Students get a breather

Sick kids plus poor attendance equals an unhealthy budget for public school districts.

“We don’t get paid unless we have kids in school,” said Sid Rayfield, maintenance director for the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

With the help of experts, the district and others are learning what in their school buildings makes kids sick and they’re taking steps to improve indoor air quality – something that’s unregulated in Idaho.

Allergen-filled and asthma-inducing comfy couches have been banned from some classrooms.

So have cuddly classroom pets and irritating chemical cleaners.

Rich Prill, a building science and indoor air quality specialist with the Washington State University Extension, has visited most of the schools in Washington and North Idaho to assess air quality under a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We don’t have any perfect schools, I don’t care where you’re at,” Prill said. “We find some things in every school we go to.”

Prill tours schools with administrators, maintenance workers and school nurses, checking to see if buildings are dry, clean, comfortable, have proper ventilation and that indoor pollutants are being controlled.

“We tell them what we think at the end of the day, what we saw and what our recommendations are,” Prill said.

Rayfield said the air quality assessments have proven helpful.

“They gave us great hints on what we could do to make a safer, cleaner workspace for students,” Rayfield said. “They helped us identify trouble areas where we don’t have enough fresh air.”

Complaints of sore throats and low attention spans are possible signs that there’s too much carbon dioxide in the air, Rayfield said.

With buildings dating back to the early 1900s on up to 1997, Rayfield said there are a number of issues.

Some of the district’s newer schools were built with fiber-lined ductwork, Rayfield said. The district removed the ductwork and replaced it with hard pipes, less likely to become clogged with dust and allergens.

The day-care center at the district’s alternative high school – which Rayfield described as a doublewide trailer – had a carbon dioxide reading a few years ago that was “off the charts,” he said.

A new ventilation system was installed and grants helped replace ventilation systems at schools in Sagle and Hope, too.

The Coeur d’Alene School District has upgraded the air filters in its heating and air conditioning units and replaces the filters on a strict schedule, said district maintenance director Bryan Martin.

“We’ve done several things,” Martin said. “One thing is housecleaning. We are trying to go as green as possible with the chemicals that our custodians use.”

The district now does its own air quality testing, checking for carbon dioxide and radon. Fixes have included adding air-to-air heat exchanges in portable classrooms to bring in more fresh air.

Some changes are quicker fixes.

Rayfield said fumes from idling school buses were being drawn into the school buildings, making students and teachers sick.

Now bus drivers have to turn off their engines if they’re parked outside a school longer than two minutes.

Martin said sometimes it turns out the issue isn’t anything having to do with the school environment. A complaint about itchy eyes was traced back to a teacher’s contact lens solution.

Still, Martin said, “We investigate.”