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HCPSS Reviewing County’s School Air Quality Assessment Reports

August 12th, 2016

The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is reviewing the county department of public works’ air quality assessments of 12 schools. The county government retained Skelly and Loy Inc. to conduct the testing during June 2016 and reports were posted on the Howard County Department of Public Works website on Monday, August 8, 2016.

The reports provide extensive data regarding spore measurements and visual inspections, but provide little interpretation of the significance of the results or comparison to environmental industry guidelines. Thus, additional interpretation is needed in order to gain a clear understanding of the environmental conditions in each building and determine if any corrective actions are warranted.

“The Howard County Board of Education appreciates the support of Howard County Government, and the additional data these analyses provide on the environmental quality of the 12 tested schools. We must reconcile the county’s reports with the consistently high ratings that Howard County public schools have received on annual state school maintenance inspections,” said Board of Education Chairman Christine E. O’Connor.

“Moving forward, everyone will have a role to play in ensuring healthy schools with the launch of the Howard County Public School System’s new Indoor Environmental Quality protocols to be used by school administrators, staff and community members who use our facilities this school year. HCPSS takes great pride in the cleanliness and safe conditions of all its schools,” O’Connor added.

View the Report findings summary

The challenge of maintaining these high standards has escalated. The county budget allocation reduced HCPSS operations and maintenance funding by more than $4 million for the 2016–2017 school year. School buildings will inevitably be impacted by the further deferral of essential maintenance priorities, which have compounded as a result of funding shortfalls spanning several years. HCPSS looks forward to collaborating with the county to find solutions that ensure the quality of our building environments in a challenging budget climate.

School Air Quality Tests: Key Factors

Timing — Four hours of testing were conducted at each location: two hours of sampling work followed by two hours for visual inspection. Mold spore readings are affected when areas tested are occupied because people and their belongings can carry spores into the building. Spore measurements taken during school hours were typically higher than those taken during non-school hours (with some exceptions), as identified in the following chart.

Parameters — The types of mold identified in the reports are very common in the environment. Spore types and concentrations are highly variable and depend on many factors, and there are no accepted standards for interpreting airborne spore measurements. Other industrial hygienists add together measured concentrations for all mold types to compare indoor and outdoor exposure. Calculations of total spore concentrations are not included in the report, but indicate that school occupants were exposed to higher mold spore levels outdoors as compared to indoors.

Penicillium/Aspergillus represents the vast majority of the mold spore readings highlighted in the county’s air quality reports, as summarized in the following chart. There are no established state or federal guidelines for determining levels that pose a health risk to the general population.

State Ratings: Maryland Public School Construction Program – Annual Maintenance Survey Reports

The Maryland Public School Construction Program (PSCP) performs annual maintenance inspections in a sampling of schools in each county, including 11–12 different Howard County schools each year. The surveys assess the level and quality of maintenance being performed in public school buildings.

For 2016, the State’s report on HCPSS school buildings provided:

From 2013–2016 the State’s reports on HCPSS schools returned: