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University
of Maryland College Park
Office of Executive
Programs |
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Newswire Week2-7(10/05-11/17) |
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LOCAL |
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D.C. Schools Get a Lesson
In Economics The Washington Post -
October 3, 2002 Thursday http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29941-2002Oct1.html |
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Renovations
of two District of Columbia schools have run about triple the amounts
originally budgeted, concerning school advocates and administrators. Randle
Highlands Elementary in Southeast DC cost $21.6 million in construction,
though project estimates were $7.7 million two years ago. Although the Army
Corps of Engineers, which oversees DC school construction, claims the costs
are reasonable, recent DC school construction cost $220 to $269 per square
foot while schools in neighboring Prince William county cost $157 per square
foot to build. Officials are concerned that this trend will hamper plans to
renovate all 143 DC schools. |
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D.C.
School Cuts to Avoid Closings and Furloughs The Washington Post -
October 10, 2002 Thursday http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3529-2002Oct9.html |
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The
District school board voted yesterday to trim its budget by $30.2 million
without closing schools, furloughing employees or cutting early childhood
programs, despite earlier warnings by some board members that they might have
to take such steps if forced to reduce spending. The board would transfer
$8.4 million in technology expenses from its operating budget to its capital
budget, leaving less money for school construction and modernization, and
McKinley would open in the fall of 2004 instead of 2003. |
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Lessons in enduring neglect The Baltimore Sun - October 11, 2002 Friday |
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School: At cramped Featherbed
Elementary, education defies dilapidation and patchwork fixes. Featherbed Lane Elementary is one of
Baltimore County's most dispiriting public school buildings, so short of
space that sometimes gym classes take place in the front lobby and tutoring
goes on in the halls. Things won't change anytime soon, either. In the school
system's budget proposal for next fiscal year, there is money to repair the
kitchen exhaust systems, renovate science laboratories and build additions at
various schools. But again, there is no money for fixing up Featherbed Lane. |
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School board adds to budget The Baltimore Sun - October 16, 2002 Wednesday http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/howard/bal-ho.schools16oct16.story |
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At last night's Howard County Board of Education meeting, during which
members theoretically granted the wishes of those begging for new schools by
tacking an additional $8 million onto the already staggering $78.4 million in
the proposed capital budget for fiscal year 2004. The additional money would
be needed to fund an array of building projects that the board discussed at
the meeting. |
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Answers to questions never
asked about Bedford county school _
Editorial The Roanoke Times - October 19, 2002 Sunday |
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The News and Daily
Advance in Lynchburg has detailed the high cost of the two newest elementary
schools, Goodview and Thomas Jefferson. Comparisons between the cost of these
two schools ($99 per square foot) and Campbell County's Rustburg Elementary
($72 per square foot) were made. All of these schools were built at the same
time. Had your editorial writer
tried, he could have obtained the yearly reports published by the Virginia
Department of Education that list new school
construction costs per square foot. By reviewing these reports, he
would have known that Bedford County has spent more per square foot for new
construction than any school system in Virginia time and again over the past
decade. |
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Plan could save $30M on schools The Capital (Annapolis,
MD) - October 31, 2002 Thursday http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/live/10_31-49/TOP |
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School
officials could save up to $30 million over the next five years if they
follow a series of cost-cutting measures, according to a report released
yesterday by a panel studying school
construction spending. -
Assign a school system employee to ensure that each building project
has an economical design. -
Create a committee of construction pros to help assess reasonable
costs during the design and development phases. Choose architects who already
have a proven track record in low-cost techniques. -
Change board policy to allow a purchasing agent to approve contracts
instead of the full board, speeding up the bidding process. -
Lobby the General Assembly to give the county financial incentives for
building cost-saving schools. |
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Schools ask state for share of costs; No commitment made
by area legislators Roanoke Times - November 7, 2002 Thursday |
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For too long in Virginia,
cities and counties have paid the bulk of the cost for building and
renovating schools with little help from the state, Salem Superintendent
Wayne Tripp said Wednesday night. |
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NATIONAL |
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Democrats propose spending plans The Washington Times - October 16, 2002, Wednesday |
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Democratic leaders
yesterday escalated their attacks on President Bush's economic policies,
proposing massive new government spending that Republicans scorned as
election-year "snake oil" that would do nothing to spur faster
