Jonesport school air quality a problem

JONESPORT – Nine classrooms at Jonesport Elementary School showed signs of uncirculating air during an investigation for indoor environmental quality last month.

Conducted by environmental and safety specialists from the state Bureau of General Services in Augusta, the investigation was requested by Union 103 Superintendent Bruce Crowley after a teacher resigned last month.

The fifth-grade teacher, Gregory Gray, had been working in the classroom where the highest carbon dioxide levels were found.

Members of the Jonesport school board will discuss the report from the Feb. 10 investigation at their meeting this evening. The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. at the superintendent’s office.

Given the report’s findings, issued Feb. 19, Crowley said, he will ask for authorization to bring in an engineer to determine the extent of retrofitting that may need to take place within the building.

Crowley otherwise called the report “no big deal.”

“This is not unusual for any building,” he said Wednesday. “We are going to try to correct the problems.”

Crowley said the problem came to his attention “when I had one teacher with a complaint.”

He noted that Gray had lodged the complaint, but he did not want to say more.

“I’d just as soon leave it there, that a teacher was concerned about air quality,” Crowley said.

“If I have somebody make a complaint about something, I’m going to try to find what the problem is and find a cure for it,” Crowley said.

The investigators on Feb. 10 observed that fresh air units were not operating, and switches to operate the units were shut off. The pressure relief dampers were boarded up on the outside of the building to stop cold air from coming back into the classrooms, their report noted.

The investigators took apart the fresh air units, found them to be clean but without air filters.

“These units have no heating coil to temper the air when it is cold,” the report says. “Some classroom ceiling supply grills have rags and plastic stuffed in them and will not allow any air flow.”

The readings for carbon dioxide levels were taken after the students had left the building. Normally, the report indicates, the levels “should have been a lot lower.”

Elevated carbon dioxide concentrations cause symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue and drowsiness.

Using industry guidelines, comfort levels for indoor air should be maintained below 1,000 parts of carbon dioxide per million parts of air, the report observes. The range in the nine classrooms fell between 1,065 and 1,675 parts per million.

Crowley said that in the past he has told teachers to “crack a window” if the air seemed problematic.

Relative humidity levels of between 30 and 50 percent should be maintained, the report recommends. When relative levels fall below those guidelines, discomforts such as dry eyes, nose or throat and irritated upper respiratory tract can set in.

The relative humidities for the nine classrooms on Feb. 10 fell between 22.5 percent and 28 percent, according to the report.

The investigators recommended that “in the areas where there are a lot of complaints with dry eyes, headaches, scratchy throats, a humidifier should be placed in the room to elevate the humidity level.”