North Bend School District Chooses Air Purification Provider

  • By Matt Jones
  • 10/11/21

The North Bend School District in North Bend, Ore., recently announced that it has chosen Alen as its provider of indoor air quality solutions. According to a news release, the district has ordered 158 units to protect every classroom and communal space across its four schools, which serve a total of 2,300 students. Alen, based in Austin, Texas, has a presence in more than 50,000 classrooms across the country and provides solutions that purify the air of allergens, mold, dust, bacteria and other airborne viruses, including COVID-19.

“We conducted significant research in our selection of Alen’s purifiers to protect our students, faculty and staff with the most efficient air purification system,” said North Bend School District Superintendent Kevin Bogatin. “Alen air purifiers supplement our current HVAC system to deliver powerful air cleaning capacity that is whisper-quiet, meets the 4–6 air changers per hour according to public health recommendations and has medical-grade True HEPA filtration.”

The purifiers have already been installed at the district’s four schools: Hillcrest Elementary, North Bay Elementary, North Bend Middle School and North Bend High School. The press release states that air purifiers with the correct capacity for a classroom reduce virus particle counts, reducing the chance that an infected student will add enough particles to the air to infect another student. The air purifiers use specialized fans to pull air through a large HEPA filter, cleaning it of microscopic particles. Independent lab tests show that the Alen products can capture about 99.4% of virus particles from a 1,050-cube-foot area within 20 minutes.

“The decision-makers at North Bend did their homework, and the families in their district should be proud and grateful for their decision,” said Andy Graham, CEO of Alen. “We at Alen are dedicated to the science of air flow and how aerosol viruses travel, and we are on a mission to arm decision-makers with the facts. We are aligned with what scientists and experts are saying. There are three critical elements to consider: the number of air changes per hour, the need for true HEPA H13 filtration (not HEPA-like) and the need for a powerful system that can run constantly and—equally important—quietly.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • MiEN Releases White Paper on Community College Space Innovation

    MiEN Company recently released a new white paper called “Designing New Innovative Spaces for Community Colleges” to address the needs of community colleges post-pandemic, according to a news release. The eight-page guide by Dr. Christina Counts, MiEN Company VP of Education and Marketing, covers topics like the enrollment drop that these schools have seen since COVID-19, the roles they play in higher education and local workforces, and five suggested key changes that can improve students’ experiences.

  • Design Firm Populous Acquires Fentress Architects

    Design firm Populous, which specializes in sports and entertainment venues, recently announced its acquisition of Fentress Architects, based in Denver, Colo., according to a news release. Fentress’ primary focus is aviation projects and public buildings like museums, convention centers, and government facilities

  • Tennant Company Launches Autonomous Floor Scrubber

    Cleaning equipment and solutions provider Tennant Company recently launched the new X6 ROVR, a mid-sized robotic scrubber designed for large commercial and light-industrial environments, according to a news release. The autonomous machine can clean up to 75,000 square feet peer cycle with minimal needs for manual assistance.

  • Key Considerations for Office-to-Higher-Education Facility Conversions

    Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, office-to-alternative-use conversions have become a recurring subject of urban development discourse. Office utilization rates across major U.S. cities remain below 50%, with vacancy rates exceeding 27% in San Francisco and 16% in New York. Higher education facilities present programmatic and spatial use cases that align readily with the typical characteristics of commercial office buildings.

Digital Edition