Page 20 - School Planning & Management, April 2017

FACILITIES { LEARNING SPACES }
Cleaner Air, Better Students
Research shows that students — as well as teachers — perform better when schools implement indoor air quality programs.
By Michael Fickes
DOES YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT HAVE AN INDOOR Air Quality (IAQ) management program in place? If not, you might want to consider developing one and imple-
menting it. A number of studies show that students and teachers perform better when breathing good, clean air.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately one-half of the K-12 school buildings in the U.S. have IAQ deficiencies.
What causes poor IAQ? There are several possible causes says Dave Story, PE, senior associate mechanical engineer with Harri-
man, an engineering firm based in Auburn, Maine. “Someone may close the outside air dampers as a way to save energy,” he says. “Or the outside air dampers could fall out of adjustment or fail.
“The air handling system could be set up wrong in the first place.”
Any one of these problems will reduce or even block the flow of fresh air into a building and eventually reduce the quality of IAQ.
And poor IAQ can create a number of problems. According to the EPA, poor IAQ affects the health and comfort of students, teachers and administrators, which in turn has an adverse effect on performance. What’s worse, the EPA notes that poor IAQ can
20 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / APRIL 2017
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