It’s time to make school buildings healthy

By Jerry Roseman

School building conditions matter — a lot! Even though they may not be the single most important element in delivering high-quality education, they are essential. Crumbling buildings can’t provide the foundation on which anything else is built. When repairs are delayed for months or years, small fixes become bigger and far more expensive.

During this past summer and fall, two Philadelphia elementary schools were forced to close for an extended time because of major mold growth throughout the buildings, with resulting remediation costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Protecting schoolchildren and staff from unacceptable health conditions is an urgent public moral obligation, one that until now we have failed to meet in far too many schools and in far too many classrooms.

As an environmental scientist practitioner, I have conducted well over 1,000 inspections documenting dangerous environmental conditions in Philadelphia’s public schools. This work involves collecting air quality measurements and sampling for asbestos. I’ve photographed thousands of deficiencies and made hundreds of recommendations. Whatever our successes, there is an enormous amount still needed.

Time and again, I’ve seen elementary school classroom desks, chairs, floors and books covered with lead paint chips and dust. I’ve seen damaged asbestos insulation in educational spaces and visible mold covering surfaces, including ceilings and floors, in classrooms, bathrooms, libraries and cafeterias. There are schools with unguarded radiators and scalding hot steam pipes with temperatures as high as 190 degrees. I’ve documented extensive and widespread asthma triggers, including rodent and insect infestation, rodent droppings and nesting materials, high moisture and humidity, mold, and dust from damaged plaster and sheetrock walls and ceilings.

Not only does decaying school infrastructure result in illness, but it also impacts performance. Students and staff get sick more often. They miss time from school. Classrooms are sometimes unusable when heating and cooling don’t work. Water leaks and mold destroy expensive computers, musical instruments, books and other materials.

Worst of all, these conditions send a clear message to students and their families that their achievement and well-being don’t matter.

Called to one school to evaluate a mold problem last spring, I saw things I couldn’t believe: a large hole in the wall over the teacher’s desk, flaking lead paint from ceilings and walls, missing and broken floor tiles, damaged asbestos material, and rotted floors from water. On asking the first-year teacher how long these problems had persisted, she said, “Well, they were here when I started in September.” Seeing this kind of situation makes me so angry, it is sometimes difficult to keep my cool when responding. It makes me wonder about those we’ve hired to act as stewards of our public schools and to look after the nurturing of our children.

Data from the school district and researchers show that asthma prevalence among schoolchildren is on the rise. In Philadelphia schools, asthma prevalence can be as high as 40 percent. Those at highest risk are already among the most vulnerable: students of color and from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. About 80 percent of those enrolled in Philadelphia public schools are students of color, and 87 percent are considered economically disadvantaged. Numbers matter when it comes to student health and educational achievement because these kids are at increased risk from exposure to hazards right in their schools, where they should be protected the most.

These problems are not Philadelphia’s alone; the uproar over freezing classrooms in Baltimore is a case in point. Nor are these problems seen only in urban schools. Public schools throughout the country, in suburban and rural areas as well as in cities, face similar conditions.

So what do we do now? How do we get our arms around this thing? How do we handle something so overwhelming? Can we even fix our schools to make them at least acceptably safe, healthy and comfortable for all?

The answer is yes. Sound solutions, however, require full collaboration among unions, school staff, parents and the community to give full voice to what we see and know are occurring. We need decision-makers and politicians to listen to us and to help enact change. A new plan is needed right now. A plan that relies on our collective energy. A plan ensuring that all schools, in all areas and for all children, are healthy places with a focus on high-quality education. A plan that can be implemented together with school districts.

The outline of such a plan is being worked on by a coalition of labor, environmental, parent, student, and public and legal advocacy groups in Philadelphia. It’s modeled on work done in other places. Recognizing that too much of what school districts do remains shrouded in secrecy, shielded from meaningful public oversight, and that we get too little in the way of accountability, we are developing a plan that requires:

• Greater data transparency. As citizens, we all are invested in improving our schools, but this can only be achieved when the public knows what’s going on.

• Development of ABC (adequate building condition) standards. This is a set of best practices to ensure school building health.

• Immediate attention to correcting the most urgent health threats.

• Comprehensive school master plans, so that school districts can guide school improvement.

• Establishment of advisory committees with authority and responsibility to work with districts in improving our schools.

• Increased funding to make all our schools the places we need them to be.

This new way forward will increase engagement in our public schools. By acting to ensure that we have accurate data, full transparency and robust conversations about school facilities, I believe our union can bring about healthy public schools for all.

Jerry Roseman works as the director of environmental science for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Health and Welfare Fund and Union.