Welcome

1. Welcome • The following presentation is a collaborative effort between AASA and the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection. • The presentation is an overview of school environmental health and its impact on costs and academic achievement. • The presentation also serves as an introduction to the EPA’s School Environmental Health Program Guidelines that will help states, tribes, and territories establish and sustain K-12 school environmental health programs, which create healthy learning environments. This guidance has similarities to the EPA’s Tools for Schools program and will be referenced by AASA in future technical assistance. • For more information, contact Yasmin Bowers, project director of AASA’s Healthy School Environments, at children@aasa.org. • After viewing the presentation, please submit an evaluation HERE. 1

2. About AASA … • 146 year old membership organization for school system leaders • Affiliates in 49 states, Canada, Overseas • Programs address the needs of children –indoor air quality (IAQ), asthma, and obesity • technical assistance, resources, and EPA IAQ Tools for Schools (TfS) • asthma action plans, tobacco-free and idling policies, and education for school leaders

3. AASA’s Healthy School Environments Goals: • Increase awareness/understanding of IAQ principals and risks • Promote voluntary best practices • Elevate importance of addressing IAQ issues Lessons Learned: • Formalized IAQ plans are successful • Collaboration is key to sustain an IAQ program • Responsibility and delegation

4. Poorly managed IAQ can: increase absenteeism of students and staff reduce productivity for teachers and staff increase potential for health problems strain relationships among parents, staff and the community create potential liability problems damage reputations through negative media and loss of public trust Why School Leaders Should Be Concerned

5. IAQ Best Management Practices can: improve educational outcomes save money promote greater community involvement improve student health Why School Leaders Should Be Concerned

6. Get Schooled on Green and Healthy Schools: Leveraging K-12 School Environmental Health Programs to Save Money and Increase Academic Performance American Association of School Administrators September 2011

7. Overview • On any given day in America, 50 million children spend as much as 10 hours inside a school building. When the indoor environment of school buildings is poor, students are at risk of exposure to pollutants and chemicals that can harm their health, and cause their attendance and academic performance to suffer. • Environmental factors within school facilities such as indoor air quality significantly affect the health of students and staff. • A school’s physical environment impacts the performance, and productivity of both the students and the staff. • Children are at particular risk of exposure to environmental hazards. 7

8. Children’s Exposures are Different • Growing children eat, drink, and breathe more, relative to their body weight, than adults do. This means that a typical child’s exposure to pollutants is higher than that of a typical adult, and a child’s developing systems are more vulnerable to the effects of environmental exposures in school facilities. • Effects of environmental exposures include: • Respiratory irritation • Sore throats • Drowsiness • Headaches • Asthma attacks • Inability to concentrate 8

9. Healthy School Environments • While no two schools are identical, the following are broad categories of environmental health issues that all schools need to address to ensure that school environments are healthy and promote high achievement by students and staff: • Implement Clean Smart Practices; • Maintain Dry Facilities; • Properly Manage Chemicals and Contaminants; • Maintain Good Indoor Air Quality; and • Implement an Integrated Pest Management Program. 9

10. Best Practices • Many measures, protocols and best practices for school facility managers and occupants, can be implemented with little to no upfront costs, yet, can significantly improve the environmental health of students and staff. For example: • Increasing ventilation rates to meet American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) standards can improve student performance and reduce the transmission of airborne infections4 • Modest changes in room temperature (e.g., 77ºF to 68ºF) can have a positive impact on the students' ability to perform mental tasks requiring concentration11 • Targeting energy efficiency in school operations and maintenance can reduce energy bills by 5% to 20%9 • Implementing school environmental health programs can minimize children’s environmental health risks 10

11. School Environmental Health Programs • A school environmental health program is a holistic, strategic plan that protects the health of students and staff by addressing environmental health issues commonly encountered on school campuses. • School environmental health programs can: • Improve the environmental health of students and staff; • Reduce operating costs & save schools money; • Increase student productivity and performance; • Reduce rates of student and teacher absenteeism; and • Increase teacher satisfaction. 11

