Financing IAQ Projects

FINANCING IAQ PROJECTS

 

Providing for and maintaining good indoor air quality may require additional funds to design, renovate and/or construct healthy school buildings or to increase school building operation and maintenance budgets.  Money for capital improvements and maintenance is usually the first to be eliminated when school budgets are cut.  The US EPA has created a web site to assist schools and school districts to identify potential sources of funding for IAQ projects: EPA Resources for Schools – Financing Mechanisms:                                                             http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/funding.html

Included in their suggestions for creative funding are:

-         Foundation grants

-         Rebates and tax-exempt leases

-         System benefit funds

-         Performance contracting

-         Energy efficiency savings

-         Bonds

-         In-kind assistance from outside organizations or service groups

 

CT schools may declare a “certified indoor air quality emergency” to receive school construction bonding money.  Information may be found on the CT State Department of Education Bureau of School Facilities web site section on Grant Eligibility for Certified Indoor Air Quality Emergency:

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/word_docs/dgm/sfu/guide02/projelig.doc#IAQ

 

CT GENERAL STATUTES:

 

Sec. 10-282 through 10-292. Public School Building Projects

10-282 (19) [definitions]- "Certified school indoor air quality emergency" means the existence of a building condition determined by the Department of Public Health to present a substantial and imminent adverse health risk that requires remediation in an amount greater than one hundred thousand dollars;

Sec. 10-283. Applications for grants for school building projects.

 (b) Notwithstanding the application date requirements of this section, the Commissioner of Education may approve applications for grants to assist school building projects to remedy damage from fire and catastrophe, to correct safety, health and other code violations, to replace roofs, to remedy a certified school indoor air quality emergency, or to purchase and install portable classroom buildings at any time within the limit of available grant authorization and make payments thereon within the limit of appropriated funds, provided portable classroom building projects shall not create a new facility or cause an existing facility to be modified so that the portable buildings comprise a substantial percentage of the total facility area, as determined by the commissioner.

10-286(a) (9) In the case of projects approved to remedy certified school indoor air quality emergencies, the eligible percentage, as determined in section 10-285a, of the eligible cost as determined by the Commissioner of Education;

 

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Question: Have you ever had to be creative in finding funds for getting IAQ projects completed?

Answer:  When we found that cardboard storage boxes were getting wet and causing mold problems, we went to our PTA for help.  They provided funds to buy plastic storage bins for all classrooms.

When our school flooded last summer, we used inmates from the local state jail to move books from our library to prevent them from getting wet. 

 

RELATED LINKS

 

EPA Resources for Schools – Financing Mechanisms:

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/funding.html

 

EPA Air & Radiation Grants and Funding website:

http://www.epa.gov/air/grants_funding.html#oap

 

CT State Department of Education Bureau of School Facilities website:

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2636&q=320552

 

CT State Department of Education Bureau of School Facilities Grant Eligibility for Certified Indoor Air Quality Emergency:

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/word_docs/dgm/sfu/guide02/projelig.doc#IAQ

 

School IAQ Funding web site:

www.schooliaqfunding.org