Holyoke Public Schools has been awarded a $65,000 grant to continue improving environmental conditions in district buildings, with a focus on asthma, extreme heat, and overall indoor air quality.
This is the second year HPS has received “Healthy Environments Advance Learning (HEAL)” grant funding through a federally funded program of the Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, HPS received a $7,000 mini-grant to launch initial work, along with several training and professional development opportunities for district staff, including nurses and custodians.
This year’s grant award—called Building on HEAL—“is crucial to our district as it directly addresses the connection between student health and academic success by improving the environmental conditions in our schools,” Superintendent Anthony Soto said.
Holyoke’s efforts under this three-year grant will be led by three district project team members:
Director of Health, Wellness, and Nursing Cynthia Carbone;
Facilities Director Brian Harris; and
Resource Nurse Tamra Pace-Hersh, LPN.
Using grant funds, HPS will first develop a budget and workplan to address specific areas of concerns, and then implement a variety of initiatives that actively engage the school and/or wider community.
HPS used last year’s HEAL mini-grant funds to help foster strong working relationships between the district’s nurses and senior custodians, including consulting with each other about environmental health matters and conducting school walk-throughs to record any facilities issues that could potentially affect health and well being. Funds were also used to develop district policies related to extreme heat and green cleaning, and to create two sets of infographics to support decluttering and the use of air purifiers/scrubbers in the classroom. A third infographic is still under development. It is intended to help staff better understand how to manage airflow within classrooms through the use of univent systems and window air-conditioning units.