Stonewall Climate and Equity Committee
September 11, 2002

Members present:  Diana Barnes, Sarah Erwin, Marla Fox, Julie Galbraith, Charlie Hardy     Also present, Ed McCaw, Kelly Breeding (office of Risk Management and Safety, FCPS), Bill Gay (Director of Maintenance), and Marshall Buen (Director of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning)

 At the first meeting of the committee on September 3, 2002 the building breathing climate was discussed as a point of morale for the staff.  The general lack of being hot or cold and inability to control the temperature of the building was discussed.  Mr. McCaw suggested that we call Kelly to come out and talk to the committee.  Kelly was glad to come out and talk to us and he asked Bill Gay and Marshall Buen to come also. 

 Kelly presented information on gathering data regarding pollutants (such as mold and other pollutants with chemical names that will not be in this report – see Charlie if you would like to know the names of these irritants).  Kelly talked about looking at these indoor pollutants and comparing them with outside ones of the same variety.  The importance of this comparison is that if the readings are similar then that is “what is expected” and might be attributed to high pollen counts, windows open, doors open, people coming in and out of the building (recess) and those kinds of things.  It is also important to know that because of these factors, readings may change from one day to the next.  If the readings are different by a great degree (and depending on what the pollutants are) such as outside readings greater than inside ones, then one of the conclusions might be that the building is operating well and the pollutants are being kept out of the building.  If the readings are greater (by a good margin) inside than out, then one of the conclusions might be (again, depending on which pollutants you are talking about) that you have a “sick” building and need to have an overhaul. 

 The readings at Stonewall (and Kelly has been out here several times) indicate that we have some minor (emphasis on minor compared to other buildings   in FCPS) problems, but no major problems here at Stonewall.  Kelly did emphasize that the data gathered and tools used are state of the art.  Hence, we have had the carpet replaced by tile in some rooms.  Kelly, and Bill are looking into the feasibility of making some other changes.  Needless to say, that all of this is depends on budget also.  Major problems take precedence over minor problems and they use the data gathered to indicate which problems need to be addressed first. 

 Mold and other pollutants occur because of many factors.  Temperature of the building, problems with the HVAC system going off, opportunistic mold and other pollutants, conditions for one particular pollutant or another exist, wetness, windows being opened, students and adults tracking in and out, concentration of certain pollutants inside and out, dilution of the pollutants and other factors cause these pollutants to occur.  

 Ed asked if there are things that we could be doing that could help.  All of the responses indicated that we should leave the thermostats to the HVAC people and keep windows closed.  Our building has some problems, but as I said earlier, not much in comparison with other school.  This does not mean that it is completely well either.  Kelly, Bill, and Marshall are all working to make our building and others in FCPS healthy.  They are looking at the budget to see if we can make a few more changes.  They went through the implementation of a “downed system” and it was very lengthy and time consuming.  Just so we knew what it took to do a job.  They tried to reassure us that they were working and did not take any request lightly.

 If you have questions about this, please get them to the committee and we will forward them to one of these gentlemen and get an answer for you as soon as we can.