News items come from the U.S. Department of Educations's National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF).

School facilities now handicapped accessible
-- David Atchison, Daily Home Online

Alabama: July 1, 2008 -- Schools Superintendent Dr. Bobby Hathcock said no further monitoring is required by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, related to a 2002 agreement to make the high school accessible to mobility-impaired people. “We’re extremely pleased,” Hathcock said. “I’m glad to meet the requirements for all of our people.” Hathcock said this was an eight-year process. “We needed to make all our facilities accessible to all our people,” he said. “This has been a long process.” A complaint was filed with the OCR in 2000. “The complainant specifically alleged that the (school) district discriminated against individuals with disabilities by failing to make Pell City High accessible to mobility-impaired persons,” OCR’s letter dated June 13, 2008, states. In 2002, an administrative resolution was reached between OCR and the School System. Hathcock, who was not superintendent at the time the OCR complaint was filed, commended Michael Barber, assistant superintendent, and Gary Mozingo, facilities supervisor for the School System, for their work in bringing the system into compliance. Mozingo said he was hired in 1999, and he was meeting with officials from OCR six months later. He said there were 23 items listed on OCR’s corrective action list.

School Officials Urge Approval Of Funds for D.C. Building Repairs
-- Bill Turque, Washington Post

District of Columbia: July 1, 2008 -- School officials have warned the D.C. Council that failure to approve $83 million in building repair contracts could leave thousands of children in severely under-equipped schools or stranded altogether when classes begin Aug. 25. In separate letters to council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and Allen Y. Lew, head of school modernization efforts, said the contracts are critical to the renovation and repair of buildings designated to receive students from the nearly two dozen schools Rhee ordered closed this month because of low enrollment. Thirteen of the schools targeted for work are slated to become pre-K-8 campuses. Work at many of the schools, which got underway when classes ended June 12, involves extensive plumbing and electrical repairs, including the installation of elevators in some buildings. All renovations were scheduled to be completed Aug. 15, 10 days before the start of the academic year. In a letter that Rhee sent to Gray on Friday and that her office released late yesterday, Rhee said contractors retained to do the work on tight summer schedules might be unwilling or unable to complete the jobs because of uncertainty over whether the council will approve the money to pay them.

Indiana School Construction Projects Now Must Face Referendums
-- Sharlonda L. Waterhouse, Post-Tribune

Indiana: July 1, 2008 -- Eight Lake and Porter county school districts from Merrillville to Tri-Creek to East Porter and Highland have already snagged state approval in the past year for multimillion-dollar projects. They got in before a new law went into effect that calls for a voter referendum on school construction. Several more districts, including Valparaiso, Portage, Union Township and Gary, are bouncing around ideas now about the future of improvements to school campuses and could face voter scrutiny. The law requires approval by voters for building projects more than $20 million for high schools and more than $10 million for other schools. Valparaiso is still in the early stages of deciding on replacing elementary schools and redesigning the high school, business manager David White said. "If there is a project forthcoming it would require a referendum, but that would be a board decision." Many Valparaiso residents, however, voiced disapproval of the project that would eliminate neighborhood elementaries in favor of three new large schools. In Newton County, North Newton is readying plans to pursue a referendum to improve three elementary schools and the junior-senior high school. Portage Township Schools would be required to have one for its planned addition to Willowcreek Middle School. Portage Superintendent Michael Berta said the district is still deciding on the costs and square footage and might not be ready to seek a referendum until next year.

The Referendum Risk in Indiana
-- Editorial, Journal Gazette

Indiana: July 1, 2008 -- Indiana property tax law undergoes a sea change effective today. But for all the changes incorporated in House Enrolled Act 1001 – including the process for approving school construction projections – local property taxes remain the only option school districts have for building schools or making major repairs to older buildings. And with the changes in the approval process comes the likelihood of a growing disparity between school districts in fast-growing suburban communities and those in rural and urban areas. It is incumbent on lawmakers, who created the conditions likely to fuel the disparity, to monitor the school construction environment and begin to consider ways to assist needy districts. To ignore the disparity is to risk long and costly court battles over inequitable learning conditions. Without doubt, controlling school construction debt was a goal of the massive property tax package approved in March. Statewide, the fastest-growing expense for property tax-supported budgets between 2000 and 2006 was school debt service, the repayment of principal and interest on bonds sold to pay for building projects. Those decisions were largely made by the taxpayers within the school districts, but lawmakers catching heat for property tax increases quickly realized that tightening construction controls would be the best way to control debt. They established new rules for capital projects, requiring a voter referendum for K-8 schools costing more than $10 million, for high schools costing more than $20 million and for all other public projects costing more than $12 million or at least 1 percent of the taxing units’ assessed value.

Wilson Middle School estimates are through the roof
-- Harold Gwin, Youngstown Vindicator

Ohio: June 29, 2008 -- The final engineering estimates are in for the proposed new Wilson Middle School, and they aren’t good. The construction bids for the new building are expected to come in at just over $12.3 million, some $3.2 million higher than the original 2004 estimate, according to Heery International Inc., project manager for the school district’s rebuilding program. Wilson is one of 14 buildings being replaced or renovated in a $180 million to $190 million effort stretching over a half dozen years. The Ohio School Facilities Commission is picking up about 80 percent of that cost. The school board approved the construction documents last week, agreeing to put the project out for bid. Bids are to be opened July 29, and the new 66,568-square foot building, designed to house 350 pupils, is slated to open sometime in fall 2009. It will be built on Gibson Street, the site of the former Wilson High School.

