[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Thanks Tony for the encouragement for members to login tomorrow.

Last reminder about the webinar tomorrow provided by DESE.

Webinar on COVID-19 Risk Reduction Strategies for Superintendents and Facilities Directors: 

Commissioner Jeffrey Riley is excited to host a Webinar led by Professor Joseph Allen from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, November 6. Professor Allen’s work on school health has been featured in many publications, including this recent article on managing and weighing risks amid school re-opening. The Chan School’s report regarding risk reduction strategies for reopening is just one of the resources posted at https://schools.forhealth.org/.

 Professor Allen will share best practices on ventilation in schools, especially in winter months; discuss how to select the right portable air cleaner for classrooms; and be available for questions from webinar attendees. Superintendents and school facilities directors are invited to attend the webinar on Friday, November 6 at 11:00 AM.

 Please click this URL to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86145939635

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MFAA2020Election

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Paul,

Congrats on your retirement. Well deserved after all these years. Glad to hear you will continue on with MFAA in the future.

Mike, Monty Tech

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Fred,

I’d be cautious with MERV 13 in Uni-Vents. Great way to overload your motors and things will start failing on you.

Seems that most districts are utilized HEPA air purifiers in classrooms to gain you about 2 ACH so you don’t have to make up as much fresh air. Maintenance nightmare for us as they do have filters but this is short lived and will help with the cold air coming issues.

Dr. Joseph Allen, author of the Harvard Sch Public Health COVID UPDATE, said during his MASBO presentation that people will have to bundle up a bit in order to have us keep our schools open. Heat on with windows open was never the design intent.

Seems like this is the next big thing we are all talking about and I’ll work with DESE on a possible answer. Looking forward to hearing from others.

Stay safe,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Last call. We still have plenty of room under the tents. If your schedule freed up it is really worth the hour out of your day to attend and share and learn from each other.

Thanks and see you around the state,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Here is the registration page for the regional tent meeting series. More may be added depending on the response. Hope to see you all in person this week.

https://oldmfaa.avatar-development.com/events/mfaa-roundtable-tent-series/

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Mike,

Not sure if you are aware of the state contract for cleaning services.  When in Sharon I worked with S.J.Services, National Facility Services, and Facilities Management and Maintenance (FM&M) over a 12 year span of 3 year contract bids. I was most happy with FM&M for their performance, communication, and attention to detail.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/fac81/download

Good luck,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Alan,

Good Point.

In the past, teachers would complain that they could feel cold air blowing on them when the room became satisfied and the heat valve closes and that was when the min OA damper was set at 10% by engineers, of course we do have duct detectors to open and close accordingly with CO2 levels. Now as we pump in more OA, the complaints will be coming. I have already said, don’t call me if your cold, We are following the Regs.

I don’t think the FD will allow those space heaters.

Mike, MT

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

This is the snippet that is still up on CDC webpage:

Cleaning and disinfecting outdoor areas

• Outdoor areas, like playgrounds in schools and parks generally require normal routine cleaning, but do not require disinfection.
  • Do not spray disinfectant on outdoor playgrounds- it is not an efficient use of supplies and is not proven to reduce risk of COVID-19 to the public.
  • High touch surfaces made of plastic or metal, such as grab bars and railings should be cleaned routinely.
  • Cleaning and disinfection of wooden surfaces (play structures, benches, tables) or groundcovers (mulch, sand) is not recommended.
• Sidewalks and roads should not be disinfected.
  • Spread of COVID-19 from these surfaces is very low and disinfection is not effective.

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Alan,

Great point and curious to see how many couldn’t hit 70 degrees with windows open. I’d have to guess more than 60% of our schools can’t handle the new recommendations without some type of supplemental heat (space heaters). ASHRAE actually has that as an option in their guidance but most people don’t read that far down into the guidance and stop at MERV 13!!!!!

Good luck out there everyone!

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Diane,

More of a plumbing code issue than a building code. The guidance, best practice, is if you can turn them off or leave bottle fillers members have been installing snowcone type paper cups with hand santizer by the bubblers to provide access to water if they aren’t bottle fillers or using bottled water with same procedures.

You can talk with your local plumbing inspector but would hazard a guess that your DPH would overrule and tell you to shut them down if you can’t make them safe.