growth and job creation. In back-to-back speeches,
House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt and Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle offered five-point, "pump-priming" economic plans that
called for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending for school construction and health
care, a higher $6.65 minimum wage, extended unemployment benefits, and
short-term, targeted tax cuts for low- and middle-income workers - whether
they pay income taxes or not. Mr. Gephardt's $200
billion spending plan was similar to Mr. Daschle's in many respects but went
on to call for increased spending for a variety of domestic initiatives,
including school construction
and aid to localities for police, firefighters and public health workers. |
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ACROSS THE NATION |
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Florida |
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Bush school-building
plan relies on disputed tax increase The Miami Herald -
September 23, 2002, Monday http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2002/09/21/news/state/4118580.htm |
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Florida politicians are
divided over the way to reduce the state's large class sizes and reliance on
portable classrooms due to school-overcrowding. Florida Governor Jeb Bush
prefers to fund a $2.8 billion bond with sales taxes generated by a controversial
new tax on cable TV subscriptions, while others support a statewide
referendum to reduce public school class size by rolling back obscure
industry sales tax exemptions for adult escort services or ostrich feed. In
any case, state economists estimate the funding school construction will cost
between $6.7 and $10.3 billion over the next 8 years, far below the current
administration's $2.8 bond goal. |
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New
Jersey |
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N.J. Gets
down to business with school repairs Governing Magazine -
October, 2002, Wednesday |
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New Jersey is counting on a new public corporation to speed up sorely needed school financing and construction--and end the bureaucratic tangle that was tripping up school districts trying to make improvements or build new facilities. |
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Ohio |
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Bond issue tough sell for Dayton schools; officials push
hard to win voters' OK Dayton Daily News -
October 6, 2002 Sunday http://library.activedayton.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=3da7015f51e0Mpqaweb1P11012&doc=document.
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With a month remaining
before Election Day, city school officials are fighting an uphill battle to
persuade doubters that voting for a school bond issue will pay off. City
school board members have touted the potential positive impact of their
10-year, $627 million school
construction project - new jobs, neighborhood redevelopment,
higher property values - in public meetings, at events and one on one with
residents. But Dayton City Commissioner Richard Zimmer remains skeptical.
Zimmer said he worries about the cost, especially for older district
residents, and wonders whether the project can make good on all it's said to
be worth. |
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Wisconsin |
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Lawmaker prepares
proposal for reform The Post Crescent -
October 6, 2002 Sunday http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_6398390.shtml |
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State Sen. Michael Ellis, R-Neenah, will
unveil a plan this week for restructuring state financing of public schools
by using current spending levels as the barometer. He said it would require
new building plans to be reviewed by a state panel that would determine
essential areas to be financed by state money. Costs deemed not essential
would be placed on local property tax rolls. Ellis also would replace current
two-thirds state funding of school building projects with a need-based
formula. |
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Massachusetts |
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Waltham moves up school
reimbursement queue the Daily News Tribune -
October 8, 2002 Tuesday http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walt_reimbursement10082002.htm |
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A council resolution to stall school construction
for three years was set aside last night, with the news that Waltham could
start seeing reimbursements as early as within seven years. Four schools have
dropped off the state's 90 percent reimbursement list moving Waltham toward
the top and giving strength to City Council arguments last night for moving
ahead with the eight-school reconstruction project as planned. |
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Alaska |
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Proposition would help improve urban and rural
schools KTVA - October 9, 2002
Wednesday http://www.ktva.com/Stories/0,1413,163%257E6883%257E914435,00.html |
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A
proposition on the November general ballot asks voters to approve spending
nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on education. Proposition
C is a massive school maintenance and construction bond, one that could help
end the bitter political debate over money for rural schools and save
Anchorage taxpayers at least one hundred million dollars. |
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Alaska |
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Valley HS funding
hinges on statewide voter OK The
Juneau Empire -
October 10, 2002, Thursday http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/101002/loc_bondissue.shtml |
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A new Mendenhall Valley
high school could be on the horizon for Juneau if a statewide school construction
