Prayer Plant (Maranta leuconeura) is a very popular houseplant with beautifully patterned leaves. It is also a fun houseplant to have at home because when it gets dark the leaves of your Prayer plant will roll-up. When you turn on the lights, the leaves will unroll and resume their regular flat position. It’s a lot of fun to trick your prayer plant into rolling and unrolling its leaves by turning on and off the light. Kids love Prayer plants! Here are tips on how to care for your Prayer plant at home.

Prayer Plant Infographic

Prayer Plant Infographic

8 Tips on How to Take Care of Your Prayer Plant

1. Your Prayer Plant is Happiest in Filtered Light. Can Tolerate Low Light. 

Prayer Plant is happiest in filtered light locations such as an east-facing window. It also tolerates low light locations. You can place it in a north-facing window or a location that receives artificial light.

Check out other houseplants that can tolerate low light: ZZ Plant and Snake Plant

2. Moderate Water is Best for Prayer Plant

Water your Prayer Plant when the soil feels dry. The best way to tell when it is time to water your Prayer Plant is to feel the soil. Stick your finger in the soil 1 inch deep. If the soil feels dry, it’s time to water your Prayer Plant. 

3. Get the Soil Right for Your Prayer Plant

Your Prayer Plant needs a well-draining, organic well-draining potting mix. 

4. Fertilize Your Prayer Plant

Your Prayer Plant should be fertilized at half strength once every 2 weeks during the growing season. Fertilize once a month in the winter months.

5. Don’t forget to Repot Your Prayer Plant

Repot your Prayer Plant every year in the Spring. Repot in a container with a diameter 2 inches larger than the current pot. Don’t pack the soil too tight since your Prayer Plant likes air around its roots.

6. Drainage is Essential for Your Prayer Plant

After watering your Prayer Plant and you see water draining out of the pot’s drainage holes, make sure you empty out the accumulated water in the saucer. Don’t let your Prayer Plant’s pot sit in this puddle of water. It will cause root rot! 

7. Get the Temperature Right for Your Prayer Plant

Your Prayer Plant needs to have a daytime temperature of 70F to 80 Fahrenheit (21-26C). The nighttime temperature should be at 60-70 Fahrenheit (15-21 C).

8. Humidity is Vital for Your Prayer Plant 

Your Prayer Plant thrives in humid conditions. Indoor air can be drying. Make sure you do your best to increase indoor humidity. You can do this by spraying your Prayer Plant with water twice a week. Turn on the humidifier. Keep Prayer Plant in a saucer filled with water. But make sure the pot is elevated with pot feet or pebbles so your Prayer Plant is not sitting directly on the water. 

2 Common Prayer Plant Problems

The common problems for Prayer Plant are brown leaf tips and spider mites.

Prayer Plant Problem: Yellow and Brown Spots with Spider-Like Webs on Leaves and Stems

Problem: There are yellow and brown spots on the leaves of your Prayer Plant. You also see spider web-like webbing on the leaves and stem. 

Spider Mites

Cause: The spider webbing and yellow and brown spots are signs of spider mites attacking your Prayer Plant. Spider mites are tiny pests that are too small to see with your bare eyes. 

Solution: To treat spider mites on your Prayer Plant, spray off the leaves with water from a garden hose. The force will cause the little spider mites to wash off the leaves. You can also wash mites off with soapy water or rubbing alcohol. There are also horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps that you can use to kill off spider mites.

Check out our article on how to make your own homemade pesticides using baby shampoo: How to Make Horticultural Oil and How to Make Insecticidal Soap

Prayer Plant Problem: Tip of Leaves of Your Prayer Plant Turning Brown

Problem: The tips of the leaves of your Prayer Plant plant are turning brown. 

Cause: When the tips of the leaves of your Prayer Plant turn brown that is a result of not enough water or humidity. The tips of the leaves are turning brown because they are dying. 

Solution: Water your Prayer Plant and increase humidity. 

Facts About Prayer Plant 

Name	Prayer Plant
Scientific Name	Maranta leuconeura
Light	Filtered Light. Can Tolerate Low Light.
Daytime Temperature	70 to 80 F (21-26C)
Night Time Temperature	60 to 70 F (15-21C)
Water	Moderate Water
Humidity	High Humidity
Potting	Well-draining, organic, all-purpose potting mix
Fertilizer	Once every 2 weeks at half strength (Growing Season).  Once a month in the winter.