12. Academic Achievement • The benefits of establishing K-12 school environmental health programs stretch far beyond improved environmental health to include: • Increased Academic Performance - The healthier the school environment, the more likely students and staff will be healthy enough to attend school, resulting in: • Decreased absenteeism of both students and teachers2, 3; • Higher scores on standardized tests1; and • Positive impact on the students' ability to perform mental tasks requiring concentration (e.g., addition, multiplication, and sentence comprehension)11 12

13. Cost Savings • Small investments made to improve environmental health in schools can yield even greater cost savings to include: • Decreased school spending in areas such as electricity, gas, water, and facility maintenance • Energy Star buildings typically save 35% or more as compared to average similar buildings • Helping schools avoid costly cleanups and remediation that result from chemical spills or mold and mildew damage • Individual school districts have incurred costs from $200,000 to $13 million for remediating mold and mildew damage5-8, 10 • Costs savings can be reallocated to critical expenses such as teacher retention, funding for salaries, books, and other teaching materials. 13

14. Federal Guidance • EPA has been mandatedby the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to issue two sets of voluntary guidelines to help states, tribes and territories address school environmental health issues. • Siting Guidelines (Scheduled to be finalized Fall 2011) – Guidance to help school districts and community members in evaluating environmental factors to make the best possible school siting/location decisions • School Environmental Health Program Guidelines (Will post for public comment late 2011 and finalized Summer 2012)– Guidance to help states, tribes, and territories establish and sustain K-12 school environmental health programs to support school districts and schools in creating healthy learning environments 14

15. How You Can Help • All children deserve a safe and healthy environment in which to learn and grow. AASA members can help by: • Commenting on EPA’s School Environmental Health guidelines during the public review and comment period (late 2011); • Encouraging school districts to use the Siting Guidelines when making school siting decisions (http://www.epa.gov/schools/siting); • Promoting the importance of environmental health in schools (http://www.epa.gov/schools) ; and • Encouraging schools to establish environmental health programs to address student health issues and promote academic achievement. 15

16. EPA Contacts Office of Children’s Health Protection (http://www.epa.gov/schools/) Margot Brown, ScD Director, Program Implementation and Coordination Division (202) 566-0874 brown.margot@epa.gov Kara Belle Public Liaison Specialist (202) 564-3284 (belle.kara@epa.gov) 16

17. References 1 NCEF (National Clearinghouse for Education Facilities). Green Schools as High Performance Learning Facilities. Washington D.C.: National Institute of Building Sciences; 2010:16. 2NRC (National Research Council). Green Schools: Attributes for Health and Learning. Washington D.C.: The National Academies;2006. 3Ohlund L, Ericsson, K. Elementary school achievement and absence due to illness. Journal of Genetic Psychology. 1994;155:409-421. 4Shaughnessy R, Haverinen-Shaughnessy, U., Nevalainen, A., Moschandreas, D. A preliminary study on the association between ventilation rates in classrooms and student performance. Indoor Air. 2006;16(6):465-468. 5Sahakian N, Choe, K., White, S., Jones, R. NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Report: Hilton Head Elementary School, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 2003. 6Scheel C, Rosing, W., Farone, A. Possible sources of sick building syndrome in a Tennessee middle school. Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal. 2001;56(5):413-417.

18. References 7Thomas G, Clark Burton, N., Mueller, C., Page, E. Health Hazard Evaluation Report: Comparison of Mold Exposures, Work-related Symptoms, and Visual Contrast Sensitivity between Employees at a Severely Water-damaged School and Employees at a School without Significant Water Damage, New Orleans, LA. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 2010. 8 U.S. EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program: Benefits of Improving Air Quality in the School Environment2003. 9U.S. DOE (Department of Energy). Federal Energy Management Program Operations and Maintenance Best Practices Guide, Release 3.0. In: Energy OoEEaR, ed2010. 10Velez and Broward County Grand Jury. Interim Report of the 2002 Fall Term Grand Jury on School Board Construction2002. 11 Wargocki, Pawel, and David P. Wyon. "The Effects of Moderately Raised Classroom Temperatures and Classroom Ventilation Rate on the Performance of Schoolwork by Children." HVAC&R Research 13(2), 2007: 193-220.