Ventilation is key to safe return to school. Here’s how experts say it can be improved
Cameron MacLeod knows that musty, dank classrooms are to be expected at his son’s aging East York public school.
But this year, the thought of the first grader walking back into one is newly unsettling.
“The air is just not moving,” MacLeod said.“I don’t feel super confident.”
With millions of kids across the province preparing to head back inside in just a few weeks, parents, teachers and advocates worry poor ventilation, especially at older schools, will pose an extra risk in the time of COVID-19. And Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s promise on Thursday of $50 million for ventilation, has done little to allay those fears.
“The phrase, ‘too little too late’ comes to mind,” said Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools.
Her organization is “always happy to see new provincial funding” for schools. But spread out over the roughly 5,000 in Ontario, it amounts to “only about $10,000 per school and there are only three and a half weeks until schools are to open,” she said.
Wylie heard from dozens of parents reporting problems including classrooms without windows or windows that barely open, broken heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and general poor ventilation.
Some older schools and portables don’t even have HVAC systems to bring in outside air.
Crowded and small classrooms also mean less air flow and more chance of inhaling infectious droplets, especially if more than one student has the virus.
The recent Sick Kids report on safe back-to-school reopening — a comprehensive document that examined the
emerging science on kids and COVID-19 — stated that “addressing structural deficiencies such as large class sizes, small classrooms and poor ventilation must be part of any plan to reopen schools.” It recommends keeping windows open, weather permitting, and adjusting HVAC systems where possible to bring in more fresh air. Ventilation is all about “bringing outdoor air” in, said Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto. People often mix it up with filtration, and the two sometimes exists in the same systems. But it’s important to recognize the difference. Filtration, refers to using some kind of “usually fibrous” filter to remove particles from the air that might contain COVID-19. “I study filtration and indoor air quality for a living and there’s nothing I’d rather do than say that filtration is our solution to this problem, but it’s not,” he said. “It’s what I’d call a secondary measure” to masks, physical distancing, hand washing and surface cleaning. Ventilation is more important, he added. The history of respiratory diseases shows that spaces with bad ventilation pose an increased risk. The emerging science on COVID-19 suggests that outdoors is the safest place to be. Small, enclosed spaces with little airflow are a higher risk, something everyone will have to worry about as we eventually move indoors this fall and winter. One early release article about a COVID cluster that originated at a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, that found infected droplets spread from one table to two others, recommended spacing tables and improving ventilation. “Where I worry is the poorly ventilated spaces within the school,” Siegel said. There may be plenty of windows overall, but there might not be any in a couple of classrooms. “Choke-points” including bathrooms and hallways where a lot of kids are in contact with each other, are also a concern. “I do want parents to know that in a lot of buildings we do have an issue,” Siegel said. “I don’t think we need to be alarmist about it, I just think we need to deal with it kind of systematically and carefully.” The technology to bring fresh treated air into buildings exists, and some modern schools may already have these kind of systems. But it’s a “tall order” to expect sweeping, expensive changes in only a few weeks. HVAC systems have been “systematically” neglected for “decades and decades and now all of a sudden we want them to help us with this very serious pandemic, and it’s not so simple, they take investment to work well,” he said. Even before the pandemic, there was a huge repair backlog in Ontario schools, at $16.3 billion in 2019. Completed work orders for the TDSB in 2017-2018, the most recent figures available online, reveal a number of issues including broken HVAC units and windows that won’t open. One temporary solution would be to hold classes outside where possible. That’s an option parent MacLeod, hopes school boards can take advantage of, so that students are not “sitting at desks inside claustrophobic rooms.” A spokesperson for the Conseil Scolaire Viamonde, the French public school board his son attends, said the board is reviewing the ventilation process at every school and making changes to “maximize air exchange” including opening windows, and changing filters more often. U of T’s Siegel said it’s not realistic to “achieve perfection,” given the limited timeline, but there should be a “class by class, space by space approach” to make improvements. Opening windows brings in fresh air. Kids and teachers should be included in the discussion, so they understand what’s being done and why. If there is an HVAC system, it should be adjusted so it brings in more fresh air and recirculate less, and filters should be changed more often. The Toronto District School Board has already checked mechanical HVAC systems during the summer to ensure this, according to the board’s back-to-school plan. Portable air filters placed around the classroom and near the teacher can also help, Siegel added. Minister Lecce told reporters Thursday that the government has been working to procure “MERV13 level filters,” high level filters that can be slotted into more modern HVAC systems, to “ensure the air quality we want.” For older schools, and for portables where there “just isn’t an airflow capacity,” they’ll be “bringing in stand-alone mobile units,” which can be “procured on a fairly short notice,” Lecce said. They’ll be “triaging” those older schools and portables, especially in areas of the province that have a higher risk of transmission, such as the northwest and northeast areas of Toronto. Boards will also be able to dip into their reserve funds. At the TDSB officials are implementing strategies to increase fresh airflow, according to spokesperson Ryan Bird. In addition to adjusting HVAC systems, they have scheduled to start them two hours before the school day begins. Filters will be changed six times a year instead of four and windows will be open where mechanical ventilation is not available, among other measures. They’re now “looking at what will be possible in the short time before school starts,” with the new ventilation funding, said Interim Director of Education Carlene Jackson in a note sent to trustees after the funding announcement. Toronto Catholic District School Board administrators are also encouraging teachers to open windows and doors where possible. In some cases, windows are only able to be opened a crack to prevent kids from falling out. A spokesperson said facility staff has been working to “service window stops” (the mechanism that limits window openings to four inches) and make sure that windows that can safely open, do. But Julie Altomare-Di Nunzi, president of the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers union, said ventilation is still a “huge concern,” with some HVAC systems so old it takes years to find the right parts. The money from the province is a “drop in the bucket” she said, and to fully address issues in two to three weeks is just not realistic. They have “thousands and thousands of windows that do not open properly,” she said. Given how COVID-19 has unfolded in Toronto so far, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities, it’s likely that schools without a lot of existing resources will be hit the hardest, Siegel added. “To the extent that resources are available, I sure hope that they get spent in those schools that are likely going to disproportionately bear the brunt of this,” he said.
“There’s nothing I’d rather do than say that filtration is our solution to this problem, but it’s not.” JEFFREY SIEGEL PROFESSOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO