School Beat: “Tools for Schools” Helps Us Create Healthier Indoor Learning Environments

In San Francisco, addressing the challenge of making our school facilities structurally sound and environmentally healthy has both a record of great successes and some stallouts. As residents, we have passed two large bond measures that go a long ways towards repairing schools with tremendous physical plant needs. As a city and school district, we have also adopted the Precautionary Principle, which requires that significant effort must be put into examining a wide range of alternatives for any effort or project, and that the option with the fewest potential harmful effects must be selected. ( http://www.sfenvironment.com/aboutus/policy/legislation/precaution_principle.htm ) Related are efforts to purchase Environmentally Preferred Products, which have been shown to have less harmful health consequences, often for similar costs per unit.

Adopting these policies brings us to the next step of implementing them, which has occurred at a somewhat slower pace. In a step to better address school site environmental issues, several years ago the BOE endorsed the Tools for Schools program, created by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA -- http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/index.html ) as a way to tackle environmental health at the school site level. In the program’s own words, Tools for Schools “is a collaborative, low/no cost program designed to provide the tools needed to improve environmental quality in all SFUSD sites. This practical tool encourages staff, PARENTS AND STUDENTS to work together to make schools a healthy place.”

More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4549#more