A study in two South Korean high schools found that window ventilation reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 55%, while the use of an air purifier shrank the risk by 50%. The combination of the two dropped the risk by nearly three-quarters (73%). Researchers from the Infrastructure Safety department at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) said the use of the air-purifying device worked best when it was placed in the middle of the room, which was sized to hold about 25 students.
At its meeting in early March, the Sheridan County School District 2 in Sheridan, Wyo., awarded a bid for new bleachers to Tutt Construction Inc. of Billings, Mont. The total bid for the project, including delivery and installation of the new bleachers at Sheridan High School, was $147,000.
Burlington High School, located in Burlington, Vt., has reopened its doors—on a slightly unconventional new campus. After a whirlwind 10-week renovation process, the downtown Cherry Street building that formerly served as a Macy’s department store is now ready to welcome BHS students and faculty to their new home.
The Ann Arbor School Board in Ann Arbor, Mich., approved $63 million in funding for air conditioning and lighting renovations at 13 schools in the district, as well as contracts for future architectural and engineering projects.
Federal energy regulators have given Oregon State University permission to move forward with PacWave South, an offshore wave energy testing facility.
Many universities around the country have designated certain campus residence halls as temporary housing for students in coronavirus-related quarantine or isolation. And some universities are starting to see these spaces fill up quickly.
The Mohawk Group has announced the expansion of its Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) line, Living Local, with four new styles.
The Encore Theatre Company, a nonprofit theater group in Dexter, Mich., is raising money to renovate its new performance space—a historic school building downtown.
The school board of the New Trier High School Winnetka campus, located in Winnetka, Ill., has unanimously approved plans to construct a new gymnasium. The $75 million project involves demolishing the existing gym, which was built in 1928, and replacing it with a new, state-of-the-art facility better suited for the school’s current size and athletics programs.
The Bibb County School District in Macon, Ga., announced in a press release that it will be adding needlepoint bi-polar ionization devices to the HVAC systems in each of its schools.
Austin Independent School District (AISD) officials in Austin, Texas, spent last week walking through schools and surveying the aftermath of the recent wave of winter storms. The verdict: Ninety of the district’s 130 schools were affected, and the total damage is estimated at about $15 million.
Quadient has become the second-largest provider of parcel locker solutions worldwide after it reached 13,000 installation sites and more than 600,000 lockers overall during FY2020. During the first nine months of the fiscal year, which ended on Jan. 31, 2021, the company reported a 78% increase in the number of packages delivered to its smart lockers.
The University of Toledo just received a five-year, $12.5 million grant from the U.S. Air Force to develop flexible solar cell sheets for space. The photovoltaic energy sheets will be used to collect solar energy for powering Earth-based receivers or other orbital or aerial instrumentation, such as communications satellites.
The Office of the New York State Comptroller has completed audits on three school districts in the state. The audits uncovered that the districts have neglected to follow some crucial cybersecurity policies, leaving them potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks.
One of the only remaining components of the $18 million Oakwood City Schools renovation project in Dayton, Ohio, is the installation of a brand-new HVAC system for the high school/junior high building. Currently, about half of the 97-year-old building is running on a new system, and the other half still uses an outdated, steam-heated network, according to school district Operations Coordinator Todd Scott.
The Porterville Unified School District (PUSD), located in Tulare County, California, recently placed an order for six new electric school buses. During its Board of Education meeting on Jan. 28, the district also approved plans to install six new electric charging stations.
One of the primary concerns in reopening schools is being able to ensure proper social distancing between students.Guidance from the CDC suggests setting up physical barriers like partitions and sneeze guards in areas where spacing people out remains impractical. Building off of that idea, LumAware recently released a series of desk guards customized for use in the classroom.
Daytona State College’s Palm Coast campus is set to begin a $4.2-million renovation project that will allow it to expand its nursing program. The college has partnered with DLR Group and Charles Perry Partners, Inc., on the construction that will create teaching facilities to fit an additional 90 nursing students.
Mohawk Group, a producer and distributor of commercial flooring, announced in a press release that all of its design studios and commercial showrooms are set to receive a WELL Health-Safety Rating, as determined by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). Mohawk is among the first flooring manufacturers to meet this standard.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville has received approval from the state to erect a 2.4-megawatt solar array on its campus. According to the university, this will be the largest solar array owned by a Wisconsin state agency and will make the campus the sixth-highest on-site producer of renewable energy in the country among institutions of higher education.
Faulkner University in Alabama is creating a new College of Health Sciences out of a former Burlington Coat Factory building. The work began last summer, after university President Mike Williams announced the planned conversion of a 13-acre shopping center and the empty Burlington building into a facility that would house all of Faulkner’s health science programs.