Prayer Plant Facts

Prayer Plant: Frequently Asked Questions

What are Other Names of Prayer Plant?

Prayer Plant is also called Maranta, Herringbone Plant and Rabbit’s Foot.

Prayer Plant: Varieties 

Popular Prayer Plant varieties are Maranta leuconeura ‘Kerchoviana’ and Maranta leuconeura ‘Erythroneura’.

How Can You Tell When It’s Time to Water Your Prayer Plant?

Water your Prayer Plant when the soil feels dry. The best way to tell when it’s time to water is by sticking your finger into the soil. Stick your finger in the soil 1 inch deep. If the soil feels dry, then it’s time to water your Prayer Plant. 

Can You Use Cold Water When Watering Your Prayer Plant?

Prayer Plant can be watered with tap water but be mindful of the water temperature that you are using to water your Prayer Plant. Don’t use straight cold water from the tap to water your Prayer Plant. 

Prayer Plant prefers cool water that is not hot and not cold. When you turn on the cold water from the faucet add a little bit of warm water. You can also get to this ideal temperature by filling a watering can or pitcher with water and leaving it out overnight until the water is at room temperature. 

What Fertilizer Should You Use for Your Prayer Plant?

Use liquid, organic fertilizer with a higher ratio of nitrogen on your Prayer Plant.

How Big Does Your Prayer Plant Get?

Your Prayer Plant can grow to 12 inches tall and 16 inches wide.

How Do You Propagate Your Prayer Plant?

Prayer Plant Plant is easy to propagate. You can propagate Prayer Plant plant by division. 

Below are steps on how to propagate Prayer Plant Plant by division:
1. Take a Stem Cutting of Prayer Plant Plant (include a node)
Pick a stem with a node. Cut below the node.
2. Place Prayer Plant Stem in Jar of Water
Place the Prayer Plant stem into a jar of water and wait for it to grow roots. To help it focus its energy on growing roots, make sure your stem has a maximum of 2 leaves. Cut off extra leaves as needed.
Another way to stimulate root growth is to dip your stem cutting in root hormone and plant it in moist sand. I personally prefer the jar method so you can easily see the roots come out. Know that not all stem cuttings of Prayer Plant will grow roots, so to be safe, cut a few stem cuttings so you will at least get one with roots.
3. Plant Stem Cutting in New Pot
Once the roots grow, plant these stem cuttings into a new pot. Water the new plant immediately after planting. Then water every 2-3 days until the roots are established.
4. Place New Prayer Plant Plant in a Spot with Bright Indirect Sun
Place your new Prayer Plant plant in a spot with bright indirect sunlight. Don’t put it in direct sunlight.

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Photo: dbox / Foster + Partners

Keeping sustainability at the forefront, Foster + Partners has revealed their design for the new JP Morgan Chase global headquarters in Manhattan. When completed, the 60-story skyscraper will be New York City’s largest all-electric tower with net-zero operational emissions. The state-of-the-art design incorporates outdoor space, a public plaza, and greenery aimed at setting a new standard for employee wellness.

The project is the first to take advantage of New York City’s innovative Midtown East Rezoning plan, which is designed to promote modern office construction while improving public space. The building, intended to house up to 14,000 employees, has a triangular base that touches down on street level. Raising the architecture up to about 80 feet provides enhanced views and allows for wider sidewalks.

“270 Park Avenue is set to be a new landmark that responds to its historic location as well as the legacy of JPMorgan Chase in New York,” shared Norman Foster, Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners. “The unique design rises to the challenge of respecting the rhythm and distinctive streetscape of Park Avenue, while accommodating the vital transport infrastructure of the city below. The result is an elegant solution where the architecture is the structure, and the structure is the architecture, embracing a new vision that will serve JPMorgan Chase now and well into the future.”

Foster + Partners wanted to create a timeless design that would add to the Manhattan skyline while also taking advantage of smart technology. The building uses artificial intelligence and sensors to respond and adapt to energy needs, while the triple-glazed façade is connected to an HVAC system for increased energy efficiency. The entire building will be powered by renewable energy sourced from a New York State hydroelectric plant and advanced water storage will reduce water usage by 40%.

