The 2025 bond begins a renewed multi-year, multi-bond plan to address seismic deficiencies at schools. Following Resolution 7109, approved by the Board of Education May 6, 2025, we are using a transparent, data-driven process to seismically retrofit the highest-risk buildings and/or building elements first.
How we selected schools for 2025 bond funding
PPS utilized the Seismic and Seismic Risk Assessment report prepared by Holmes Engineering, to identify the schools that have the highest-risk scores and building elements (such as Unreinforced Masonry), in a prioritization calculation to address the highest-risk schools efficiently in alignment with Board direction.
Assessment: Holmes scored each "building part" at every school across the district based on its age, construction type and specific seismic vulnerabilities. See the Seismic and Seismic Risk Assessment.
Weighted scoring: We ranked schools using a formula that weighted the seismic risk scores 90%, facility condition scores 5% and student enrollment 5%.
Equity was factored into the prioritization formula as an adjustment to a Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) and Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) school’s facility condition score, allowing the team to incorporate equity while aligning with board direction to prioritize the highest-risk schools.
Strategic selection: Using the resulting ranks as a data-driven baseline, we selected projects for the 2025 bond based on constraints such as construction feasibility and phasing, swing site availability, budget and ability to have the highest impact on reducing the overall district seismic rating and risk, therefore reducing the risk districtwide for our students.
Depending on the building, we will use either full-campus retrofits or targeted fixes for high-occupancy areas like gyms or exits, or targeted fixes for specific deficiencies like unreinforced masonry (URM).
A school’s lack of presence on the list does not represent a lower priority.
Our seismic work is not over. High-risk schools not included in this cycle will be prioritized for future investigation, planning, and funding. This work is ongoing.
Since the 2012 bond, we have, or plan to, strengthen seismic resiliency through modernizations, full or partial seismic retrofits and roof-level seismic work at over 65 schools, including 26 of PPS’s 36 schools that have had Title I status in the last five years. This effort will continue beyond work funded by the 2025 bond.
