Breathing Easier In Beaufort County

By Dave Winans

A South Carolina local affiliate and district tackle indoor air quality concerns through mutual trust and lots of communication.

Photos by Stephen Morton

If Stuart Akins had complained in years past about poor indoor air quality (IAQ) in her Beaufort County (South Carolina) high school, she’d have been deafened by the silence. Fact is, laments this family and consumer science teacher, nobody in her building “would say or do anything” about IAQ-related ailments back then.

Disorganization and downright fear kept this dirty little issue under the rug. In the Beaufort of old, there was simply no way to successfully file an IAQ complaint, recalls Akins’ school nurse, Diane Murray. And edgy educators, she says, would think, “I’m going to get the schedule from hell next year if I complain.”

Today, fear is being phased out in Beaufort County, an 18,000-student district in the heart of a non-bargaining, “right-to-work” state. And the Beaufort County Education Association (BCEA) has been at the center of the transformation, striving over the years to build a working relationship with top administrators based on trust and communication.

“If you’ve got a problem, you can bring it straight to us,” Superintendent Herman Gaither likes to say to teachers and support professionals. “We’re not going to take you out and flog you—we’re going to try to address it as quickly as possible.”

That may be idle talk in some places, but for Akins there’s now reason to believe.

Prevention at the Source

Akins’ own experience started last school year, when she began having headaches and sinus problems that miraculously cleared up during her weekends at home. She complained to Murray, a 12-year nurse at Battery Creek High School with IAQ training. Murray quickly got district indoor air quality coordinator Jim Vicar into Akins’ work area, where he interviewed teachers and inspected for mold, vermin feces, and carbon dioxide.

In Akins’ classroom, Vicar found water stains on carpeting and mold on stored books. He ordered disinfection of the trouble spots, an airing of classroom contents, steam cleaning of the carpeting, and installation of new shelving away from the students.

By year’s end, Akins was still dealing with a few symptoms. But unlike with problems in years past, she felt optimistic that things were being fixed. “Now I know there’s an end to this,” she says with a smile.

What gave her confidence? It’s Beaufort’s new systemwide approach to dealing with indoor air problems—a system that came about through BCEA persistence and Association-administration cooperation.

Inspecting from Every Angle

It’s a system designed to turn average educators into IAQ watchdogs. Custodian Steve Kennerson, the person who wiped down Akins’ furniture with an antimicrobial solution, now has an air quality role that doesn’t end with cleaning. He’s become part of a Battery Creek school IAQ team—along with a teacher, district and site administrators, nurse Murray, and a parent—that will regularly inspect this huge building with an IAQ checklist from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

And broad-based IAQ teams at Beaufort’s 25 other schools—each trained last spring by EPA—are gearing up to start similar “walkthroughs.” The common goal, spelled out by EPA’s IAQ “Tools for Schools” program, is to identify and prevent indoor air pollution at its source through “no-cost or low-cost” solutions.

Vicar, now retired from the district, predicts these workday school tours will be an eye-opener. “You have five or six people on the team all looking in different ways,” he says. “The district IAQ coordinator will look from a facility angle, the teacher from an instructional angle, the parent from a safety angle, and the nurse from a health angle.”

In the Beaufort of old, once a maintenance worker determined an HVAC filter was clean, the case was closed. But with a walkthrough and a checklist, “it doesn’t stop there,” stresses Vicar. “You look at filters, you look at coils, you look much deeper into mechanical systems. You actually get up and walk the roofs, looking for leaks and dealing with them.”

Driving Out that Old Fear

Beaufort County actually had made a good start in the last decade when it crafted its own air quality “management plan” and IAQ standards, which require, among other things, standardized equipment and maintenance procedures in new schools and the retrofitting of older structures.

But despite the best district planning, IAQ problems still made folks sick. When residue from a 2002 ductwork cleaning project at Battery Creek High sent some teachers reeling, BCEA President Bernadette Hampton filed a health and safety grievance. “That got our attention,” says Superintendent Gaither.
Gaither quickly became open to a long-term IAQ solution, and in late 2003, he authorized Hampton and Murray to attend EPA’s annual IAQ Tools for Schools Symposium in Washington, D.C., and agreed—in advance—to implement the lessons they brought home.

At that conference, Hampton, Murray, and South Carolina Education Association UniServ Director Robin Gardner listened to IAQ experts and heard success stories from schools with strong track records of implementing effective IAQ management plans. The experts “told us that in humid climates, like ours, you’re never going to be rid of mold,” reports Murray, “but there are certain things you can do, starting with education.”

The education starts, says Hampton, a Battery Creek math teacher, “with little things that teachers can do to prevent IAQ problems, like not stacking things on their classroom vents.”

The next lesson is tailor-made for administrators. “We learned that 80 percent of IAQ can be taken care of for free,” notes Gardner. “The minute we told that to Beaufort County administrators, they loosened their ties and breathed a little easier.”

The superintendent kept his word to BCEA leaders. The district endorsed EPA’s Tools for Schools program and now faithfully follows its recommendations—right down to the composition of Beaufort’s district-wide and school-based IAQ teams—and even asked the Association to help it drive that old fear out of the air quality complaint process.

The BCEA’s recommendation for doing that: Make the school nurse the IAQ point person. “You know what goes on with the staff, because they come and see you, and you hear from parents,” explains nurse Murray. “The reporting mechanism is there and the protocol on how to handle things is already set. Plus, everybody’s comfortable talking to a school nurse.”

For more on the IAQ Tools For Schools program or contact BCEA President Bernadette Hampton.

It Starts with Organizing

South Carolina may be a non-bargaining, right-to-work state, but the Beaufort County Education Association has found the formula for building membership, getting educators involved, and making administrators listen. It’s been the key to their success on IAQ problems and more. Just what do they do?

1. Educate. “Our Association is a resource,” says local President Bernadette Hampton. In partnership with the South Carolina Education Association, the BCEA promotes classroom management workshops for new teachers and e-mails updates on education legislation to all members. The BCEA even organized a March symposium on the EPA Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program, attended by some 130 school stakeholders, from parents to principals.
2. Connect. BCEA leaders are rooted in their community and have labored for years to build a relationship with administrators. “We have support from the top of this district and it trickles down to every level,” says Hampton. “Members call us because they know we have that connection to the district.” Superintendent Herman Gaither consults the BCEA before making major policy changes and meets monthly with local leaders. “Everyone brings things to the table. We have the BCEA involved in strategy, even when we talk about the budget,” Gaither says. “We explain our budget to them—what’s going to be there, what’s not, and why. It’s opened up a lot of areas of communication between us.”
3. Listen. BCEA leaders ask folks what’s on their mind and “try to draw something from them, especially younger people,” says UniServ Director Robin Gardner. And when those educators stew about a workplace problem, they walk right by a competing teachers’ group. “There is always somebody at the BCEA who will walk you through the process and will sit next to you if you’re on the hot seat,” stresses high school English teacher Sandra Davis, a former local president.
4. Reach out. The BCEA reaches out to everyone in the education family, from ESPs to education majors at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. “We encourage our members and ‘building contact persons’ to invite new educators to become part of the Association,” says Hampton. No