and maintenance bond measure is approved by voters in the Nov. 5 general
election. The city would be reimbursed up to 70 percent of the cost of
construction of the school if the measure is approved. |
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Pennsylvania |
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Preapproved school plans
bring savings The Columbus Public
Opinion - October 10, 2002 Thursday http://www.publicopiniononline.com/news/stories/20021010/opinion/261186.html |
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School board members must make tough
decisions on building plans and long-term financing mechanisms, areas in
which most members have little experience or expertise. Taxpayers, especially
those on fixed incomes, worry about being saddled with years of higher taxes
to pay for the buildings and their operation. Unpleasant and costly surprises
pop up, such as the prohibitive cost of the design of the new Scotland
Elementary School. Building projects grow ever more costly as time passes. |
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Pennsylvania |
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Group wants Pennsylvania to ante up for public schools Doylestown Intelligencer-
October 11, 2002 Friday http://www.phillyburbs.com/intelligencerrecord/article2.asp?F_num=1712362 |
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Good
Schools Pennsylvania urged the Legislature to raise state funding to 50
percent. It noted poorer districts have lower test scores. Poorer suburban school
districts often have less money to spend on students than wealthier school
districts, and that translates into lower scores on state and national
achievement tests, according to a report released by Philadelphia-based Good
Schools Pennsylvania. |
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Ohio |
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School district's negotiated bond deal makes sense this
time; but future offerings may need to be put out for bids The Plain Dealer -
October 12, 2002 Saturday - editorials |
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Cleveland taxpayers
appear to have scored a bargain with city schools' first bond sale related to
a $1.5 billion school construction
project. The district's poor
management of past construction money long has been a sore point. In the
1980s, taxpayers saw millions of dollars approved for school building work
redirected to patronage hires and other unplanned expenditures. More
recently, the district wasted millions on excess interest charges and
questionable expenses for 1990s bond issues. When voters approved the
schools' most recent issue in May 2001, they accepted officials' promises
that the dollars would go to proper needs. |
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Massachusetts |
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$1.7M sought for school projects; Overrides would pay for
designs, expansion The Patriot Ledger -
October 12, 2002 Saturday http://ledger.southofboston.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/October/12-1633-news11.txt |
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Backers of two school construction projects will push at the special town meeting Thursday for the approval of design fees to pay for the projects' building plans. Supporters say approval of the design fees will allow the town to submit the paperwork needed to secure its place in the state reimbursement list by the June 1, 2003, deadline. The projects would also have to be approved by voters in May at town meeting and a subsequent town election. |
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New York |
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New Federal Funds
Proposed for School Upgrades Schoolconstructionnews.com
- October, 2002 http://www.schoolconstructionnews.com/newsflash/printCurrent.html#new |
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Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is stepping up her campaign for a bill
that would provide grants to states that would then make low-interest loans
that municipalities could use to build and repair schools. The proposed
legislation requires that the state provide a 25 percent match for federal
money. The senator's office estimated that the measure would provide $12.5
million a year in federal aid for each state, responding to a survey showing
that 83 percent of the districts in the state cannot afford to pay for school
maintenance and renovations. |
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Wisconsin |
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Fewer Bonds in Wisconsin
May Signal Good News Schoolconstructionnews.com
- October, 2002 http://www.schoolconstructionnews.com/newsflash/printCurrent.html#fewer |
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School construction may finally have
caught up with demand in Wisconsin. A recent survey by the non-partisan
Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance shows the amount of money requested in 2001 by
the state voters The group studied the state's school referendums dating back
to 1991 and discovered that last year's amounts voters approved $351 million
the state requested $1.2 billion and voters approved $653 million. The
alliance says the decline may signal good news by indicating the state has
succeeded in addressing its most critical school construction needs. It also
was noted that a downturn in the economy and higher school taxes might play |
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Arizona |
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Cut of school building funds illegal, judge rules Arizona Daily Sun –
October 18, 2002 Friday http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=51073 |
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State
lawmakers illegally diverted $90 million in funds for school building renewal
to balance this year's budget, a state judge has ruled. Maricopa County Superior Court
Judge Edward Burke said lawmakers created a new system of funding schools to
comply with a 1994 Supreme Court ruling. That system included a formula to
provide schools with sufficient funds each year to keep buildings repaired.
