The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida
Other School and Department Based Activities
Environmental & Conservation Services (ECS)
Indoor Air Quality — A Year in Review
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is the quality of air within the built environment. Environmental & Conservation Services’ (ECS) Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) program is an integral component of the department’s mission to provide healthy, sustainable, learning and working environments for all students, staff and visitors to District facilities. Further, this program supports the District’s goal to safeguard the health, wellness and safety of students and staff while promoting a high performance culture.
The Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) program provides services directly to school centers through IAQ assessments and environmental remediation projects related to hazards such as water damage, wind damage, mold, odors, infectious disease, fire, flood response, vandalism and natural disasters such as hurricanes and/or localized flooding.
During the 2017-2018 school year, IAQ staff responded to 802 IAQ inspection requests:
- 165 schools and 14 facilities were inspected
- 56 sites had 5 to 10 inspection requests
- 13 sites had 10+ inspection requests
- Crestwood Middle
- Equestrian Trails Elementary
- Fulton-Holland Educational Services Center
- Grove Park Elementary
- Highland Elementary
- John I. Leonard High
- Jupiter Middle
- Lake Worth Community High
- Limestone Creek Elementary
- Lincoln Elementary
- Santaluces Community High
- Timber Trace Elementary
ECS staff conducted 514 IAQ-related projects with the support of four environmental consultants and four IAQ contractors.
FY18 Response Actions
- 1 Natural disaster (Hurricane Irma)
- 11 Fires
- 29 Flood responses (4 major incidents; 10 sewage back-up incidents)
- 22 Fire extinguisher discharges
- 33 Infectious disease outbreaks
- 76 Odor inspection requests
- 115 Staff illness complaints
- 254 Mold inspection requests
ECS’ IAQ program total expenditure for FY-2018 was $2,445,940.74.