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

Green Schoolyards as an Element of Reform
-- Kirk Meyer, Education Week

National: September 1, 2010 -- Reduced class size. Longer school days. Accountability through testing. Better teachers. Managing the dropout rate. Dealing with unions. Serving special education and English-language-learning students. Safety in school. The list goes on. We know that public education is facing many challenges, and that there are many brilliant minds and kind hearts trying to find solutions to a complex set of problems. But let’s look for a moment at the end user who should be the focus of all this attention: the child. What motivates a child to learn? Children are active and social beings who have an innate curiosity about the world around them. We should be using these attributes as a springboard into the vast and wonderful world of learning.

West Virginia District Considers Removing Swings From All School Playgrounds
-- Bryan Chambers, Herald-Dispatch

West Virginia: September 1, 2010 -- A state lawmaker is asking Cabell County Schools Superintendent William Smith to suspend the removal of swing sets from all elementary school playgrounds until he can bring involved parties to the table. Swings are scheduled to be removed from the 17 schools that have them by late December because of recent lawsuits and costs associated with meeting national standards for playground safety. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission sets playground safety guidelines. The current guidelines for swings require a protective layer of sand, pea gravel, wood mulch, wood chips or recycled rubber that equals twice the height of the swing in each direction. That means if a swing is 7 feet long, a layer of ground material is required 14 feet in front and 14 feet in the back. The safety standards also call for a depth of at least 9 inches. Cabell County uses wood mulch on its playgrounds, but it is biodegradable and washes away when it rains, said Tim Stewart, safety manager for Cabell County Schools. That makes it difficult to comply with national safety standards, he said. The only other viable alternative is recycled rubber, but it has raised toxicity questions among parents across the country and is more expensive than wood mulch, Stewart said. He estimates it would cost about $8,000 to cover the ground around each of the 36 swing sets. That's a total of $288,000, a cost that would have to be repeated at least every seven years, he said.

Solar Power Is Money Saver for Montgomery County, Maryland Schools Using Unique Financing Approach
-- Cody Calamaio , Gazette

Maryland: September 1, 2010 -- Summer may be over, but students at Sidwell Friends Lower School in Bethesda will be still playing, and learning, using the power of the sun. The school teamed with Common Cents Solar to install 120 solar panels on the roof of the gymnasium funded entirely by $5,000 "solar bonds" bought by 25 shareholders, mainly parents and community members. The bond program creates a new approach to financing large-scale solar installations by taking the burden of cost away from the school, said Kirk Renaud, general manger of Common Cents Solar, a Bethesda nonprofit co-op that promotes solar initiatives through community collaboration and education. Solar installations help save money for private and public schools. The system will cover half of the gym's energy needs and save the school $4,000 annually in electricity costs, Renaud said. Sidwell Friends had an electric bill of about $450,000 last school year for all campuses. Solar panels save the Montgomery County Public School system about $30,000 annually because unused electricity generated by rooftop panels receives a credit from Pepco that is taken off the bill. In fiscal 2010, the school system spent about $27 million to power its more than 200 buildings, spokesman Dana Tofig said in an email.

Razing of old Hubbard High gives rise to emotion
-- Elise Franco, Vindy

Ohio: August 29, 2010 -- Students and alumni grabbed scattered bricks as a reminder of the past and a look to the future as the old Hubbard High School began its descent to the ground. About 150 people stood in the parking lot of the old high school Saturday afternoon and watched as demolition began on the 56-year-old building. Superintendent Richard Buchenic, a Hubbard graduate, said the old school’s demolition was bittersweet. “Everybody that went to school here has a special place in their heart for this school,” he said. “It’s the place where I spent four of the best years, and it gave me a great education and great memories.” The school is being torn down to make room for a new middle school that will be built on the same site, Buchenic said. Construction on the middle school, which will be the second of three new district buildings, is scheduled to begin Oct. 1, and Buchenic said it should be ready for students for the 2012-13 school year. Residents are invited to tour the new $20 million high school at 2 p.m. today. The total project cost is about $56 million, 68 percent of which is paid for by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

School board approves loans; district gets good grades
-- DEB ANDERSON, The Dunn County News

Wisconsin: August 29, 2010 -- After a brief exchange regarding the difference between the committee of the whole and a regular school board meeting — raising the question of discussion vs. formal action — the Menomonie school board’s first committee of the whole meeting commenced on Monday evening. As time was of the essence regarding a decision, the board agreed to make some special approvals that night. However, it was decided that committee of the whole meetings will mainly be used for the purposes of gathering information for regular board meetings; decision-making will be limited: only issues of a timely nature will be subject to voting. And in addition to its regular board meeting on the second Monday of every month, the board will continue to meet as a committee of the whole on the fourth Monday of each month.

