Burbio School Tracker 3/4: The Facilities Issue

1. Burbio's School Board Meeting Tracker captures and continually updates school board meetings across the PreK-12 school population, and clients use the information to understand district objectives. The charts below show the percentage of school districts that mention the referenced term at least once during the calendar 2024 year:

2. Below we look at a selection of term mentions by regions. For this analysis, the West consists of California, Oregon and Washington; the Northeast consists of states from Delaware through Maine plus Pennsylvania; the Midwest is Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana; and the Southeast is North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. We start with the frequency of references to HVAC: 

The next chart shows regional breakouts of mentions of either renovation, remodel or modernization:

Finally, the regional differences in discussion of mobile/portable classrooms:

3. Burbio has added School Bonds as part of our PreK-12 Intelligence Hub. School bond information is available via a sortable dashboard, a searchable keyword map, and as part of each District Profile. Burbio's bond dataset features such elements as bond amount, coverage summary, vote date, approval status, document links, and more. Construction and facilities are the major component of school bonds. Here are some recent examples from across the country: 

• Durango School District, CO recently passed a $150 million bond that includes a new elementary school, replacing classroom furniture and equipment, energy efficiency products, a new CTE center, and more.
• Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District, NJ recently passed a $115 million bond; the largest spending element is HVAC, followed by roofing, safety and security, and interior renovation.
• Amphitheater Public Schools, AZ, passed an $84 million bond that includes playground and athletic facility improvements across the district, CTE & STEM classroom improvements, and safety and security upgrades.
• Community Unit School District 200, IL, passed a $152 million bond that includes upgrades to multiple library learning centers, a performing arts wing, STEM-related classroom upgrades, extensive classroom renovations, safety and security upgrades and more.
• In a more straightforward district initiative, Trumbell Public Schools, CT, passed a $142 million bond for a brand new middle school covering over 145,000 square feet and designed to host over 800 students. 

4.  Burbio's State-Level Funding Tracker features state-specific grants for PreK-12 schools offered by all state agencies and departments, as well as Federal grants where states can tailor the criteria. Burbio has identified over 1,500 grants, and the database is growing daily. Facilities, HVAC and green energy grants cover well over $10 billion of spending. Suppliers use the grant database to alert districts to the opportunities shortly after they are announced.    

• The Iowa Charter Start Up Grant Opportunity is to be used for one-time costs and infrastructure needs and awards up to $500,000 per grantee.
• Minnesota's Multi-Purpose Community Facility Projects Grant offers between $200,000 and $500,000 and is available to family resource centers, full-service community schools, libraries, childcare and early learning facilities, and community centers.
• In Massachusetts the Accelerated Repair Program "is intended for roofs, windows/doors, and heat pump conversions in existing school facilities."
• In Pennsylvania, the Solar For Schools Grant Program "will aid in the purchase and installation of equipment, permit fees, energy storage, and utility interconnection" for solar energy projects.
• In Wyoming a school energy retrofit program provides up to $50,000 "to any public school in Wyoming that is looking to complete approved energy efficiency retrofits."