Johnny Heredia expects to spend an upcoming summer digging up pipes at Chase Avenue Elementary School. As director of facilities, maintenance and operations for Cajon Valley Union School District, he’s the one called when sewage backs up into bathrooms or playgrounds. It happens often. Digging up the pipes, he acknowledges, would destroy the floors and sidewalks. But those need to be replaced anyway. While he’s at it, he could finally bring the bathrooms into compliance with disabilities law and maybe replace the floors’ terrazzo — it’s expensive, he acknowledges, but it lasts forever. “You’ve ruined the sidewalks, destroyed the sprinkler system and the grass — and then you start to get into structural issues, as you’re saw-cutting into other things just to replace the sewer system,” he said. “Even though the sewer system’s $1 million, you’ve done $2 million worth of damage.” If the East County school district could pass a bond, it could address some of these issues at its aging schools. But voters haven’t passed a facilities bond in nearly two decades, and since then, the district’s maintenance budget hasn’t been able to keep up with the needed repairs.

The Southington Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously endorsed a key step in advancing a proposed $86.7 million school facilities bond, sending a positive recommendation to the Southington Town Council following a March 17 meeting. The commission reviewed a mandatory 8-24 referral for a bond ordinance that would fund projects under the town’s Elementary Facilities Plan. The proposal includes the construction of a new Kelley Elementary School, renovations at South End Elementary School, and the eventual closure of Flanders Elementary School, with its building repurposed for municipal and community use. PZC member Todd Chaplinsky cited the town’s 2016 Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) in support of the proposal, reading language that anticipates long-term planning for school facilities and the possibility of consolidation if enrollment declines. “The Plan of Conservation and Development does not get involved in day-to-day operations of individual departments,” Chaplinsky said, quoting the document. “Rather, the plan seeks to identify potential community facility needs such as buildings and sites so that they can be anticipated and planned for.”  

San José’s school district will shutter five elementary schools and relocate another at the end of the year, despite pleas from parents and community members to halt the closure process. The school board voted three to two late Thursday night in favor of the consolidation plan, which will close Empire Gardens, Lowell, Gardner, Canoas and Terrell elementary schools and relocate Hammer Montessori to the Gardner campus at the end of the year. School Board Vice President Brian Wheatley and trustee Nicole Gribstad voted against the plan. “It would not be honest to suggest that a recommendation like this comes without loss. There is grief and change, especially when it touches schools and neighborhoods that people love,” Superintendent Nancy Albarrán said. “But there is also hope … the goal of this work is to create stronger, more stable, more resource school communities for students now and into the future.” SJUSD staff said it would alert families who will be affected by the closures on Friday and finalize students’ new school assignments by May 1. The closures come as districts across the Bay Area combat significant enrollment declines. San José Unified School District’s student population has shrunk 20% — a total of 6,000 students — since 2017.  

Fairfax County school leaders are exploring a bold, business-style strategy to tackle a growing infrastructure problem: selling naming rights to school facilities. Facing a staggering $400 million maintenance backlog, Fairfax County Public Schools may allow companies to sponsor stadiums, gyms, and other athletic facilities — similar to naming deals in professional sports.  The goal is to generate new revenue without raising taxes. 

An Arizona judge has ordered the state to fix its school facilities funding system, a decision that Crane School District says reinforces the state’s responsibility to adequately fund schools. The ruling, issued March 4, gives lawmakers eight months to create a constitutional funding system. It’s the result of a 2017 lawsuit brought forward by four plaintiff districts, including Crane. Last August, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dewain Fox initially determined the state of Arizona was inadequately providing for its public schools. The Arizona Constitution requires the state to establish and maintain a “general and uniform public school system.” In Glendale Elementary School District v. State of Arizona, plaintiffs successfully argued that the state’s capital funding model creates a divide between schools able to meet basic needs through stronger local tax bases and those that cannot. Following months of back-and-forth over the form of the ruling, Fox finalized his order with a permanent injunction requiring the state to fix its capital funding system for school buildings and facilities.