Photo: dbox / Foster + Partners

Incredibly, the firm will also reuse 97% of the materials from the demotion of the previous 1950s building that was on site. This upcycling far exceeds the 75% requirement that is the standard in green building.

Flexibilty in, where, and how people will work is also key to the design. Not only is there 50% more communal space, but each employee will have 25% more volume of space. Adaptable column-free plates will also allow for easy changes to each floor’s layout. But beyond the workspace, the new headquarters intends to feature an array of wellness benefits for employees. This includes a state-of-the-art health and wellness center that will have fitness areas, yoga/cycling rooms, physical therapy, medical services, modern mother’s rooms, and prayer and meditation spaces.

Foster + Partner has designed more daylight to filter into the building and uses circadian lighting to minimize the effects of electric lighting. “Designed with a health-first mindset in all aspects, this project proves you can have both excellent indoor air quality for occupants, while also addressing sustainability goals that improve the health of the community by reducing impacts on the planet,” shared Joseph Allen, Associate Professor and Director of the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who consulted on the project.

The building has been under construction since 2021. Once finished, it will surely be a new gem on the New York City skyline.

Foster + Partners has released designs for the new JPMorgan Chase global headquarters in Manhattan.

Photo: dbox / Foster + Partners

Located at 270 Park Avenue, the 60-story skyscraper will be built with sustainability and employee wellness in mind.

Photo: dbox / Foster + Partners

When complete, it will be New York City’s largest all-electric tower with net-zero operational emissions.

Photo: Foster + Partners

The skyscraper will hold up to 14,000 employees.

Photo: LightField London

The smart building features a flexible floorplan, more space per employee, as well as a health and wellness center.

Photo: LightField London

The building has been under construction since 2021.

Photo: Foster + Partners

Once finished, it will surely be a new gem on the New York City skyline.

Photo: dbox / Foster + Partners

Photo: dbox / Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Foster + Partners.

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Bangkok’s Apple Store Looks Like a Futuristic Tree Bearing “Fruit” for the Digital Age

Foster + Partners Is Designing a New Airport Inspired by the Sand Dunes in Saudi Arabia

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DORAVILLE, Ga., May 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Purafil, the leader in gas phase filtration and corrosion control technology, announces the launch of its new website, corrosionmonitor.com. Purafil built the website to address growing corrosion control needs and to make it easier for customers to access the solutions they need. Damage caused by corrosion is responsible for nearly 40 percent of equipment failures in industrial applications, and Purafil hopes to help customers remedy this by providing diagnosis tools and solutions.

“We’re excited to launch this new website so our customers can easily find the corrosion diagnosis and corrosion control solutions they need to make their facilities safer, healthier, and more productive. Our solutions address the growing corrosion issue in data centers, paper mills, and other industrial plants,” said Matt Baude, President of Purafil.

The website highlights various scientifically proven solutions for corrosion diagnosis and control and has simplified how people can find the right solution for their corrosion issues. Customers are looking to prevent unplanned and costly downtime and repairs, so finding a solution quickly is vital.

“We have incredible partners that are truly committed to making the world a better place and keeping our customers connected to the best resources they need to keep their facilities functional and operational—increasing awareness through corrosionmonitor.com is a large part of that commitment,” Baude said.

Purafil earned the prestigious ISO 17025:2017 lab accreditation, which certifies that every product is backed by best-in-class procedures, equipment, and processes.

To explore the new website or to learn more about corrosion control, visit corrosionmonitor.com.

About Purafil
Purafil, the leader in gas phase filtration, has been making the world safer, healthier and more productive since 1969. Its 50 years of experience fuels a passion to continually improve air quality by removing harmful and unpleasant contaminants from the air. Purafil protects thousands of people, processes and environments every day. Learn more about Purafil at www.purafil.com.

About Filtration Group
Filtration Group is making the world safer, healthier and more productive by creating innovative solutions that deliver outstanding customer value. With a passionate team, global footprint and leading technology, Filtration Group is driving innovation and developing unparalleled filtration solutions. Filtration Group serves a highly diverse set of customers with offerings that span life sciences, industrial technologies, fluid and indoor air quality applications. One of the fastest-growing companies in the industries, Filtration Group serves its customers from 114 facilities in over 30 countries. Please visit Filtration Group at www.filtrationgroup.com.

