As temperatures in Phoenix soared to 117 degrees Fahrenheit, or 47 degrees Celsius, in July 2026, children living there headed outside to walk to and from school, play during recess and suit up for baseball practice. These routines have long been part of the school day, but with a rising number of school districts in Arizona, as well as across the country, starting their academic year in mid-July or August, kids are spending more time at school during some of the hottest days of the year.

While a $720,000 settlement between the Boise School District and a teacher who claimed that she and her students experienced a mouse infestation in her classroom might typically be enough to grab attention, the settlement is generating headlines for more than the payout itself. The agreement also calls for a third-party inspection of the school building, raising broader concerns about whether students and educators are sometimes being asked to learn and work in unhealthy spaces.

While students and teachers have been on summer break, facilities crews have been working on more than 150 campus maintenance projects at Hawaiʻi’s public schools statewide. From flooring, roofing, air conditioning and pavement repairs to electrical, plumbing and painting improvements, the work is focused on extending the lifespan of school facilities while creating environments where students can focus on learning and achieve their academic goals. “Our buildings are about 62 years old on average so there’s a lot of repairs to be done and the summer provides a great opportunity to get work done that would impact students and allows us to get into spaces where they might be teaching during the regular school year,” Deputy Superintendent of Operations Jesse Souki said. “Summer provides a great opportunity and hopefully when students come back they’ll create accessible facilities that can help them excel.”

Teachers, students, and union leaders spoke up at an aldermanic meeting held at Wilbur Cross High School on Wednesday to condemn the state of school facilities in the city — and to question whether the district is really in need of another “master plan” to improve them. That discussion of what it might take to improve facilities, as well as what an improved and more transparent system might look like for addressing work orders, arose at Wednesday’s Board of Alders Education Committee meeting.

In the flurry of last-minute dealmaking to approve this year’s state budget, legislators tucked in eleventh-hour language that relaxes Pennsylvania’s rules for publicly reporting the results of lead tests on school drinking water. State law does not require schools to test for lead, as long as the topic is discussed at a public meeting annually. But if schools do test, they were previously required to report any finding above zero to the state so the results could be posted publicly.