But to balance this year's budget, lawmakers provided less than $30 million
for those repairs -- far short of the $128 million required by their own
formula. That decision, said Burke, makes the school funding scheme
unconstitutional. |
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Iowa |
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Council
supports school tax; Increase: Members praise the board's long-term plan The Telegraph Herald - October 24, 2002 Thursday |
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The Dubuque City Council this week became the
latest group to throw its support behind a 1 percent sales tax increase that
would fund school construction
and improvements. Dubuque County voters will decide the fate of the
school sales tax on Dec. 10. The measure would raise an estimated $80 million
over 10 years for the Dubuque Community School District and another $20
million over 10 years for the Western Dubuque School District. The money must
be used for school infrastructure. |
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Massachusetts |
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School plans are tough sell officials argue case
for $28m debt exclusion The Boston Globe - October 20, 2002, Sunday |
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Low interest rates and a favorable time for construction projects are among the arguments proponents are offering in support of the $28 million school construction proposal that will go before voters on Nov. 5. |
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Ohio |
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Backers of sales tax face tough sell The Associated Press State & Local Wire - October
21, 2002, Monday |
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Backers of a sales tax
that would raise an estimated $30 million a year for school construction in Summit County will spend $500,000 in
their uphill campaign to pass the tax. The issue is particularly
urgent for Akron Public Schools, which wants to begin a $774 million school construction project. The
district first must secure $284 million in local money to get the remaining
money from the state. |
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California |
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School construction overseers face obstacles The Columbus Dispatch - October 20, 2002 Sunday |
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Los Angeles
voters approved a $2.4 billion school-improvement bond issue in 1997 after
the school district created a panel to ensure accountability. |
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Tennessee |
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No denying county need
for school expansion – ¡®overdue,¡¯ says Wharton, but ¡®How do we pay for it?¡¯ The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) - October 26, 2002 Saturday |
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Although several county
commissioners see merit in a $48 million plan to build a high school in
Arlington and expand Houston High, they have no idea how the projects will be
funded. The Shelby County Board
of Education will ask the commission to pay for the projects, saying both are
crucial to easing the crowding in county schools. The Arlington school is
expected to cost $45 million while an expansion to accommodate 500 students
at Houston is estimated at $3 million. The Houston expansion would allow the
controversial transfer of students from crowded Germantown High. The
Arlington school would alleviate crowding by drawing its 2,000 students from
the northern section of the Houston High zone, the eastern section of Cordova
High's zone and the southern section of Bolton High's zone. However, using the
state-mandated average daily attendance (ADA) formula, the county would have
to borrow an "astronomical" $173 million, according to county
schools director of communications Mike Tebbe. The state formula
requires that the county raise nearly four times the actual cost of a school
project, with more than 72 percent going to the city school system. |
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Tennessee |
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Needed : A new way to pay
for new schools The
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) - October 30, 2002 Wednesday _ Editorial |
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The work is not easy, and
it's done without pay. But the architects of a new funding proposal for
public school construction
in Memphis and Shelby County need to return to the task, quickly. They will
need cooperation and ideas from the city and county school boards, the City
Council, the County Commission, the local legislative delegation and anyone
else in this community with an interest in public education. The urgency soon will
become clear, when the Shelby County Board of Education asks county
commissioners for construction funding of as much as $48 million. To fulfill
that request under current conditions, the commission also would have to
allocate about three times that amount to the Memphis City Schools. By state
law, school construction funds are
distributed according to a formula based on the average daily pupil
attendance of the city and county districts. Since Memphis has nearly three
times as many students as Shelby County, it gets three times the money. Concern over the law and
its effect on Shelby County's rapidly rising public debt led Memphis Mayor
Willie Herenton to create a task force on school funding. The task force
developed a new funding proposal, but has had difficulty getting all affected
parties to sign on. Now the county school
board plans to build a $45 million high school in northeast Shelby County. It
also is likely to seek $3 million for an addition to Houston High that would
be filled by students who now live in the southernmost part of the Germantown
High School attendance area. County Schools Supt.
