Podcast
Disinfection techniques that help make classrooms safe for students, teachers and staff are still top of mind. Here to discuss some of the benefits of ultraviolet light disinfection are Bruce Ramsay, Brand Manager for Visioneering, and Tim Stevens, Director of Product Management for Certolux. We’ll touch on some facts and myths about UV light, the role of UV light in maintaining clean education spaces, the challenges that education professionals should be aware of when purchasing UV light technology, and the technology’s benefits for end users in educational facilities. This episode of Schools in Focus is sponsored by Viscor, a Leviton company.
Campus Safety
Georgia State University in Atlanta, Ga., recently launched a Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Systems graduate certificate program.
Campus Safety
Vector Solutions, a training and software solutions provider, recently announced the launch of an incident management system for K–12 schools designed to help districts keep track of health and safety incidents, hazards and trends.
The widespread use of hand sanitizing stations requires educational institutions to keep a bulk supply of hand sanitizing fluid on hand. And finding a location on campus to keep gallons of hand sanitizing fluid has proved to be a logistical challenge from a fire and life safety inspections perspective.
Campus Safety
School infrastructure has faced significant challenges over the past few years. As administrators look forward, they are faced with the difficult challenge of ensuring their building infrastructure encompasses both short-term safety and long-term priorities while instilling public confidence.
Podcast
This episode’s guests are Elizabeth Bonner, design director for education and hard surface, and David Dembowitz, senior vice president of sales North America, both with Mohawk Group. We’ll discuss choosing the right flooring solutions and the impact it can have on creating healthier, worry-free spaces throughout the lifecycle of the installation. We’ll touch on topics like creating productive spaces for students & staff, the impact of COVID-19 on cleanliness standards, choosing the right flooring solution, and how to navigate the flooring decision making process. This episode is sponsored by Mohawk Group.
ASSA ABLOY recently launched a 360° virtual online tour demonstrating access control and security and solutions to help higher education administrators address common challenges.
A 2013 study from the Department of Homeland Security suggests that only 15% of active assailant events in schools occur outside of the school building. That figure, then, means that 85% of active shooter events in schools occur within the building, once the assailant has made it past external security. In addition to preventing active shooter situations from occurring, it’s just as important to focus on how to manage them and minimize the damage once they’ve already begun.
A school safety officer in Long Beach, Calif., has been fired following an incident that left an 18-year-old mother brain-dead, and the Long Beach Police Department has opened a homicide investigation.
A 16-year-old student at Laramie High School in Laramie, Wyo., was arrested and led away from her school in handcuffs on Thursday, Oct. 7. Junior Grace Smith said in an interview that she was arrested for trespassing after receiving a suspension for refusing to follow the school’s mask mandate and then refusing to leave school grounds.
Healthy Schools
A $1.4 million HVAC upgrade at Missouri's East Central College, paid for by federal COVID-relief funds, is expected to mitigate the transmission of viruses in several campus buildings. The work was performed by Johnson Controls as part of its "OpenBlue" healthy buildings program.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 10/13/21
Healthy Schools
The North Bend School District in North Bend, Ore., recently announced that it has chosen Alen as its provider of indoor air quality solutions.
Healthy Schools
The Meriwether County School District in Greenville, Ga., announced this week that its school board has voted to install disinfection devices on buses.
Podcast
Today's guest is Sue Ann Highland. Currently, she's the National Education Strategist for School Specialty, but previously, she served as an educator for more than 25 years as a school and district administrator, a curriculum director, teacher, and more. She's here to talk about how dynamic learning environments can help keep students active and engaged. We'll talk about the six instructional elements that support dynamic learning, the positive and negative impacts of the pandemic, the increased reliance of both students and teachers on the digital landscape, and the general impact of learning environments on a student's educational journey. This episode is sponsored by School Specialty.
ESSER and EANS funds are designed to help schools reopen quickly and safely, as well as address the months of significant learning loss by U.S. students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only now are experts beginning to understand the full scope of learning loss brought on by a year-plus of the pandemic – and initial reports are worrying.
It is a well-known fact that the environment affects human performance, both physically and mentally. This is especially true for students, who are impacted by the quality of air in their learning environment.
Mount St. Mary's University installs a solution for slip-and-fall incidents.
- By Luke Blattenberger
- 10/01/21
COVID-19 and many other viruses are thought to spread mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets and aerosols in the air. Studies suggest that emissions from people can span a room and be pulled into air circulation systems in just a few seconds. A strong air-monitoring and air-management strategy can make the difference between a healthy environment and one in which disease easily spreads.
- By Jonathan Antar
- 10/01/21
Standard hygiene practices, like proper handwashing, are more important than ever.
Campus Technology
Even as students slowly return to in-person learning, distance learning solutions have altered educational expectations. For many students, remote learning has become a viable option. Even before the pandemic, many would have chosen to study at home if it were a more accessible option.
Healthy Schools
A study from earlier this year has revealed that the majority of Americans are aware of the benefits that natural light can have on their physical, mental, and psychological health. However, the same study also showed that nearly half of Americans ages 18 and older spend between 12 and 23 hours a day indoors, while government research suggests that most Americans spend up to 93% of their lives inside.
HVAC
Air movement, control and conditioning solutions company Greenheck announced this week that it has redesigned its Energy Core Ventilator (ECV) line.
Grants
The U.S. Department of Education announced this week that it is establishing a new grant program to provide funding to school districts that have been penalized for implementing safety measures against COVID-19.
Indoor Air Quality
Johnson Controls announced this week that it is contributing its OpenBlue Healthy Buildings portfolio to a pre-existing partnership between two science and safety organizations. UL and SafeTraces joined forces in March 2021 to begin evaluating the effectiveness of indoor air quality and HVAC systems, as well as infection control strategies, in K–12 schools.
Campus Amenities
Too often, outdoor spaces are seen as an afterthought – spaces that can be determined once everything else is evaluated and developed. But that can be a costly mistake. When prioritized as part of the school’s overall programming, value-added outdoor space benefits students’ learning and social experience, providing a solid return-on-investment for schools.
COVID-19 and Schools
Across the country, K–12 school administrators, teachers and staff are preparing to return to school in the midst of continued uncertainty. As COVID-19 continues to evolve, conflicting positions on mask mandates and safety requirements have spilled out of school board and PTA meetings into the national discourse, complicating decision-making at every level. The ongoing pandemic has created new risks, and elevated others — all of which pose challenges to K–12 operations.
Podcast
This episode’s guest is Benjamin Strain, Higher Education Design Leader for DLR Group. He's here to discuss an ongoing DLR research initiative called "The Evolution of Campus," which involves interviews and outreach to higher education institutions to help them navigate the pandemic, return to campus, and explore new spatial and design requirements to meet the needs of faculty and students. He reveals some common themes among all three rounds of research (so far) and addresses the question on everyone's mind: "What’s the future of the physical campus?"
Health & Wellness
A new survey from the National Society of High School Scholars conducted among incoming and matriculating college students revealed that almost half (44.1%) anticipate dealing with mental health issues in the coming semester, either their own or those of people around them.