I used to teach high school science in Oklahoma, and one day I brought in a stalk from a cotton plant with bolls of cotton still attached. Students asked me why I glued cotton balls to a stick. My students and I lived in a rural town surrounded by pastures of cattle and goats and fields of wheat, soybeans and cotton. I was amazed to learn how little my students understood agriculture. After a few related incidents, I started incorporating agriculture into my science classes. When the United States was formed, about 80% of the population lived and worked on farms. Within a century the number had fallen to 40%. Today, less than 2% of the population lives on farms. When most Americans lived on farms, agriculture was part of daily life. Most kids did farm chores, and planting and harvest seasons dictated the schedule of the school year. Today, most Americans are several generations removed from agriculture, and agriculture is seen as a career instead of a part of daily life. As an agricultural extension specialist focused on horticulture, I’ve found that gardens can be an excellent teaching tool. By integrating gardens into schools, students can grow up learning about agriculture and the food systems that shape their daily lives. Many researchers have cataloged the benefits of school gardens, and they go far beyond seeing how food grows.

School closures are an incendiary issue in nearly every corner of California, as enrollment declines and expenses climb. The topic has sparked parent revolts, teacher strikes and school boards’ desperate attempts to keep districts financially afloat. And then there’s Orick. The picturesque town in northern Humboldt County has a historic school with five classrooms, a gym, a vegetable garden and an expansive play field. Its current enrollment: nine. Its expenses: $118,000 per student per year, more than five times the state average.  California has dozens of school districts with enrollments under 100 and higher-than-average expenses. Most of these districts are in remote areas miles from the next nearest school. But as urban districts grapple with the threat of school closures and the inevitable backlash from families and staff, rural schools face an even more heart-wrenching scenario: close the school and decimate the town. “Close the school? It comes up all the time,” said Orick Elementary School District Superintendent Justin Wallace. “But I’d say it’s an equity issue. We have families who can’t afford a lot, and this school provides the most consistent setting for our kids. They’re safe, they’re well fed, they’re learning.”

A new Ohio bill that would make changes to how and to whom school districts can use or sell school facilities received some criticism in a Senate committee this week, and major education unions asked for changes to the overall bill. Ohio Senate Bill 311 changes several things related to school districts in Ohio, from cracking down on so-called “cheating resources” – services or organizations who advertise services “with the intention of assisting a learner to cheat” on exams or assignments – to truancy enforcement and educator licensure regulations. One particular provision of the bill received attention in the Senate Education Committee this week, as the the superintendent of Canton City Schools asked the committee to leave control of the disposal of school district property in the hands of local districts, rather than creating further state mandates around it. The bill revises current state law on the disposition of school district property, specifying that a school district must sell an “unused school facility” at “the appraised fair market value as an educational facility,” and adds chartered private schools to the list of schools a district must offer its unused facilities before moving outside the district for sale.

The School District of Philadelphia has again revised its plan for closing, merging and investing in school facilities over the next 10 years. An updated plan released Monday reduces the number of proposed school closures to 17, sparing James R. Ludlow Elementary School. The latest version of the plan, which Superintendent Tony Watlington referred to as the “final, final” plan on a call with reporters Monday, would retain the Paul Robeson High School and Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School properties, but both schools are still slated for closure. The district would seek community feedback on future uses for the Robeson property, which could include demolishing the building and reimagining another school on the property, Watlington said, and would convert the Lankenau property into an environmental education center for students across the district. The changes boost the plan’s price tag from $2.8 billion to $3 billion, with the school district planning to borrow $1 billion through capital bonds. The school district plans to seek additional support from the state government and philanthropic organizations to cover the remaining costs.

The New Haven Public Schools may soon employ its own staff to help with managing the district’s facilities. Since 2022, the district has outsourced the work of taking care of its facilities to a contractor. However, Paul Whyte, the district’s chief of school operations, told the Board of Education that this has brought some challenges, which prompted the idea of the district hiring its own staff to do the work.  “We’re looking at this as an opportunity to create more flexible services and particularly increase internal oversight, where we have people working very hard and working within our system,” he said at the board’s meeting on Monday.