'We're ready for anything that's coming': how schools are improving ventilation to fight virus transmission

Ecole Marie-Anne Gaboury is switching to remote learning following several cases of COVID-19 among staff and students. (Source: Gary Robson/CTV News)

Schools across Manitoba are preparing for the return of students in a few weeks, and a top priority for administrators this fall will be ensuring good air circulation in schools to help combat virus transmission.

Last November, the province allocated $6.8 million to help improve school ventilation, including the purchase of stand-alone filters for classrooms or other projects that did not require construction.

Now that school divisions have had a chance to spend that money, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning Wayne Ewasko says he is confident about the return of students this fall.

"The feeling and a sense of normalcy is getting back there," he said, "I'm hearing from a lot of my colleagues who are educators across this great province that are excited to be getting back into the school."

Engineers at the Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) have been working hard at improving ventilation, checking all systems regularly since the beginning of the pandemic.

"As a school division, we have done a comprehensive review of all our ventilation systems," said Amarbeer Bhandari, Director of Facilities, Maintenance and Transportation, "at that point we were checking everything, from pneumatic controls to drive belts, and all the filters."

Bhandari says they have been changing air filters in schools every three months, which is more often than recommended. They're also monitoring how fast new air can be circulated through buildings.

"In order to further test and validate how our systems were working, we were also checking the air exchange levels in all our classrooms to ensure that they're able to achieve at least three or more air exchanges per hour," said Bhandari, meaning that all the air in the classroom is completely changed out three times every 60 minutes.

She adds that it has been challenging in some cases, as many of the older school buildings are not necessarily designed for good air circulation. However, individual HEPA air purifier units have been purchased for any lower-circulation areas.

That is also the route taken by the River East Transcona School Division (RETSD), which used its allocation of provincial funds to purchase 113 air purifiers that have been strategically placed throughout the division.

"We are optimizing the existing ventilation systems to maximize outside air to provide proper indoor temperatures and air flow along with the air purifiers. All schools in RETSD have undergone an assessment for their ventilation and filtration systems and filters are replaced with increased frequency," said the division in an email.

Both RETSD and LRSD say they are following public health directives and provincial guidelines which include proper mechanical ventilation as the preferred strategy for indoor air quality.

Bhandari says LRSD was able to get additional funds from the province for mechanical upgrades, and to replace old equipment.

"(LSRD) has received $1,169,900 to further improve our ventilation infrastructure. Schools that will be receiving system upgrades include Dakota Collegiate, École Marie-Anne-Gaboury, Glenlawn Collegiate, H. S. Paul School, Highbury School, Lavallee School, Nelson McIntyre Collegiate, and Windsor School," said Bhandari, adding that all improvements should be completed by end of September.

Ewasko says the province has more announcements about school improvements coming in the weeks ahead.

"We had a tough two and a half years, we've learned a lot working with our education partners, school boards and trustees, and also with public health," he said, "and so we feel that we're ready for anything that's coming."