After two years of school closures, mask and vaccine requirements, and other hotly contested pandemic measures, voters may be closely scrutinizing school board races in the midterm elections this year. A conservative political action committee, Reform California, is taking advantage of that, recruiting candidates to run for school boards throughout San Diego County. Reform California…
Monthly Archives: March 2022
In a recent case, the CA Court of Appeal held that school administrators may breach a duty to protect students from sexual abuse by district employees by failing to take reasonable measures to prevent abuse, even if the school does not have actual knowledge of the employee’s history of committing, or propensity to commit, sexual…
Arun K. Ramanathan is the CEO of Pivot Learning, an Oakland-based nonprofit that works to raise academic achievement in public schools. People think school board meetings are dull affairs knee-deep in educational jargon. Much of the time, that is true. But every now and then, they transform into the theater of the absurd. I once…
In the last round of the American Rescue Plan, Congress appropriated $122 billion for K-12 and all but left it up to states and school districts to decide how to spend it. Three national education nonprofits have teamed up to identify promising and innovative practices that “have the potential to help schools recover stronger and…
With President Joe Biden’s major education spending proposals for high-poverty schools and students with disabilities left out of this year’s federal budget, some advocates are already shifting their attention to next year’s cycle. But with even Biden concerned that Republicans could take control of the House — and Congress increasingly unable to pass an annual…
Comprehensive report identifies potential sites, provides a how-to Five other California districts earmarked employee housing in school bonds that voters passed in the last three years. Forty-six districts are in various states of moving forward with a staff housing project, according to a 150-page report, commissioned by the California School Boards Association, that was released…
Construction faces over half-a-million-worker shortage
March 17, 2022
Construction needs more than half a million workers above its current pace of hiring in order to meet demand in 2022, according to an analysis released Wednesday by Associated Builders and Contractors. Predictive models from ABC indicate the industry needs 650,000 additional workers. For every $1 billion in additional construction spending, construction gains 3,900 jobs,…
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. contractors face a triple threat of war, inflation and supply chain snarls as they struggle to source building materials. The conflict is likely to drive fuel, copper and aluminum prices higher, while cargo ships in the area have been halted or delayed. Russia is a major producer of…
OPSC was the subject of an audit and the subsequent report should help school districts not only with funding, but with speedy delivery of construction approvals. EHA/MGT Director of Client Services Craig McAlpin summarizes the report and shows ways you can use this information to benefit your next facility project. Recently, the office of…