Connecticut officials continue campaign for cleaner school air
HARTFORD — The pandemic may be in the rearview mirror for some residents, but unhealthy air still lingers in many Connecticut schools, advocates, educators and state lawmakers said on Tuesday, marking National Healthy Schools Day.
There is a need for a sustained commitment to the pandemicera improvements in public school air quality, the group said during a press conference in the Legislative Office Building, particularly with the inevitable end of federal funding for upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in both suburban and urban districts.
They called for a 10-year extension of the General Assembly’s School Indoor Air Quality Working Group, including HVAC professionals and state agencies in studying and overseeing the issue that’s contained in pending legislation. The General Assembly adjourns this budget-adjustment short session year at midnight May 8.
“Some people say well isn’t this already the law? Isn’t it already the responsibility of state government to ensure that we have healthy schools?” said Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, who co-chaired the working group, which is seeking an extension to 2030. She and state Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, the other co-chairwoman, said that the panel has been allowed to focus on solutions.
They said that to put the pandemic into the past and prepare for the future, it’s even more-important to continue to upgrade school air quality with testing and new equipment.
“This isn’t over yet,” Kushner said during a half-hour news conference. “I think most people know that it’s really expensive to upgrade these systems and to replace these systems, and the need is really going to be there longterm. We know the best investment we can make in this state is in our children. We know clean air helps them to learn better.”
About 100 out of Connecticut’s 1,500 school buildings have had HVAC upgrades over the last two years, at a cost of about $53 million. Advocates expect more than 100 schools will be included in the next round of grants, expected to soon be announced by the state Department of Administrative Services. Meanwhile, annual building reviews and five-year comprehensive inspections have created baseline information on so-called “sick schools.”
Louis Rosado Burch, a legislative coordinator for the Connecticut Education Association and a member of the working group, said that more than 930 schools are at some level of disrepair or in need of HVAC upgrades. “That’s a huge number and a real undertaking that needs to be taken serious. What we’ve been talking about is nothing short of a silent crisis that’s affecting our schools. Thankfully, it’s finally getting the attention it deserves.”
In 2022 Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation creating the $244 million grant program.
Kushner said the pending legislation includes provisions that school districts address the air quality of at least 20 percent of their buildings each year, over every five-year period, spreading out the costs.
“Make no mistake, this is a socio-economic issue,” said Kate Dias, a high school math teacher and president of the Connecticut Education Association teachers’ union. “When you look at the landscape of who’s suffering the most, it’s not going to surprise you.” She recalled that at the height of the COVID pandemic, the best that administrators could say about air quality was to open the windows of their classrooms “and hope for the best.” She recalled teachers and kids wearing coats and mittens as snow drifted in from the open windows.
“I think we have to have a reality check about what this environment is really like, and whether or not we are truly committed to change,” Dias said. “What we need to do is keep our foot on the gas pedal of this issue. We can’t afford not to.” She said even old suburban school buildings have been condemned, have had backups of sewage and cases of asthma in the students. “We can solve this problem.”
Last year, after Hearst Connecticut Media reported that 80 of 130 schools were denied HVAC grants, lawmakers called for an accelerated grant process.
Joanie Amato, a West Haven High School math teacher with 14 years experience who is also a member of the two-year-old school indoor air working group, said she was first involved in building-health issues when early in her career she taught in a building constructed in the 1960s. It had leaks, moisture problems, and neither air conditioning nor temperature controls. She was eventually diagnosed with sinus infections and hives, then decided to raise public awareness.
“Children are uniquely susceptible to health risks from their exposure due to their small size, rapidly growing bodies and developing main body systems,” she said, stressing the need to access information through the federal Environmental Protection Agency website. “In addition, school staff are disproportionately at risk because of the extended periods of time they spend working in these buildings, particularly after 10 years.”
Amato noted that sickbuilding syndrome is when occupants of a building experience acute health effects linked directly to the time spent in a particular building. Effects of neurotoxins can linger and prolonged exposure to building-related illness can be debilitating and life-threatening, she said.