Media Contact:
Alex Spivey
Phone: +1.770.825.7374
Email: [email protected]

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Diagnose and eliminate corrosive air with CorrosionMonitor.com

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• Purafil Corrosion Diagnosis Coupon

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Looking to make your home more comfortable and efficient? The best place to begin may be hanging just above you.

“Adding insulation to the attic and sealing air leaks around light fixtures are among the most effective and affordable ways to lower heating and cooling costs and improve personal comfort in an older home,” said Clark Public Utilities Energy Services Supervisor DuWayne Dunham.

A well-insulated attic will help your home stay at a comfortable temperature longer. In turn, your heating or cooling system will use less energy to keep your home at your preferred temperature. Adding insulation has a lower cost of investment than many other home improvement projects. Plus, added insulation starts paying for itself right away in the form of reduced energy expenses.

To learn whether your attic needs insulation, just grab a flashlight and a ruler and find the attic access. If you can see the tops of your ceiling joists through the insulation or measure six inches or less on average, then adding more is a good idea. Unable to climb up there or just need a second opinion? A weatherization contractor should be happy to help.

As a rule of thumb, homes built before the 1990s are often prime candidates for additional insulation. Homes more than 30 years old were built with far less emphasis on energy efficiency than their modern counterparts.

Adding insulation is certainly a project within reach of a confident DIYer, but doing the job well isn’t as simple as it seems.

“To make the most of an insulation job, you need to prep your site well and pay close attention to the details,” Dunham said. “There are also safety concerns that must be addressed when adding insulation.”

Using the proper type of expanding foam to seal air leaks around light fixtures and plumbing and sealing any present duct work will make a tremendous difference in the effectiveness of the attic insulation. It’s also critical for exhaust fans to have a tight seal and proper ventilation out of the home. Finally, the attic itself must have proper ventilation to allow air through the space.

Proper ventilation is important, but attic fans aren’t usually necessary — despite the convincing marketing materials. An attic fan uses energy and is just another thing that could break. If there are air leaks in the ceiling below, the fan could pull conditioned air out of the home below and blow it outside, which will lower the home’s energy efficiency and indoor air quality.

A handy homeowner may be tempted to save money by doing the work themselves, but it’s worth comparing the cost of materials against a few contractor bids. Contractors don’t pay retail prices for materials and they usually pass the savings onto their clients. Plus, they don’t just toss some insulation up there and call it a day. They’ll look for air leaks and look for other issues most people wouldn’t know to consider. Then they’ll work with the homeowner to build a plan. Even if the DIY route is cheaper, the value of the contractor’s work will likely be worth the extra cost.

“A quality job will make that new insulation much more effective and that’ll transform into greater energy savings and a shorter return on investment,” Dunham said.

As beneficial as good attic insulation is, it’s also worth investing in additional floor and wall insulation if necessary.

Clark Public Utilities offers financial incentives for electrically heated homes that can make home insulation projects more affordable. Certain conditions apply. Contact the Energy Counselor of the Day at 360-992-3355 during business hours, or visit clarkpublicutilities.com for more information.

Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to [email protected] or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98688.

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A perfectly ripe pineapple can be a hassle to find and carve, but once you’re down to those golden rings, you’ve got a perfect summer companion. From piña coladas to pizza, the juicy hunks can be hard to quit — until the inside of your mouth begins to feel weirdly raw. 

If one too many bites of pineapple leave you with a tingly tongue, burning cheeks or a desperate desire to scratch the inside of your mouth, you aren’t alone. The culprit is likely an enzyme complex called bromelain, according to a 2019 letter in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Bromelain is a protease — a type of enzyme that breaks down proteins into their building blocks, known as amino acids — that’s unique to pineapples, which is why pineapples are also excellent meat tenderizers. 

“At the moment, there isn’t a lot of evidence about the palatability of bromelain,” or the way the enzyme tastes and feels in your mouth, said Alessandro Colletti, a pharmacologist who studies bromelain at the University of Turin in Italy. But it’s possible that after eating several pieces of pineapple, you’ll begin to feel the bromelain breaking down some of the mucin proteins that make up the protective mucosal layer in your mouth. 

