School ventilation projects back on track after U.S. Dept. of Ed. clarifies its spending rules

Jun. 17—After prodding from New Hampshire officials, the U.S. Department of Education clarified its rules this week on how to spend COVID relief funds earmarked for upgrades to school buildings.

New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut has let school superintendents know projects can go ahead as planned this summer.

After Congress passed the second stimulus bill in December, the U.S. Department of Education listed upgrades for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems as acceptable uses for the $156 million that came to New Hampshire schools.

Several school districts spent the spring getting ready to renovate buildings over the summer, including plans for $2.1 million worth of ventilation upgrades for Somersworth Middle School and Somersworth High School.

But after the U.S. Department of Education updated its spending rules in May, Edelblut told school district leaders that the rules for spending the December stimulus money required that Edelblut approve plans before they went out to bid.

For school districts with plans already in motion, this would have meant collecting new bids for the projects and making new contracts — making it next-to-impossible to complete the planned renovations this summer.

New Hampshire's congressional delegation pressed U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to clarify the rules in a letter last week, and remove any requirement to get projects approved before districts started collecting bids.

This week, Ian Rosenblum, deputy assistant secretary for policy and programs of the U.S. Department of Education, wrote to Edelblut, clarifying that state approval could come at any point in the process before funding was released, so planned projects would not have to get his approval before going out to bid.

"I emphasize that these clarifications should enable New Hampshire and its LEAs to move forward expeditiously with your planned HVAC projects in advance of the coming school year and to avoid rebidding or any other process delays," Rosenblum wrote.

Edelblut will discuss the updated guidance with school district leaders during a Thursday afternoon videoconference.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen raised her concerns again in a hearing this week, pressing Cardona to stay in regular contact with state education commissioners to make sure the rules for spending the stimulus money were clear, and that schools had flexibility to spend their portions of the stimulus as they saw fit.

"I am very concerned about the delays many New Hampshire schools have experienced when trying to access this relief funding, and I have been troubled by the department's delay in issuing clear implementation guidance," Shaheen said Wednesday during a hearing. "There are still questions that schools have."

Cardona said he would keep working with the New Hampshire Department of Education.