Quincy Public School Teachers Union spar with City Officials over Classroom Air Quality

The district promises school ventilation systems are up to par, but the union says members want concrete evidence.  A Tom Gorman image

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

The latest in back to school supplies for Quincy public schools students?
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Quincy public school teachers union spar with city officials over classroom air quality.

As the ever-growing legions of loyal Quincy Quarry readers could have only expected, local teachers are questioning Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch – and who thus the School Committee Chair – and his minions’ claims that local schools’ air quality will be safe (enough, ed.) for local public schools to reopen during the still-lingering COVID-19 after spending a reported but one million dollars to address air quality in all of the school district’s at least twenty buildings.

As a point of contrast, the roughly three times larger Worcester public school system plans to spend fifteen million dollars to both better filter as well as also sanitize its schools’ classroom air and thus is spending roughly five times as much as Quincy is planning to do on a per student basis.

For the most part, Quincy has but undertaken maintenance, replaced air filters, changed out fixed windows for ones that can be opened to reach a purported 2.6 air change per hour in school buildings.

Spot on then, still correct today …
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While – admittedly – there are no set standards for air change in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does have a link on its website which takes users to a document created by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers which recommends at least two air rotations per hour and up to six times per hour in higher risk spaces such as the school nurse’s office.

Telling another story?
A photo from an old campaign mailer

In turn, the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s health and safety consultants have stated that an air exchange rate of three reduces the risk of contracting the virus by seventy-eight percent and a rate of four to four and a half cycles per hour further reduces risk by upwards of ninety percent.

In short, Quincy’s vertically challenged mayor’s latest plans yet again look to be coming up short.

Further, what will happen with the air change ratio come wintertime and windows need to be closed, was not addressed by city officials.

Public Buldings (sic.) Maintenance can’t spell either …
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That and one can only further fear that the City of Quincy’s Buildings Maintenance Department will come up short on effecting these but modest efforts after failing to complete said to have been even more modest renovation needs at their still pending new venue for the department’s offices after the building was bought well over two year and which at last check appears to still be both under repair as well as still vacant.

That and given how the head of Public Buildings Maintenance Department recently announced that its projected five million dollars maximum cost to renovate a building to house local students with Autism is now expected to run fourteen million dollars before the only to be expected usual koched-up cost overruns all but assuredly hit the fan, one can only properly expect yet another koched-up mess is on the horizon.

Source: Quincy officials, teachers union spar over air quality

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