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School Beat: Making Schools Clean and Healthy
So much of the work that we want and need to do to improve public schools for our kids is visible and dramatic and thus readily captures our attention. More money, more staff, more equipment, more supplies. We are all working hard on all of those areas, not to mention working hard to keep that list as short as possible.
Unsurprisingly, in the midst of all of this the invisible becomes easier to lose track of and beings to feel less immediate. Things like air quality and the many factors that make a building healthy for students and staff are often not at the forefront of our minds, even though numerous studies state that poor indoor air quality affects students’ and teachers’ healthy and performance.
But there may be some renewed interest and ability to attend to making our schools healthier, as shown by the fact that a goal of creating cleaner facilities was actually a negotiated item in the most recent contract with the teachers. Luckily, in terms of environmental health in our schools, there are a few relatively easy starting places for parents, students and school staff.
The first is the Tools For Schools program, which was been adopted by the Board of Education almost a year ago, but hasn’t yet started. Tools for Schools is a program created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help school districts engage in low cost/no cost ways to remove asthma hazards from class rooms, like pets and old furniture, and to improve air circulation.
Teachers, students and the cleaning staff can work together to make small changes that make a big difference, especially to asthma sufferers. It is an opportunity to address significant problems that can easily be fixed, such as keeping classroom supplies off the floor as much as possible to make rooms easier to clean. Schools interested in participating in this program should keep their ears open for when this program will start.
A second avenue comes with the Williams Settlement, from which we've all seen complaint forms posted in our schools. The Settlement provides that teachers and students can make complaints to the administration if they see something that needs to be repaired right away in 43 of the district’s schools identified as being eligible to benefit from the Settlement’s terms.
More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3314#more
But there may be some renewed interest and ability to attend to making our schools healthier, as shown by the fact that a goal of creating cleaner facilities was actually a negotiated item in the most recent contract with the teachers. Luckily, in terms of environmental health in our schools, there are a few relatively easy starting places for parents, students and school staff.
The first is the Tools For Schools program, which was been adopted by the Board of Education almost a year ago, but hasn’t yet started. Tools for Schools is a program created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help school districts engage in low cost/no cost ways to remove asthma hazards from class rooms, like pets and old furniture, and to improve air circulation.
Teachers, students and the cleaning staff can work together to make small changes that make a big difference, especially to asthma sufferers. It is an opportunity to address significant problems that can easily be fixed, such as keeping classroom supplies off the floor as much as possible to make rooms easier to clean. Schools interested in participating in this program should keep their ears open for when this program will start.
A second avenue comes with the Williams Settlement, from which we've all seen complaint forms posted in our schools. The Settlement provides that teachers and students can make complaints to the administration if they see something that needs to be repaired right away in 43 of the district’s schools identified as being eligible to benefit from the Settlement’s terms.
More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3314#more
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