Eagle-Vail high school makeover could cost $10.5 million
-- Sarah Mausolf , Vail Daily

Colorado: August 27, 2010 -- enovations at the old Battle Mountain High School building in Eagle-Vail took another step forward this week. Eagle County School Board members gave the district permission to borrow $7.7 million for project. The vacant building will be refashioned into a school for pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students.Students from Minturn Middle School and Meadow Mountain Elementary schools will be combined at the former high school beginning in fall 2011. Graduating fifth-graders from Red Sandstone Elementary School will also matriculate into the Eagle-Vail school for sixth through eighth grades.

Money for New Orleans School Construction Is a Giant Step for Our Recovery: An Editorial
-- Editorial Page Staff, Times-Picayune

Louisiana: August 27, 2010 -- The transformation of New Orleans public schools has been one of the brightest and most consequential developments post-Katrina. That’s why the Obama administration’s decision to fully pay for a citywide school construction plan is a momentous step for our recovery. The total $1.8 billion in FEMA funds approved for school construction makes the award one of the largest recovery grants since the storm. The grant includes $700 million for school construction that FEMA committed last year and an additional $1.1 billion that had been in doubt until this week. The total equals the projected cost of a citywide master plan the Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish School Board approved in 2008. That means education officials should have enough money to provide every school — charter and traditional — a new building or a substantially renovated one. Just as important, FEMA agreed to lump the schools’ extensive Katrina damage into one large project. That will allow new schools to be built wherever needed, without being restricted to rebuilding pre-Katrina structures.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania School District Installs 'Green' Roofs at Three Elementary Schools
-- Brian Wallace, Intelligencer Journal

Pennsylvania: August 26, 2010 -- When School District of Lancaster pupils return to classes at three elementary schools next week, they may be wondering: Who's gonna water the roof? That's because three of the schools — Lafayette, Wharton and Ross — installed "green" roofs this summer on new additions. The vegetated roofs, which are designed to reduce rainwater runoff and conserve energy, are the first ever installed at public schools in Lancaster County, said Mary Gattis-Schell of the county planning commission. Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster Mennonite School and a few local businesses have installed the roofs in recent years, but SDL is the first public school system to try out the green technology on a large scale, she said. The roofs were funded with a portion of a $479,000 "energy harvesting" grant the planning commission received from the state Department of Environmental Protection. SDL received $118,710 for its two vegetated roofs at Lafayette and Wharton, each of which total 10,000 square feet. The district also received a $30,000 grant from the Lancaster Foundation for Educational Excellence for the 2,500-square-foot vegetated roof at Ross. The grants offset the higher cost — about $7 per square foot, or a total of $157,500 at the three schools — of the roofs, said Greg Collins, SDL's coordinator of capital projects.

New Orleans Schools Get $1.8 Billion for Katrina Damage
-- CNN Wire Staff, CNN

Louisiana: August 26, 2010 -- he federal government will award $1.8 billion to New Orleans schools damaged by Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, said. A provision in an appropriations bill authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide a lump-sum payment for K-12 schools damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "The provision also reduced penalties for insufficient flood insurance and alternate projects, which yielded more than $500 million in savings for Louisiana schools," Landrieu's office said in a statement. New Orleans schools are still rebounding five years after Katrina struck. The money gives "local leaders the ability to rebuild New Orleans' school system in a comprehensive and strategic manner, instead of using a uncoordinated and piecemeal approach," Landrieu's statement said. The Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District are reducing the number of campuses from 127 to 87.

Missouri Governor Visits School to Tout Stimulus Bond Funded Construction Projects
-- Claudette Riley, News-Leader

Missouri: August 26, 2010 -- A project to install air conditioning at Jarrett Middle School received a gubernatorial inspection. Gov. Jay Nixon visited the middle school on the second day of classes to see the progress -- cool air is expected to be blowing into classrooms by the spring -- and tout the value of no-interest bonds. "These bonds are enabling school districts like Springfield to finance construction projects less expensively, while bondholders receive full return on their investment," Nixon said in prepared remarks. "And these projects are creating real jobs right here in the community, and helping to save energy as well." Early this year, 72 Missouri districts received more than $162 million in interest-free federal bonds from the state, made possible through the federal Recovery Act. The Qualified School Construction Bonds help school districts pay financing costs connected with projects paid for through voter-approved bonds. Districts had to compete for the help and Springfield was awarded a sizable chunk in part because voters had approved a $50 million bond issue -- to pay for air conditioning, construction, improvements and technology projects -- in November. The assistance will help Springfield save $5.5 million in interest over the life of the bond. "It helped us quite a bit," said Superintendent Norm Ridder. Ridder points out that by leveraging the federal Recovery Act funds, the district was able to request the bond issue without increasing taxes

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