Key Takeaways:
While there are many challenges in making K-12 schools consistently healthy, the summit participants identified a path forward in pursuit of this goal.
Many building upgrades and operational and maintenance improvements required will look familiar to a knowledgeable and experienced manager. In fact, most of the recommendations the participants focused on involve laying the foundation to equip school facility staff with the support, funding and resources they need to get the job done. Part of that effort is making sure these professionals are listened to when they tell funders and administrators that the roof leaks or broken HVAC systems must be fixed as soon as possible before they endanger children and interfere with their learning.
“We try and look at upstream interventions in the classroom because that saves you a lot more money than going to an emergency room,” Mendez says.
The issue of facility resilience in the face of a changing climate requires new approaches. Scheraga encouraged the development of resilience plans to improve the capability of school buildings to withstand the greatest climate risks specific to each area, including floods, excessive heat, wildfires and hurricanes.
Many summit participants emphasized the importance of building bridges and partnerships among the key constituencies that need to be engaged and work together. The groups sponsoring the summit represent a few different pieces of this coalition, which includes parents, teachers, students, administrators, elected officials, funding organizations, architects, facility managers, health professionals, researchers and advocates. Eitland used the term de-siloing to describe the required crossing of disciplinary boundaries.
Part of bridging these gaps is ensuring all parties have access to the best information needed to make school facilities conducive to student and teacher health. Whitney Austin Gray, senior vice president of research for the International WELL Building Institute, discussed the way she serves as a translator, turning health research findings into information that is meaningful and actionable to those in a position to apply them to schools.
Multiple participants also emphasized that the experts and professionals need to listen to the communities in question.
“There is no greater expert than the individual who is being directly impacted,” says LaTricea D. Adams, founder, CEO and president of Young, Gifted, and Green.
Ultimately, the group focused on the importance of gaining the level of funding necessary to bridge the multibillion-dollar gap in school facilities shortfalls. Convincing elected officials to provide that much money is not easy.
“We’re going to lose this battle if we only talk about cost because it's not a cost issue,” Hartke says. “It's an investment issue.”
The summit attracted two legislators — Sen. Jack Reid of Rhode Island and Rep. Bobby Scott from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia — who have co-sponsored the Rebuild America’s Schools Act which would provide $100 billion in grants and $30 billion in tax credit bonds to support what Sen. Reid called “school modernization in the areas of greatest need.”
These are large investments, but the participants emphasized the strong case they have to make in pursuit of them. How well today’s students learn and grow will shape society moving forward.
“Not only will these changes in policies affect the present children in schools, but they will move on into the future and have repercussions,” Amler says.
Added Sen. Reid, “Public schools are essential institutions. They are the heartbeat of our community. They are foundational to democracy, and they are a cornerstone of our economy.”
The event included not just adults but students, and Jason Hartke’s daughter Casey summed up the summit’s message: “Every student deserves a school where they can breathe clean air, drink clean water, stay healthy and have every opportunity to succeed. That shouldn’t depend on what school they go to or where they live. It should simply be the standard.”
Ken Sandler, Ph.D., is a clean energy and sustainability analyst and thought leader who spent 35 years advancing green building and sustainability policies and programs across the federal government. In addition to being a FacilitiesNet sustainability columnist and Facility Influencer, he writes his own newsletter, Regenerative Futures at LinkedIn and Substack.
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