Groups call on state to fix school air quality

Poor air quality is an ongoing issue in many Connecticut classrooms, and an airborne pandemic and climate change have only made matters worse.

But local districts and municipalities say they can’t afford to front the bill.

At a news conference on Thursday, union leaders and association heads called on the state to improve school HVAC systems and air quality, including temperature, humidity and contaminants like mold. A recent survey of school teachers showed that was a major concern for most respondents.

Speakers sought support from the General Assembly, and asked they approve a state spending plan using federal funds for HVAC repairs, and include air quality updates in state education department bond funding for school construction.

“We’ve declared the problem just too hard to solve, and at the expense of the educators and the students,” said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “We stand strong with our partners here today, asking that our politicians step up and take care of our students and our teachers and our communities.”

For many educators at the event, including Dias, the problem of poor climate is a personal one.

“My classroom environment was on the second floor of a building built in the ’50s,” said Dias, a Manchester High School math teacher. “I had two windows that overlooked a blacktop roof that basically radiated heat back into the classroom. My classroom could easily become 95 degrees with 78 percent humidity.

“And that was incredibly uncomfortable,” she said. “But more importantly, it’s just not conducive to learning.”

Representatives for Gov. Ned Lamont’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

State Rep. Kathleen McCarty, R-Waterford, who sits on the Education Committee, said she supports taking a look at the issue. “I do believe that we need to have air quality looked at in all our schools,” she said, “and to be sure that every child has a healthy, safe environment in which to learn.”

Acknowledging these projects can take a long time, McCarty suggested they evaluate schools needing immediate attention, and put temporary fixes in place for the meantime. Then, she said, all parties can work collaboratively on long-term solutions and “find a way to share the costs so that it’s reasonable.”

Fran Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, recalled her own time as interim superintendent of Bridgeport Public Schools, where she had to make tough decisions as a result of uninhabitable air quality.

“I have let kids go home, half day, because the conditions for teaching and learning were just atrocious,” said Rabinowitz. “The heat in the buildings was so high that I deemed it to be unsafe for our children.

While the vast majority — 97 percent — of teacher respondents reported their schools’ HVAC and ventilation systems were substandard, just over a quarter said their concerns have been actively addressed. A random sample of nearly 1,000 educators were included in the union survey.

The Connecticut Education Association said the teachers union does not have a precise dollar amount of how much it would cost to update all air quality systems in the state, according to Donald Williams, the executive director.

In a poll of more than 100 school districts, superintendents reported 233 elementary schools and 42 high schools don’t have air conditioning in the buildings. There are roughly 1,200 public schools in Connecticut.

The Lamont administration conducted its own survey last winter to evaluate air quality and contaminant like mold, reported Connecticut Public Radio, but public record requests from the station have been denied. Since early August the state has declined to release results until its report is complete.

Rabinowitz suggested some federal funds pouring into towns and school systems can be put toward air-quality projects, but the money isn’t there to support them in full.

At the local level, Michelle Embree Ku, who sits on the Newtown school board, said a failure to adequately fund these projects outside of municipalities could lead to inequities from town-totown.

“I worry that without the state and federal support, there will be disparities in whether towns and cities can garner the support from taxpayers and locally elected officials needed to address these long-term issues in all of our schools,” she said.