A distribution formula to SEAs, which would distribute 80 percent that funding to LEAs, by Title I, Part A proportional share, for “the development and publication of a local facilities master plan to address the health, safety, education equity, enrollment diversity, environmental sustainability, and climate resiliency of the public school facilities” operated by the LEA.

The SEA would use the remaining 20 percent of funds to develop a state-level master plan for school facilities that details how the state would use funds to improve school facilities in the state, how it would competitively award grants to LEAs to carry out school improvements, and how it would provide technical assistance to LEAs.

The program would make $39.6 billion in funds available for FY 2023 and FY 2024, which would also be distributed to SEAs based on the most recent Title I, Part A proportional share. The SEA would distribute 90 percent of those funds to LEAs on a competitive basis based on grant applications, with the remaining 10 percent of funds to be used for state administration activities for the grant program.

Supplement, not supplant rules would apply to these grants.

Teacher and school principal support: The draft legislation would provide $198 million in FY 2022 for developing teacher residency programs (Section 20007), and $198 million in FY 2022 for programs that develop and support school leadership programs as described in ESEA Section 2243 (Section 20008). The legislation would also provide $297 million in FY 2022 for personnel development under IDEA, Part D.

Expanding Community Eligibility (Section 24001): The draft legislation would increase the US91心頭 multiplier to 2.5 for SY 2022-23 through SY 2029-30 for community eligibility reimbursement for school meals. The multiplier is used to determine the reimbursement rate for students not directly certified to receive school meals, but who would be eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.

It is currently set at 1.6 percent and would revert to that rate after June 30, 2030. The draft would also establish a statewide community eligibility option for SEAs that use non-federal funds to ensure LEAs in the state provide free meals to 100 percent of enrolled students.

Charles Hendrix covers education funding and other Title I issues for LRP Publications.

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