School Beat: Making Schools Clean and Healthy

By Lisa Schiff, Chron.org
May 25, 2006

So much of the work that we want and need to do to improve public schools for our kids is visible and dramatic and thus readily captures our attention. More money, more staff, more equipment, more supplies. We are all working hard on all of those areas, not to mention working hard to keep that list as short as possible.

Unsurprisingly, in the midst of all of this the invisible becomes easier to lose track of and beings to feel less immediate. Things like air quality and the many factors that make a building healthy for students and staff are often not at the forefront of our minds, even though numerous studies state that poor indoor air quality affects students’ and teachers’ healthy and performance.

But there may be some renewed interest and ability to attend to making our schools healthier, as shown by the fact that a goal of creating cleaner facilities was actually a negotiated item in the most recent contract with the teachers. Luckily, in terms of environmental health in our schools, there are a few relatively easy starting places for parents, students and school staff.

The first is the Tools For Schools program, which was been adopted by the Board of Education almost a year ago, but hasn’t yet started. Tools for Schools is a program created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help school districts engage in low cost/no cost ways to remove asthma hazards from class rooms, like pets and old furniture, and to improve air circulation.

Teachers, students and the cleaning staff can work together to make small changes that make a big difference, especially to asthma sufferers. It is an opportunity to address significant problems that can easily be fixed, such as keeping classroom supplies off the floor as much as possible to make rooms easier to clean. Schools interested in participating in this program should keep their ears open for when this program will start.

A second avenue comes with the Williams Settlement, from which we've all seen complaint forms posted in our schools. The Settlement provides that teachers and students can make complaints to the administration if they see something that needs to be repaired right away in 43 of the district’s schools identified as being eligible to benefit from the Settlement’s terms.

The district is required to respond right away and repair whatever needs to be fixed if it qualifies as an “emergency repair”. In addition, the District must assess the conditions in the 43 schools to identify “emergency repair” needs in addition to those arising from complaints. The good news according to advocates working for improved facilities for schools is that $200 million is available right now from the State to reimbursement the district for that work.

Another easy starting place for making our schools healthier is the use of “Environmentally Preferable Purchasing” of “Environmentally Preferred Products (EPPs), starting with janitorial cleaning products. The Environmental Protection Agency defines EPPs as products and services “.. that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose..." (http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/about/about.htm ).

The City enacted an EPP policy last year for all City agencies after the positive results of a pilot project conducted a few years ago to investigate the feasibility and cost of using these products. The take-away message is that EPPs are available, can be used at approximately the same cost as the more toxic ones currently being used by the school district, and meet the City's needs, although some changes in work and purchasing practices may be required.

A website devoted to the effort of “Less Toxic Purchasing” has links to the final report of this project as well as to many useful resources for implementing this practice at industrial, commercial and household levels. (http://www.sfenvironment.com/aboutus/innovative/epp/final_report.pdf )

Having the EPP approach implemented in the school district would be a great way to start making our schools healthier. This would involve participation and support by district staff as purchasing is done centrally, as well as school site communities from janitors to teachers to parents.

Some schools around the country are already fully engaged in such practices and non-profit organizations all over are interested in supporting them. Several have shown improved attendance and revenue since beginning to use EPPs. In our own backyard we have the Healthy Children Organizing Project, which has the District’s schools as one of its primary focus areas for improving the environment for children in the City (http://www.healthychildrensf.org/). Nationally, there are a number of groups, including the Healthy Schools Network (http://www.healthyschools.org), which is partnering with the Center for a New American Dream to hold a second “Clean Schools” contest, as the first one was so successful.

The Clean Schools contest is designed to encourage schools to convert to EPPs. On September 21, 2006, there will be a drawing for $5,000 among names of registered schools that have switched to EPPs. To facilitate this transition, a tremendous number of resources and guides are available at the website, from a list of safe products to organizing guides (http://www.newdream.org/cleanschools/index.php ). Check it out-- maybe one of San Francisco's public schools could be the winner.

Changing cleaning products may sound like a small thing, especially when we are faced with so many big challenges, but the fact is, the use of these more toxic products in our homes and schools has a big impact on our health, especially the health of our children. And it can't be denied that altering practices throughout the district may be a bit complicated, even with the desire on everyone's part to use the healthier products. In these times of constrained personnel resources, encouragement and elbow grease from a motivated group of parents and community members working with the district may be just what is needed to get this job done. Any takers?

Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children who attend McKinley Elementary School in the San Francisco Unified School District and is a member of the board of directors of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco (http://www.ppssf.org).