Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Climate Resilient Schools Act Moves Forward in California Senate

  • By Matt Jones
  • 08/19/24

California Senate Bill 1182, the Climate Resilient Schools Act, recently passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and will now face a vote on the Assembly Floor, according to a news release. The bill by Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez will mandate the California Energy Commission to coordinate state agencies to create a comprehensive master plan to balance school facility funding with the state’s decarbonization, heat mitigation, and climate adaption goals.

“Students and their families deserve schools that offer a quality learning environment. With severe weather becoming more frequent in recent years due to climate change that also means updating our school facilities to handle these growing challenges,” said Senator Lena Gonzalez. “I am thankful to the incredible organizations and community leaders who have helped us get this far, and I urge my Assembly colleagues for their support on the Assembly Floor for the Climate Resilient Schools Act so that we can help prepare our schools for the future.”

The bill’s goal is to ensure that schools—and their budgets—are ready to face potential climate-related threats like extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke, and more. The news release reports that billions of dollars in federal money from the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and a potential School Facilities Bond to be passed in November are currently available.

“We need a plan to ensure our schools are better prepared for smoke days, extreme heat, potential airborne illness, and other environmental challenges we are experiencing. I’m glad to see SB 1182 come off suspense and head to the Assembly Floor,” said Jeff Freitas, President of the California Federation of Teachers union.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Colorado School District Breaks Ground on Unified PK–12 Campus

    The Haxtun School District No. Re-2J in Haxtun, Colo., recently announced that ground has been broken on a renovation/addition project that will unite its two schools, Haxtun Elementary and Haxtun Jr/Sr High School, according to a news release.

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • Montclair State University Starts Construction on $120M STEM Building

    Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., recently broke ground on a new $120-million Interdisciplinary Science Building, according to university news. The university partnered with HoK Architects for the project’s design, and it’s scheduled to open in time for the 2028–29 academic year.