Energy expert remains skeptical about Winooski schools ability to ventilate COVID-19 virus

A ventilation and energy expert has continued to raise concerns that Winooski’s schools — and likely many other schools in the northeast — will be inadequate to effectively filter the virus that causes COVID-19 once the weather becomes too cold to keep windows open.

The husband of an art teacher at Winooski Middle School, Adam Jacobs, has worked as the energy manager for the City of Boston, and is now the lead commercial and institutional building efficiency consultant for a firm based in Hinesburg.

Jacobs' concerns first came to light when he sent a memo out to the WSD school board, the Vermont Department of Health, the facilities manager for WSD, and others. His memo and concerns were first reported by The Burlington Free Press.

Winooski schools are currently meeting ventilation standards, Jacobs said, but once it gets too cold to have the windows open, the school’s ventilation systems will run into problems.

The problem, according to Jacobs, is a little fin called a damper that modulates the amount of outdoor air into the building. Once the windows are shut for the winter, the damper will be lowered to 10% open, said Emily Hecker, the district communications director. The damper has been 100% open the past few months.

By lowering the damper, the school is no longer going to be able to effectively filter the virus that causes COVID-19, Jacobs said. He continues to urge the school to take further action, and close down the school once the weather changes.

“The likelihood of cases spreading go up quite a bit when you are no longer able to properly ventilate the space. And nothing about that has changed in the building and none of it will change until there are substantial capital improvements which are tentatively planned to be done. But that's not going to happen in this school year,” said Jacobs.

Hecker, the communications director for WSD, said the school is working with the Vermont Department of Health, Efficiency Vermont and other regional and national ventilation and environmental consulting companies to shore up Winooski ventilation systems. Hecker said she is confident that these groups have steered the school in the right direction.

Hecker said the school has acknowledged that the significant lowering of outdoor air coming in will affect the school’s ventilation and they plan to give students and staff breaks from classrooms to let air recirculate.

Jacobs remains convinced the safest option is to close down the school and halt all in-person classes. According to Jacobs, the guidance WSD is going by from The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers is a set of loose guidelines for school districts to consider, which leads to uneven implementation of health and safety protocols, he said.

When it comes to risk mitigation, Jacobs refers to the upside down pyramid below, where engineering controls come before administrative controls like social distancing and reduced occupancy and PPE. Jacobs believes there is not enough attention being given to this issue.

“There's no good way for them to mitigate the risks with mechanical controls given what they have in the building and this is not just a Winooski thing, this is most public schools in America, but particularly in the Northeast,” said Jacobs.

Diagram courtesy Adam Jacobs.

On Oct. 5, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a statement affirming the “potential” for airborne transmission of the virus that causes Covid-19, a factor researchers have long suspected.

Airborne transmission is when infection is spread through small respiratory droplets and particles that can remain in the air over distances possibly longer than six feet and over long time periods, usually hours, according to the CDC.

“It is especially important to control pathogens that readily infect by means of airborne transmission in healthcare and other occupational settings where special engineering controls are required to prevent spread,” the CDC memo reads.

The district was given $40,000 from Efficiency Vermont’s total of six million dollars provided for the state, to upgrade their HVAC system and make several improvements, Hecker said. The multi-million dollar sum is a “drop in the bucket,” Jacobs said.

“Winooski alone has four and a half million dollars worth of HVAC upgrades they're making to their building in their capital project but that hasn't happened yet,” said Jacobs.

There will be air quality inspections every month and in addition the facilities management will be doing tests everyday in each classroom looking at CO2, relative humidity, particulate matter and temperature. Jacobs mentioned that CO2 monitors are a good way to see how much potential virus could be in classrooms because CO2 is exhaled when people breathe.

These small droplets are the ones that can suspend in the air for long periods of time and can travel distances farther than six feet. If the CO2 concentration in the room is rising, that may be a sign that there are also suspended viral particles.

“If you are Winooski school district, you're just following what the guidelines say. The guidelines are based on the state and state based, their guidelines and the federal government and the federal government has not wanted to acknowledge this issue,” said Jacobs.

WSD has decided to increase in-person learning from two days a week to four days a week, said Hecker. The Vermont Department of health and air quality experts have supported WSD in increasing in-person learning and believe this is a safe decision, Hecker said.

“We have a lot of people backing this decision, and they’re not saying you shouldn’t have any in-person learning, they’re saying you should increase your in-person learning,” said Hecker.