Tax would help schools meet mandates
-- TESA CULLI, Mt. Vernon Register-News

Illinois: June 28, 2008 -- During an informational meeting on the Illinois Schools Facilities Tax earlier this week, one of the ideas that came forward was the creation of a report on the condition of schools county-wide. That’s something that District 80 Superintendent Kevin Settle said has been done in the city schools and is why he believes the tax would help the district. “We spent about two years going through our Life, Health and Safety surveys and going over facilities needs in our buildings,” Settle said. “We have a list of over $4 million in projects that have to be done by law. The Life, Health and Safety surveys are done every 10 years, and we had ours done three or four years ago. They give you three years to accomplish some of the projects, and the 10 years for others. We knew what we had to do besides the regular things that come up. Last month we had to borrow $1.7 million. What I’d like to do is give that money back to the taxpayers and use the sales tax instead.” County schools have been discussing whether or not to go to referendum on the new sales tax, which has been implemented in Williamson County since its approval by the General Assembly. Under terms of the facilities tax act, county schools work together to pass the sales tax at a rate determined by the schools. If voters approve the measure, the tax is collected and distributed to all schools in the county based on the school’s annual attendance percentage. The funds can only be used for school facilities purposes, such as acquisition, development, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, improvement, financing, architectural planning and installation of capital facilities consisting of land, buildings and durable equipment. In addition, schools can use the funds for fire prevention, safety, energy conservation, disabled accessibility, school security and specified repair purposes.

Wind-Powered Turbines to Generate Electricity for Three Ohio Schools
-- Jenny Derringer, Crescent News

Ohio: June 26, 2008 -- The flatlands of northwest Ohio may not be overly scenic but the geography may work to the advantage of at least three area schools. Those open plains could be beneficial in the future for Archbold and Pettisville local schools and Northwest State Community College (NSCC). An anemometer was erected by Wind Energy Services just west of Archbold High School. This was made possible through a $250,000 grant from Green Energy Ohio's (GEO) anemometer loan program that includes using the location as a wind study site. Archbold and Pettisville schools were awarded the grant, in cooperation with NSCC. The tower stands 165 feet tall and will take wind readings at three levels on the pole. The goal, according to Archbold superintendent Dave Deskins, is to cut energy costs by using renewable energy. After a yearlong study, the hope is to ultimately install wind-powered turbines that will generate electricity for the schools.

D.C. Council Questions School Repair Contracts
-- Dion Haynes and Nikita Stewart, Washington Post

District of Columbia: June 26, 2008 -- School construction officials faced sharp questions from D.C. Council members about their request to issue $83 million in contracts to repair numerous schools, including 13 slated to become pre-K-8 campuses. The council summoned Allen Y. Lew, executive director of the city's Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, to explain his proposal to use school modernization money to finance repairs at buildings that would receive students from almost two dozen schools that Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee ordered shuttered this month. Council members tabled the request, saying that they were disturbed by the high fees charged by some contractors and that they needed more information.

New Jersey Governor Asked to Prevent Schools From Being Built Atop Pollution
-- Dunstan McNichol, Star-Ledger

New Jersey: June 25, 2008 -- Enviromentalists and community activists called on Gov. Jon Corzine to order studies to ensure New Jersey schools will not be erected on dangerously polluted properties. "You should not allow a situation to occur where your children are in jeopardy," said Algernon Ward, a Trenton activist who led the campaign to tear down a partially built elementary school that was built atop contaminated fill, at today's Statehouse press conference. "It's a tragedy." Demolishing and rebuilding the Martin Luther King Elementary School in Trenton has cost the state's school construction program about $27 million. Participants in the press conference said it is among hundreds of millions of dollars in school funds that have been spent because of pollution on the school sites chosen by the state's $8.6 billion school building program. Existing schools, meanwhile, feature poor ventilation, contamination and pollution that barrage students with dangerous toxins, said Jane Nogaki, of the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

West Virginia Approves New Building Standards for School Construction
-- Davin White, Charleston Gazette

West Virginia: June 25, 2008 -- Members of the state School Building Authority approved new building standards for school construction. The new "quality and performance standards" will set requirements for construction schedules, materials, roofing, flooring, indoor and outdoor walls, the quality of doors and windows and more. Some West Virginia school architects had worried that "cookie-cutter" schools might start to eliminate the architect's role. "I think we've allayed their fears," Manchin said. "It's not our intent to require the exterior of [buildings] all look alike." Chuck Wilson, lead school architect for Kanawha County Schools, had similar fears soon after he joined last fall with other architects, contractors and SBA members to consider new standards. Now, he agrees with Manchin. "I'm real pleased with the end results," he said. "I think that will help with us estimating future projects with quality levels." Wilson's also pleased that the committee adopted some of the practices he uses in Kanawha County, and believes statewide school-building standards should be updated and redistributed to builders and architects every so often.

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