New Construction
The five-year capital improvement plan for Lake County Schools, located in Tavares, Fla., includes $65 million in new and expanded schools, as well as $106.7 million in school renovation and modernization work. The plan covers planned projects between 2021 and 2025.
New Construction
Missouri State University broke ground recently on a new, $6.4-million amphitheater and arts park. The open-air John Goodman Amphitheatre, named after the St. Louis alum and famous comedian, will feature a permanent stage and 350 removeable seats.
Sustainability
Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C., recently announced a partnership with ENGIE North America to promote sustainability and energy conservation. ENGIE will manage the university’s utility system in an effort to help it achieve its sustainability goals.
New Construction
The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) held a groundbreaking ceremony last week for the new $40-million student services building at Los Angeles Mission College. The event, which was livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook on Thursday, April 15, was the first in-person event for LACCD since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
New Construction
The University of Massachusetts Medical School, located in Worcester, Mass., unveiled the design this week for its new, $325-million therapeutics research and lab center. The New Education and Research Building, measuring in at 350,000 square feet, was designed by architecture firms ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge and ZGF.
New Construction
At the Hamilton County School Board meeting last week in Chattanooga, Tenn., the board donated an out-of-use school building for potential use as a partial-day construction school for high-school students.
Campus Renovation
Our single-story school building was built in the 1970s and has been added onto and modified many times over the years. When it came time to give it yet another overhaul last year, the goal was to create a modern, collaborative learning environment that supported group work, Socratic seminars, fishbowl meetings, and STEM learners. We simply couldn’t check off all of these boxes using our existing footprint, so we started looking at how we could modify the space
Campus Renovations
The Winifred School, part of Winifred Public Schools in Winifred, Mont., is set to receive a series of high-tech upgrades and renovations that would double the school’s original size. Upgrades to the K–12 school will include lab spaces, a woodworking area, an agricultural science space, a car repair space, and a full-size gym featuring an indoor track.
New Construction
Construction on a new middle/high school has begun in the Denver Community School District in Denver, Colo. The new facility will relieve space and capacity issues at the district’s existing school buildings, as its elementary, middle, and high schools currently share a single campus.
School Funding
This week, the West Virginia School Building Authority (SBA) approved just under $75 million in “Needs Grants” for school construction projects in seven counties. SBA members selected the recipients from a list of proposed projects in 30 counties totaling $248 million.
New Construction
The Hermiston School District, located in Hermiston, Ore., celebrated the groundbreaking of two new elementary schools last week. One replacement facility and one new facility are both set to open in the Eastern Oregon district in 2022.
Campus Security
IP surveillance solutions provider VIVOTEK has released an update to its VAST 2 IP Video Management Software.
COVID-19 and Schools
Among the three relief packages passed by Congress since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vermont schools and the state’s Agency of Education have received a total of $566 million in federal funding. About $100 million has already been put toward reopening schools, retrofitting buildings for social distancing purposes, upgrading HVAC systems, and other ancillary expenses like hand sanitizer.
COVID-19 and Schools
Rapid Dx Laboratory has announced a partnership with Concentric by Ginkgo to provide pooled COVID-19 testing to K–12 schools in both in-person and hybrid learning environments.
New Construction
Officials in the Seminole County School District, headquartered in Donalsonville, Ga., recently announced a proposal to build a new, all-inclusive, PreK-through-12 school facility. They attribute the need for a new building to the age of current facilities and continuing repairs to buildings damaged by Hurricane Michael, among others.
Campus Energy
Stevens Institute of Technology has announced that it intends to fill all of its electricity needs from local renewable energy sources by October 2021.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/14/21
Campus Facilities
George Mason University, located in Fairfax, Va., recently saw the installation of a new, 2.5-million-gallon water tank.
Campus Facilities
The University of Maryland is a strategic partner of the Techport @ The Airport, a business incubator designed to encourage transfer of technologies developed by the military into the commercial sector. The Incubator provides opportunities for students to gain real world experience and supports programs of the University’s Division of Research and James Clark School of Engineering.
COVID-19 and Schools
A new global education recovery tracker project developed by Johns Hopkins University's eSchool+ Initiative, the World Bank and UNICEF reveals the progress of schools around the world in the fight against COVID-19.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/14/21
Campus Technology
An Illinois district has installed a $300,000 private LTE network to deliver internet connectivity to students. Collinsville Community Unit School District #10 worked with IT solutions provider STEPcg to address the needs of about 500 students in the area.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/14/21
Cybersecurity
A cyberattack forced a Massachusetts school district to close for a day, just as kids were about to return to the classroom, and then revert to remote learning for most grades. Haverhill Public Schools made a public announcement when the district computer system was hit with a ransomware attack.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/14/21