Good luck,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Just a reminder about today’s HVAC webinar at 10am. Hope you can join us. Login information is below:

Topic:

Districts across Massachusetts are concerned that school buildings are under ventilated, increasing the chances for transmission of infectious diseases (COVID-19). The first step is to know where you stand. This session will give you a simple way to track ventilation performance of your building. It focuses on what you can easily measure about ventilation performance using the existing equipment in the building. It only requires a handful of readily available BAS points to give you an answer so you can show others that you are on top of the problem. And for those with buildings that aren’t equipped with a BAS, we’ll discuss how to capture the data needed there too.

MFAA HVAC Webinar

When	Fri Sep 4, 2020 10am – 11am Eastern Time – New York
Joining info	Join Zoom Meeting
	montytech.zoom.us/j/91493721071?… (ID: 91493721071, password: 262697)
	Join by phone
	(US) +1 833-548-0282
	Joining instructions
Joining notes	Passcode: 262697

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Here is the overview and login credentials for this Friday’s MFAA HVAC webinar provided by Interval Data Systems.

Topic:

Districts across Massachusetts are concerned that school buildings are under ventilated, increasing the chances for transmission of infectious diseases (COVID-19). The first step is to know where you stand. This session will give you a simple way to track ventilation performance of your building. It focuses on what you can easily measure about ventilation performance using the existing equipment in the building. It only requires a handful of readily available BAS points to give you an answer so you can show others that you are on top of the problem. And for those with buildings that aren’t equipped with a BAS, we’ll discuss how to capture the data needed there too.

MFAA HVAC Webinar

When	Fri Sep 4, 2020 10am – 11am Eastern Time – New York
Joining info	Join Zoom Meeting
	montytech.zoom.us/j/91493721071?… (ID: 91493721071, password: 262697)
	Join by phone
	(US) +1 833-548-0282
	Joining instructions
Joining notes	Passcode: 262697

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hi everyone,

Guidance and information has totally fallen on all of our shoulders. Each community needs to figure out what is the best fit for them and be 100% confident in their decisions not having negative inadvertent side effects from what we are trying to solve in the first place.

As you all know, many technologies are available. Portable HEPA filters units, which CT DPH says don’t provide enough coverage yet I was speaking with a colleague this morning who is a national recognized leader in industrial hygiene for schools and he says they are what is needed. Bi-polar ionization seems to be a great solution for some while UVC lighting works for others.

The immediate response, for now anyway, is a focus on having working systems (per their original design) and increasing fresh air exchanges without any consideration of either bi-polar or UVC are what is being driven short term.

Long term, the Mass Teachers Association has embraced UVGI (ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) as their go to technology of choice. As Mike D., mentioned it is time tested and proven technology. The survey is still out on the true efficacy of the ability to effectively control COVID. That being said, in the long haul it works really well on the common cold and flu so it will improve the health of your building. Initial costs are dependent on your building systems. Maintenance costs depend on frequency you are running the bulbs. Bulb replacements are expensive as the bulbs are wrapped in a protective shield to eliminate potential breakage inside your HVAC units. Additional safety switched should be installed in your unit doors to make sure the UVC light fixtures turn off during service.

There is still a stigma with Bipolar Ionization from older technologies that emitted ozone. If you are going this route, as Len did, you need to really do your homework as there are still companies on the market pushing potential harmful products.

We are currently faced with a list of “Good Enough” decisions to face. None of them are right as whatever choices we make the outcome will have an impact on someone. So we are left with do the least harm for the great good and whatever our own communities deem as their “Good Enough” solutions.

Stay safe everyone. Take care of yourselves both physically and mentally. You can’t let someone drive you crazy if you don’t give them the keys!

Ken

 

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hi again,

I just uploaded the latest copy of what the Mass Teachers Association are looking for from districts and state managed universities/colleges throughout the Commonwealth. Hopefully this will help better frame their concerns and what information they are looking for. Please remember that these are discussion items with your individual Administration and that each district needs to come to consensus individually. This is not a one size fits all for every school community.

https://oldmfaa.avatar-development.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/MTA-00_Return-to-School_letter_8-11-2020.pdf