Bobby Webb says both facilities are desperately needed. According to
projections, the number of high school students in the county system could
hit 16,000 - about 3,000 over the system's current capacity - in five years. |
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Illinois |
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Edwardsville group says school district gets enough tax
revenue : but officials say cuts will be necessary if referendum fails St. Louis Post-Dispatch -
October 30, 2002 Wednesday |
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The Edwardsville School District gets enough tax revenue and should use its reserve funds if necessary to staff a new middle school, say members of a group opposing a tax-increase referendum on the ballot Tuesday. |
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California |
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View split on bonds; Many back prop.47, but can we afford
it? The Daily News of Los
Angeles – October 28, 2002 Monday http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E20949%257E953170,00.html |
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Local school districts
are lauding Proposition 47, a school construction bond on the Nov. 5 ballot
that would provide nearly $250 million for school construction and repair in
the Santa Clarita Valley, but opponents say the state doesn't have the money.
Santa Clarita Valley
school and city officials are rallying for the $13 billion state bond that
would fund approved construction and renovation backlog projects for
critically overcrowded schools. |
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Massachusetts |
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State aid cuts may jeopardize school project The Boston Globe –
October 31, 2002, Thursday |
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A potential cut in state
aid to school construction casts a shadow over a proposed renovation of
Berlin and Boylston's secondary school two days before the first vote on the
plan. The regional School
Committee held an emergency meeting Monday night following news that state
officials are considering paying a smaller share of local school building
project costs. But committee members decided against withdrawing the $16.5
million renovation of the Tahanto Regional Middle-High School from
consideration at Saturday's Special Town Meeting in Boylston - the first
hurdle the project must clear. "It looks
like it's going to be on the town's shoulders," said Judy Booman,
cochairwoman of the Berlin Finance Committee, who along with other financial
officials argued against going ahead with the plans at this time. The state Department of
Education has filed legislation to cut the base number used in calculating
reimbursement by 10 percent. If state
lawmakers support the change, the projected reimbursement for Berlin and
Boylston would drop from about 62 percent to about 52 percent, said John Kidder,
chairman of the building committee. |
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New York |
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An Overhaul In Building Of Schools The New York Times –
November 1, 2002, Friday |
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Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg announced yesterday that he would overhaul the byzantine system of
building schools in New York City by merging the two agencies responsible for
construction, cutting 600 jobs in the process. |
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Massachusetts |
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School project funding outlook dims; Legislature asked to
alter reimbursement formula The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, MA) – November 8, 2002 Friday |
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Dwindling state aid for local
school building projects could dry up even further next year. |
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New York |
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Students to feel the squeeze The New York Post – November
8, 2002, Friday |
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Cost overruns and budget cuts have
wiped out nearly one-third of the 60,000 school seats expected to be built
through 2004 to relieve overcrowding, according to a report released
yesterday. |
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Idaho |
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Idaho's
school saga resumes; Hearing this week is latest in effort by school
districts to force Legislature to fund building construction Lewiston Morning Tribune – November 10, 2002 Sunday |
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The attempt by 16 Idaho school
districts to show there are ways the Idaho Legislature could fund school
building construction if it had the will to returns to a Boise courtroom this
week. |
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Washington |
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Judge
may order school-building study; Action could be taken with an eye toward
ordering repairs The Spokesman-Review
(Spokane, WA) –
November 13, 2002 Wednesday http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=111302&ID=s1252263 |
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An Idaho judge is considering
ordering a $375,000 assessment of every problem school building in the state,
with an eye toward ordering repairs. |