Sustaining Your Tools for Schools Program

The purpose of this document is to provide ideas and suggestions to assist schools and school districts to sustain their Tools for Schools (TfS) programs for the “long haul.”  

As you know, TfS is an ongoing program.  Each school year, the building teams should implement the process of documenting and assessing problems, prioritizing solutions, and working with the school administration to prevent and remediate problems. Don’t forget to communicate your findings and actions to the school community – we have ample evidence that this is a key to success.  Schools often use summer time to make larger improvements such as replacing roofs and upgrading HVAC systems.  Maintaining your TfS program is important to preventing problems and keeping the school healthy.  Another reason for maintaining your TfS program is the 2003 School IAQ law (PA 03-220).  This new law requires that schools have an indoor air program.  TfS meets this requirement of the bill.

 
Fall Kick-off Meetings:

It is strongly recommend that each school district start off the new school year with a meeting of the coordinators and team members from all the schools to review procedures, compare notes, find out what improvements were made over the summer, and to move forward with last year’s prioritized recommendations. Make sure the facilities director is at this meeting if at all possible.  If any of the schools in your district do not have a TfS Building Team, please urge your Superintendent to contact us to set up a training session for these schools.

 
Keep Your Building Teams Fully “Staffed:”

Make sure each Building Team has at least 5 members (administrator, teacher, school nurse, custodian, parent) with a designated coordinator or co-coordinators. High schools might have students on their team.  If you are no longer the coordinator or co-coordinator for your School’s Team, please let us know immediately.  Make sure there is someone to replace you, and then contact Kenny Foscue  (860) 509-7742, or by e-mail (kenny.foscue@ct.gov).  Also, please send us your email address – preferably your school email address if you have one. 

Communication is Key!

Multi-year experience with TfS has demonstrated the importance of a good communication plan as part of TfS.  Keeping the school community informed – and therefore supportive of your efforts – is a key to success.  Here are some suggestions for an effective communication plan:

·        Make sure you have a parent representative on each of your teams. We strongly encourage you to make sure a parent representative is on each TfS building team. 

·        Use internal and external newsletters to inform school staff, parents and students about TfS activities (assessment results, prioritized recommendations, and especially improvements made).  This could be used effectively in the fall to inform the school community about IAQ improvements made over the summer.

·        Most school districts have a district-wide faculty meeting to start off the school year.  This would be a good time for the superintendent to mention TfS and talk about what has been or will be done.

·        Post information on school web sites.  They are an important source of information for parents and students.  The central district web page might have a link to an “IAQ information” page with an overview about your school district’s program and links to other agencies like EPA’s TfS site.  If individual schools have sites, have a TfS information page listing the TfS Building Team members, the team coordinator, a summary of their work and especially listing improvements made.  The 2003 School IAQ law  states that the Superintendent has to report annually to the Commissioner of ED on the individual school's IAQ program and the condition of its facilities.  This would be a good place for school community members to find that report.

·        Involve the media to get information out about your TfS work and successes.  Local weeklies are a good outlet, and are often looking for stories. If you have access to the local cable access station (some Superintendents may have their own regular program), consider approaching the station about having a special show on school IAQ and your TfS program. 

Presentation to Board of Education:  It is strongly suggested that a formal presentation about your TfS program be made to the Board of Education, at least once a year. This is a great way to make sure Board members (and the audience) is aware of school IAQ and the need to address building issues.  This is the time to present a summary of your program’s assessment results, prioritized recommendations and improvements made. 

 
District-wide Coordination:

To make TfS successful and ongoing, each school district should have an entity that coordinates the district-wide TfS effort.  Several districts in Connecticut utilize their district Health & Safety Committee to meet this need.   Other districts have a 3 or 4 person committee  (i.e., facilities director, nurse supervisor, asst superintendent, teacher’s union representative, etc).  The facilities director should definitely be part of any coordinating effort.

 
Refresher Training:  Although TfS is an ongoing program, not all members of your team(s) will continue to be involved.  It is important to maintain the teams, and so it may be useful to arrange for “refresher training” for new members of the building team.  CSIERT will be sponsoring TfS refresher training on a regional basis from time to time.  Please contact Kenny Foscue (860) 509-7742, or by e-mail (kenny.foscue@ct.gov)  to arrange such training.

Occupied Schools Undergoing Renovation:  It is very important to make sure there are active committees with parental participation in schools undergoing renovations.  The TfS building team should play an active role in facilitating communication between the school administration, contractors and the school community.  The team can play a crucial role in making sure the contractors are following renovation guidelines that protect building occupants.

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