Howard plans to deliver HEPA filters to public schools

Some parents worried it might be too late

Howard County schools Superintendent Michael Martirano announced at a recent school board meeting that the school system’s purchase of 4,600 high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters is expected to be delivered to all county public schools by Oct. 1.

The filters, which were purchased through federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, will be installed in cafeterias, classrooms and other common spaces to better protect staff, students and teachers from the coronavirus and other air contaminants, beginning with the most densely populated elementary schools.

Two weeks before the Sept. 2 announcement, the Howard County Public School System sent a reopening plan to families highlighting its health and safety protocols heading into the in-person school year, which included requiring masks for staff, students and visitors in schools regardless of vaccination status, requiring staff to show proof of full vaccination or undergo regular testing, and installing carbon dioxide sensors with data-logging capabilities in cafeterias and HEPA filters in the isolation room of each school’s health suite.

The plan didn’t address the installation of HEPA filters in common areas, which has been proven to reduce the potential for coronavirus transmission. Shortly after it was released, parents discussed how they could urge the system to purchase more filters for all schools.

Elizabeth Kromm of Columbia, who has two daughters in first grade at Swansfield Elementary School, took to social media to advocate for the wider use of the filters.

“Some fellow [parents] in my community started messaging back and forth, and it quickly became a discussion about how we require layered mitigation strategies in order to keep our kids and staff safe in schools, and one of the strategies that was clearly missing were these portable HEPA filters,” Kromm said.

The parents drafted a petition to the Board of Education, the County Council and Martirano that gathered more than 800 signatures.

“This was never a parents versus the administration thing or a parents are going to take this upon themselves to fix it for their own individual child’s classroom or anything,” Kromm said. “[This] was, ‘How can we make sure that this very important piece of precaution gets into all the necessary spaces in the school system?’ ”

Kromm brought the issue before Vice Chair Jen Mallo, who arranged a meeting between board members, experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the University of Maryland School of Public Health and Martirano to discuss solutions to improve air quality mitigation strategies.

“It was determined that one of the best things to do would be to employ these HEPA filters in classrooms, as well as the other really important areas, like cafeterias,” Mallo said. “It was really important that I use my connections in the community and my connections with epidemiologists and public health officials to find the experts that are going to give a scientifically, more evidencebased solution.”

The Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that even if ventilation in a school meets building standards, additional filtration from a portable device can help reduce the potential for coronavirus transmission.

A quiet unit can increase the number of air changes by at least three to five times in an 800-squarefoot classroom and is less taxing on electrical systems than a portable air conditioner, according to the Hopkins experts. Increasing the number of air changes per hour may substantially reduce aerosol transmission risks.

“Portable air filters can be part of the solution to provide high levels of ventilation in a classroom. Ventilation

is especially important when considering small, COVID-containing particles that can travel further than 6 feet and may spread around an entire room,” said Kirsten Koehler, associate professor of environmental health and engineering at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Portable air filters can increase the ventilation rate above what can be achieved with existing HVAC systems and can be used when the weather does not permit the opening of doors and windows. Together, these can be an important way to reduce risk of exposure to COVID19, particularly in classrooms with younger children who cannot be vaccinated.”

Amy Becker of Columbia, mother of a second and a fourth grader at Swansfield, called the purchase of the filters a step in the right direction, but said it should have happened sooner.

“Parents are grateful, but also feel that this should have been taken care of over the spring and summer,” Becker said.