Related: Where did watermelons come from?

So, if you dive into a fruit salad, is it possible that eating too much pineapple will do you harm? It’s doubtful, Colletti said. He noted that bromelain isn’t dangerous to humans (though it is an effective defense against pests that would damage the pineapple plant). “When you eat pineapple, the concentration of bromelain is about 500 micrograms per milliliter,” he said. “So the concentration is not really high.” It’s even safe at much higher concentrations. For instance, bromelain oral gel, which has a concentration 200 to 400 times greater than fresh pineapple, can be applied directly to the mouth because its anti-inflammatory properties can offset mouth sores caused by chemotherapy, Colletti said. 

Moreover, your mouth quickly begins to replace any of the cells damaged by bromelain to prevent any permanent damage or change by the pineapple’s proteases, according to reports by Bon Appétit.

Other tropical fruits, such as papaya, have similar proteases but don’t leave a raw feeling in the mouth. The acidic nature of pineapple may be partly to blame for its weird effect, Paul Takhistov, an associate professor of food engineering at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, told Self. Pineapples typically fall between 3 and 4 on the pH scale (a score of 7 is neutral), according to Healthline. Takhistov hypothesized that bromelain dissolves some of the mucin proteins in the mouth, which makes your mouth more sensitive to irritation by the pineapple’s acidity. It’s actually the two together, the acidity and the enzyme, that likely make your mouth sore, he said. Colletti added that bromelain itself can have an acidic flavor, which might add to the acidic experience.

As for how to bypass the tingling, in one episode of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious, a man in Mexico tells Danish chef René Redzepi to soak the peeled pineapple in saltwater. However, there isn’t much scientific evidence to back this up. You can also grill the pineapple or heat-treat it in some other way, as heat deactivates enzymes, Bon Appétit reported.

And if you want to get the benefits of bromelain, such as its antioxidant properties, Colletti said taking a supplement is best. That way you get higher concentrations of bromelain without all the sugar that makes pineapple so sweet.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Originally Appeared Here

Governor Proposes Grant Program for HVAC Upgrades at Schools | 2022-04-18 | ACHR News

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News that President Joe Biden is planning to urge states and cities to use unspent money from last year’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to further increase police funding elicited furious responses on social media Friday.

“Incredibly bleak and symptomatic. Money allocated to care for humans will be used to cage and kill them instead.”

NBC News first reported that the president is expected to make his reallocation request on Friday during a White House event with mayors and law enforcement officials. The meeting is scheduled to take place just one day after Politico reported that the Biden administration is preparing to ration vaccines as Senate Republicans continue to stonewall a multibillion-dollar Covid-19 aid package.

Biden administration officials warned last week that a coronavirus wave this fall and winter could infect up to 100 million people nationwide. The ongoing pandemic has already led to more than one million deaths in the U.S. and 15 million globally.

Biden’s request to shift untapped funds previously authorized to improve public health toward notoriously violent police departments is “incredibly bleak and symptomatic,” tweeted journalist Sam Alder-Bell. “Money allocated to care for humans will be used to cage and kill them instead.”

Texas journalist Andrea Grimes lamented that the leader of the Democratic Party is responding to mass death not by demanding transformative policies such as Medicare for All and stronger labor protections but rather by giving additional resources to cops who have shot and killed more than 5,000 people in the U.S. since 2015, including at least 1,050 in the past year alone.

Police kill civilians in the U.S. at a far higher rate than their counterparts in comparable countries. People in the U.S. have also died from Covid-19 at a significantly higher rate than people in other wealthy nations—with poor counties suffering twice as many deaths as rich ones. Both public health crises, progressives argue, are indictments of America’s profoundly unequal socio-economic order, which lacks lifesaving rights like universal healthcare, paid sick leave, and other benefits enjoyed in countries with higher levels of union density.

Noting that “a number of major cities have reported surges in crime rates since the start of the coronavirus pandemic,” NBC News reported that “the White House said it is pushing local governments to spend the money before the summer months, when there has historically been more violent crime compared to winter months.”

