Philly Healthy
Schools Initiative
Environmental health risks in our schools
Schools are places where our kids go to learn, achieve, build lifelong
friendships and grow up to be productive citizens in society. School buildings
are also the place where our kids spend most of their waking hours.
Unfortunately, there’s growing evidence that our school buildings are plagued
with environmental health threats, from potential exposure to lead paint and
lead in drinking water, to asbestos, to common asthma triggers like mold.
Numerous studies have shown
that these threats don’t only
result in adverse health
impacts to students and staff,
but also compromise student
learning and achievement,
increase absenteeism and cause
skyrocketing costs to already
cash-strapped schools.
Consider:
•  School officials believe that nearly 100% of the paint in school buildings
constructed prior to 1978 remain lead-based paints, and lead levels in
Philadelphia’s children is double the national average;
•  15% of recent water samples taken from Philly public schools had lead
levels higher than the federal standards for home tap water;
•  Asbestos, a known carcinogen, is pervasive in schools’ pipe and heating
insulation, floor and ceiling tiles, and other products commonly found in
our schools.
These conditions put the health of our kids, teachers, principals and
maintenance workers at risk.

We need to protect our kids’ health

Recent Threats
While these threats are
pervasive in our schools,
recent examples show just how
much is at risk:
In August 2017, thousands of
square feet of mold growth
were identified on carpets,
desks, chairs, walls, ceilings
and inside ventilation systems
at Munoz-Marin Elementary
School at 3rd & Ontario. At
least $400 K was required for
“emergency clean up” yet the
root cause of the contamination
was not addressed. Sadly,
Munoz-Marin was not an
isolated incident: many other
school buildings have faced
similar mold impact.
During the summer of
2017 asbestos removal and
remediation was conducted at
several schools including Spring
Garden, Furness, and Bregy.
Independent reviews found
elevated levels of airborne asbestos
fibers in multiple areas of the
schools. Once uncovered, these
elevated levels were addressed,
but it’s unclear what would have
happened without an outside
watchdog present.

All of our schools should be healthy and safe for our children, teachers,
school workers and community members.
Yet incredibly, even the most basic standards to protect our kids and teachers
from environmental health risks in school buildings are almost non-existent
at the federal, state, local level.
This has got to change.

For more information, contact
David Masur:
   davidmasur@pennenvironment.org
   215-732-5897

 We must do better:
The Healthy Schools Initiative
We created the Philly Healthy Schools
Initiative to do just that: we’ve brought
together parents, teachers and principals,
students and community members, and
public health experts from Philadelphia
and around the country to develop a
plan to address the environmental health
threats found in our school buildings.
Our plan includes:
•  Improving the Public’s Right to Know: parents, teachers and community
members must have access to environmental health data being collected
by school district officials—but that’s not shared with the public.
•  Establish “the ABCs” for buildings: We must set “Adequate Building
Conditions”—the minimally acceptable environmental health standards
that should be met by all of our schools buildings.
•  Address the most critical environmental health threats in our schools:
and develop an action plan to remediate them in the fastest way possible.
•  Develop a “Master Plan” for our schools: most large school districts
across the country have a Facilities Master Plan to prioritize and ensure
schools are healthy and safe, but the Philadelphia School district does
not. We need to change this.
•  Create a Healthy Schools Task Force: Parents, students, teachers,
unions, and other community stakeholders must have a process to
provide input and environmental health recommendations, and help
develop the Facilities Master Plan.
•  Increase funding: Our schools must be properly funded to finance these
and other critical challenges facing our school buildings.

How you can help
Together, we are confident we can ensure our schools are safe and healthy places
for our kids to learn, teachers to teach, and community members to enjoy.
Join the Philly Healthy Schools Initiative today to:
•  Submit a Letter to the editor of your local newspaper in support of our efforts;
•  Sign up your community group, business, place of worship or other
organization to support our campaign;
•  Write a letter, send an email or make a phone call to the school district
or your local elected official in support of our campaign;

Solutions are in
use around the
country
The recommendations of
the Philly Healthy Schools
Initiative are already being
successfully used across the
nation. Now it’s time for the
Philadelphia School District
to implement these best
practices including:
Educational Facility Task
forces comprised of parents,
teachers, principals and
community members have
been established in major
cities across the U.S. including:
Chicago, Washington DC,
Seattle, Baltimore and others.
In Chicago, stakeholders
developed rigorous facility
performance standards to
provide guidance and prioritize
renovation, modernization and
construction projects to protect
health and create productive
learning environments in their
schools;
The Boston School District is
developing a comprehensive
10-year Master Plan with input
from stakeholders and its
community-driven advisory
committee.
Wyoming regularly assesses
its public school facilities and
provides detailed data to state
officials in order to comply with
state mandated requirements
for educational equity and to
bring all PK-12 schools up to a
common set of condition and
adequacy standards.

•  Volunteer your time, energy or financial support.

Friends of Neighborhood
Education (FONE)