Lead Up to Healthy Schools Day 2015 Newsletter

CASLE’s project this year is to launch its new website that will be accessible to hand-held pads/phones. Updated articles, including all of the Healthy Schools information that has helped countless schools over our 20+ years, will be a touch away.

Do you have an event to add to the Healthy Schools Day Project Registry?https://casle.ca/ProjectRegistry/tabid/106/Default.aspx

See CASLE’s website for ideas:https://casle.ca/HealthySchoolsDay/Ideas/tabid/110/Default.aspx

Healthy classroom and school building environments is the focus. Improve Indoor Air Quality. For example, use less toxic cleaning materials, renovation materials, and classroom materials.  Use safe alternatives for pest control.  Stop bus and car idling.  Control and remove indoor mould growth.  What does your school need?  Your project can be big or small – It can just say “Thanks” when things are going well!

Why a National Healthy Schools Day?

• Many schools have problems linked to indoor air quality.
• Children are more vulnerable to environmental hazards.
• Children spend an average of 30 to 50 hours per week in school.
• Staff spend even more time in their school workplaces.
• Poor indoor environmental quality is associated with a wide rage of problems that include respiratory illnesses and poor concentration leading to poor learning. Athletes need clean air in order to achieve their best and so do students!
• Asthma studies show up to 13% and in some areas 17% of school age children have asthma, the leading cause of school absenteeism, accounting for thousands of missed school days each year, and high costs to the medical system.
• There is no longer any doubt. Many studies have found positive health impacts from improved indoor air quality.
• Children attending schools in good condition score 5 to 10 percent higher on standardized tests than students who attend schools in poor condition.
• Studies show that resources put into improving indoor environment quality have a rapid pay back.
• Our Country’s school boards commonly make very difficult decisions between cutting back much-needed academic programs vs. cutting back on needed building maintenance.
• Healthy new and existing schools provide cleaner air, improved lighting, and reduced exposures to toxic substances, and provide a healthier and safer learning environment for children, and improved academic achievement and well-being.
• Federal and provincial governments have demonstrated interest in this important issue by developing programs like the Tools for Schools IAQ Action Kit, creating data, information and conferences on school IAQ; and are working to provide healthier schools every day. Use the Kit in your school!
• Our schools have the great responsibility of guiding the future of our children.  Our children are our country’s greatest resource

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The US EPA has several videos that introduce important information on Indoor Air Quality in schools. Go to: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/multimedia.html

The school walkthrough video is particularly valuable. It is designed to help administrators and facility managers in particular.  It explains that paying attention to indoor air quality is not rocket science, that there are low-cost and no-cost solutions to many issues found. It explains what to look for room by room in a friendly and non-judgemental tone. It provides basic information that will help administrators function as partners and leaders for good air quality in their schools.

   “We are not just managing buildings, we are creating learning environments.”