But given that the American Rescue Plan already provided cities with billions of dollars to prevent police spending cuts due to coronavirus-induced budget shortfalls, and with confirmed Covid-19 cases climbing nationwide, public health experts and advocates implored local jurisdictions to spend money in ways that will help defeat the ongoing pandemic.

“The U.S. should instead use unspent funds to upgrade ventilation in schools and other public settings,” said Anne Sosin, a policy fellow at Dartmouth University. “Investments in indoor air quality now will have benefits far beyond Covid.”

That message was echoed by Matthew Cortland, a lawyer and senior fellow at Data for Progress.

“Are you going to have cops shoot the virus?” Cortland asked sarcastically. “The virus has killed far more Americans than violent crime has.”

“The real crime,” Cortland added, “is giving this money to cops instead of using it for air cleaning to protect the American people from the airborne plague that has killed more than a million of us.”

If the money isn’t going to be spent on improving indoor air quality, progressive economists have urged states and cities to use unspent Covid-19 relief funds to give the education workforce a raise to combat growing staffing shortages in public schools.

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Oregon Healthy Homes LLC cares about customers’ health, comfort, and safety. A free air quality evaluation will help the company provide expert solutions for indoor air quality needs.

Oregon Healthy Homes LLC and Jacob Hardin are pleased to announce that they offer solutions for poor indoor air quality through the use of air duct cleaning in Portland OR. The company is locally owned and operated with a mission to positively contribute to the health and well-being of customers by improving energy efficiency and indoor air quality. The customer base includes Yamhill, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties.

The levels of indoor air pollution continue to rise. The Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization have studied the quality of the air and how poor quality affects the health of people. As inhabitants spend more time indoors, more harmful contaminants are breathed in than ever before. Some of the symptoms which result from poor air include nasal stuffiness, wheezing, shortness of breath, eye irritation, upper respiratory infections, and skin irritation. Oregon Healthy Homes provides products to help improve indoor air quality.  The services include air duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, indoor air monitoring, filtration and purification, humidity control, ventilation, air duct repair and replacement, and dryer vent repair and replacement.

Additional details are available at https://www.oregonhealthyhomes.com/

It is unfortunate that indoor air quality today can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in some of the most industrialized large cities. Those individuals who are likely to experience the most indoor air quality challenges are the chronically ill, the elderly, and the very young.

Oregon Healthy Homes is licensed and certified to provide customers with a clean, safe, and healthy indoor environment. All technicians are trained and certified. The list of certifications includes Master Indoor Air quality, Master Preventative Maintenance, EPA Clean Air Section 608 Universal, Dynamic AQS Indoor Air Quality Expert, RotoMasters Air Duct Cleaning Specialist, CSIA Dryer Exhaust Technician (C-DET), NATE Gas Heating (Air) Installation & Service Technician, EPA Lead-Safe Certified Renovator, PTCS New & Retrofit Duct Sealing Certified, NADCA- National Air Duct Cleaning Association Air System Cleaning Specialist and Ventilation System Mold Remediator, and  International Restoration Institute Mold Remediation Specialist.

About the Company:

Oregon Healthy Homes LLC offers thoroughly trained and certified technicians to provide air quality solutions to Portland Metro homes and businesses. A variety of services are included within the skillset of Oregon Healthy Homes. The professional technicians offer excellent quality products. 

Media Contact
Company Name: Oregon Healthy Homes LLC
Contact Person: Jacob Hardin
Email: Send Email
Phone: (971) 570-9097
Address:4695 SW 202nd Ave
City: Aloha
State: OR 97078
Country: United States
Website: https://www.oregonhealthyhomes.com/

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By Shawn Rice (May 13, 2022, 4:36 PM EDT) — The U.S. Supreme Court justices aren’t likely to take on any COVID-19 business interruption suits, according to attorneys for insurance carriers who say the country’s highest court is unlikely to review arguments impacting issues on physical loss or a virus exclusion in a policy.

