Connecticut lawmakers are advocating for a bill that would ensure that local districts meet indoor air quality safety standards by making HVAC improvements an allowable reimbursement expenditure from school construction funds.
“We know good healthy air is correlated with better learning outcomes, better attendance and all of those things,” said Education Committee Chair Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield.
In 2022, the Education Committee passed its first update to the indoor air quality statutes in almost two decades, according to the Connecticut Education Association.
While the bill included the establishment of a HVAC grant program to reimburse boards of education for eligible costs related to HVAC upgrades and reimbursement, those grants were awarded to districts on a competitive basis in 2023 and 2024, according to the CEA and the Department of Administrative Services.
After the two rounds of grant funding, 163 reimbursement grants were awarded to more than 60 school districts, totaling over $178 million in state grants to municipalities, the CEA stated.
Now, HB 6922 would allow a “permanent non-competitive funding source allowing applications on a rolling, monthly basis,” according to the DAS.
Concerns about air quality have vexed Connecticut educators for decades. Issues of air quality, ventilation and temperature regulation in schools also gained attention during the coronavirus pandemic.
State Sen. Saud Anwar, Senate chairman of the Public Health Committee and a pulmonologist, said 1 out of 4 school age children in the state have allergies and about 12.5% of them have asthma.
Anwar said it is important in a school building that there is an adequate temperature for the air, the right amount of humidification, less infectious organisms and enough air movement in the room.
“Stagnant air, uncontrolled air and too dry air can be unhealthy for the lungs,” he said.
Anwar said the average age of school buildings in the state is 50 to 60 years old.
“A lot of our districts in the state are in need of rehabilitation of HVAC systems and also some other heating and humidification modification and air purification opportunities to try to make them better while we wait for them to change the building or improve the building,” he said.
Anwar said the legislation is a priority for the “well-being and education of our children.”
“We know from data that if children have allergies and nasal congestion and don’t get enough sleep their ability to focus on their education decreases rapidly,” he said.
Leeper said the committee has been trying to collect data for years on how many school systems are in need of HVAC repairs or replacements.
“We don’t really have a solid sense but there are a lot of them because districts have so many facilities and these are really expensive projects,” she said. “No agency has really wanted to.”
With the bill’s expansion of the list of allowable non-priority list projects to include air quality projects it is expected to increase long-term spending under the school construction program, according to an analysis of the bill.
Hebron Superintendent Thomas Baird wrote in his testimony that the bill would allow the district “to modernize and correct heating, cooling and ventilation problems that have been ongoing for decades.
“Without such a program, it is unlikely that we would be able to independently fund and move these important projects forward,” Baird said. “We have closed schools because of a lack of heat. We have also had many days where we have closed schools early because they were too hot. We had students pass out due to extreme heat in our schools in the past.”
Farmington Board of Education Chair Bill Beckert said in his written testimony in support of the bill that the town’s four elementary schools are not retrofitted for central air.
“It’s been a priority for our town,” he wrote. “ However, without state support for this particular project, we haven’t been able to move forward.”
Beckert wrote that due to warmer springs and summers students’ learning is disrupted toward the end of the school year and at the beginning of the school year.
“The intolerable weather is not just a one-off.,” he wrote. ‘It continues for consecutive days. Because of the trapped heat and humidity, students have difficulty concentrating, participating, and learning. Educators have difficulty teaching. It leads to sickness and absences, especially for immunocompromised students and staff with conditions like asthma.”
Kate Dias, president of the CEA, told the Courant that indoor air quality has been a priority for the CEA in ensuring that the quality of the air that students and teachers are breathing is not harmful.
Louis Rosado Burch, legislative coordinator for the Connecticut Education Association and member of the School Indoor Air Quality Work Group, said in his written testimony that according to the “DAS, as many as one-third of Connecticut public schools” have HVAC systems in need of repair or replacement.
“We cannot ignore the fact that many districts that applied for reimbursement under the previous grant opportunity were disqualified and not awarded due to an incomplete rubric or because of insufficient local funds for a match,” he wrote.
The Education Committee unanimously passed HB 6922 on March 12 and it now heads to the House floor for consideration.