Attorneys for insurance carriers say it’s unlikely that the U.S. Supreme Court will take on any COVID-19 business interruption suits. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Goodwill’s Oklahoma affiliate recently called on the U.S. high court to hear its coverage suit with a Tokio Marine unit for pandemic-related losses, arguing that a long line of federal rulings has improperly…

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Dive brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education will consider requests from school districts for an 18-month extension on spending COVID-19 emergency funds under the American Rescue Plan beyond the Sept. 30, 2024, obligation deadline, according to a May 13 letter from the department to AASA, The School Superintendents Association. 
• The two-page letter said that while the obligation deadline — when a district commits to use of certain funds — is based on statutory and regulatory requirements, the department can approve spending extension requests for properly obligated funds. Approvals would be based on specific facts and circumstances, and longer extensions may be considered for “extraordinary circumstances.”
• School system officials and education advocacy groups, such as AASA, have raised concerns that a tight spending timeline for ARP — plus other circumstances such as supply chain challenges, inflation and labor shortages — make it harder for districts to use ARP funds for needed facility improvements.

Dive Insight:

Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, said in a statement the organization is “thrilled” with the clarity the department provided to the timeline school systems have to complete “desperately needed” school facilities projects and HVAC upgrades.

“Given inflation, supply chain issues and labor shortages, we know that districts want to invest these funds wisely, and the knowledge that they have 18 additional months to liquidate funding will hopefully provide them with the assurance needed to move forward with using ARP funds for these contracts and obligations,” Domenech said.

Spending extension requests will be filed by state education agencies on behalf of districts. A blog post on the AASA website said the organization is confident state education agencies “will not hesitate to apply for this additional spending runway and the process for them to do so is a familiar and straightforward one.”

In January, AASA and 31 other education, health, environmental, labor and industry organizations, asked the department for flexibility with the spending deadline. In a letter, they said it would be “nearly impossible” for districts to meet the deadline given the logistical and staffing challenges.

Some school districts are spending significant amounts of their ESSER funds on facility upgrades, such as new HVAC systems, repairs and renovations. These facility improvements are often filling needs that existed in school systems long before the pandemic, said district officials in interviews about spending priorities for emergency funding.

A 2021 report from the 21st Century School Fund, the International Well Building Institute and the National Council on School Facilities found the U.S. was underinvesting in school buildings and grounds by $85 billion each year. 

A Government Accountability Office report in 2020 said 41% of districts required HVAC systems upgrades or replacements in at least half their schools. The GAO study also discovered that, of 55 schools visited in six states, half described HVAC-related problems in their buildings, including older systems that leaked and damaged flooring or ceiling tiles.

According to an analysis by FutureEd at Georgetown University, using information manually collected by data firm Burbio through April 19, a sample set of spending plans from 4,155 school districts shows more than half planned to use ESSER funds on HVAC systems.

Such expenditures can range from purchasing improved air filters for existing units or replacing systems that fail to heat or cool schools, FutureEd wrote on its website.

The inability to meet spending deadlines was one of the biggest challenges school district finance leaders face regarding the management of federal relief funding, according to a survey conducted by the Association of School Business Officials International, released this week.

The ASBO survey results included responses from finance leaders at 154 school districts across 35 states.

When asked about how districts have spent ESSER money on facilities, the most popular expenses within that category were investments to repair, replace, or upgrade HVAC systems (47%) and to provide safer drinking water for students (28%). ASBO noted that 30% of districts said they haven’t spent any ESSER funds on facilities, which was the second-highest answer after HVAC repairs, replacements, and upgrades. 

The tight timelines are particularly worrisome for smaller, rural school districts that may not have as much choice in contractors or materials or flexibility with revenues, or are limited in staff time needed to manage improvement projects. Competition between surrounding school systems in finding and contracting with project managers or companies is another concern as many school systems may consider facility upgrades at the same time.

Friday’s letter from the Education Department, addressed to Domenech and written by Roberto Rodriguez, assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, said the department discourages districts from using emergency funds on new construction because that may limit a district’s ability to spend on “other more pressing needs related to the impact of the pandemic,” such as learning and the emotional and mental health of children.

Rodriguez did write that school infrastructure projects related to addressing the impacts of the pandemic are generally an allowable use of funds. He said the department is pleased that many districts are using ARP money to upgrade indoor air quality.

In his statement, Domenech said AASA will continue to advocate to Congress for an extension to the Sept. 30, 2024, obligation deadline for ARP funding.

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Originally Appeared Here