Facilities Management Plays Key Role in Healthy Learning Environments

Supporting school facilities teams is essential in improving indoor air quality 

During sessions at NSBA's Annual Conference earlier this year, six exemplary school districts, representing the full range of size, budget, and geographic location, offered vital lessons on the work needed to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy efficiency to enhance the well-being of students and staff, writes Jill Buck, founder and executive director of the Go Green Initiative. Together with longtime K-12 facilities expert Ken Wertz, these districts shed light on how school boards and administrators can support their facilities staff in improving IAQ across their districts. 

July 20, 2026

At this year’s NSBA Annual Conference in April, we heard from six school districts—representing the full gamut of size, budget, and geographic location—that excelled in improving indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy efficiency to enhance the well-being of their students. Five of these districts had earned a 2026 Magna Award for their efforts. Despite their demographic differences, each district conveyed a commitment to healthy learning environments and stewardship of public resources. They recognize that poor IAQ adversely impacts students’ health and cognitive ability. 

We held a webinar in May with Ken Wertz, a longtime K-12 facilities director and current executive director of the National School Plant Management Association (NSPMA), discussing his perspective on energy-efficient IAQ management. I asked him how school board members and senior school administrators can support their facilities staff in the work of improving IAQ in their districts. 

The lessons learned from the six exemplary school districts and Wertz were strikingly similar, and worthy of chronicling for the benefit of all school districts seeking to protect their own students and staff from unhealthy pollutants in the indoor learning environment. 

IAQ ROLE MODEL DISTRICTS 

Pacific Northwest – Issaquah School District 411, Washington

• Suburban
• Schools – 28
• Enrollment – 18,500

Issaquah School District 411 revolutionized facilities management by adopting a policy-driven approach, moving away from reactive maintenance to using a data-driven framework like the one offered by Healthy Green Schools. The focus is on IAQ, which is deemed a vital educational priority for student well-being. This led to specific IAQ improvements, including using centralized monitoring and resolving a formaldehyde odor at Apollo Elementary by shifting to green cleaning materials. These comprehensive efforts have demonstrated success in energy conservation, with the district being recognized as the largest energy saver in the region during 2023-24. 

South – Tornillo Independent School District, Texas

• Rural
• Schools – 3
• Enrollment – 726

Operating in a resource-constrained environment with a lean maintenance team managing a diverse infrastructure, Tornillo ISD pursues aggressive external grant funding for modernization and energy efficiency initiatives. The district’s facility roadmap includes key IAQ and environmental health milestones. By partnering with the Go Green Initiative, Tornillo ISD remediated critical building envelope leaks and bolstered respiratory health using iWave technology in rooftop units and deploying classroom air purifiers. Furthermore, the districtwide LED retrofit program optimizes lighting efficiency, which reduces fixture counts. Financial dividends generated from these utility savings are immediately reinvested to retrofit remaining campuses, demonstrating self-funding energy stewardship.

Midwest – East St. Louis School District 189, Illinois

• Urban
• Schools – 9
• Enrollment – 4,557

East St. Louis School District 189 initiated a $35 million modernization effort, viewing facilities management as a cornerstone of its educational mission. This initiative targets net-zero carbon emissions, featuring a comprehensive HVAC overhaul across its 10 buildings. Integrating LED lighting, occupancy sensors, and enhanced weatherization is projected to yield $300,000 in savings at the high school. To prioritize IAQ and combat pediatric asthma, teams use real-time monitoring for pollutants (PM2.5, CO2, and TVOCs). Centralized digital controls enable staff to remotely oversee and maintain mechanical systems, a strategy that has significantly reduced service complaints and labor requirements. The district’s roadmap also includes transitioning toward demand-controlled ventilation to refine healthy learning environments.

New England – Boston Public Schools, Massachusetts

• Urban
• Schools – 119
• Enrollment – 45,742

Boston Public Schools (BPS) has transformed facilities management into a fundamental pillar of the educational mission by establishing IAQ as a priority for student achievement. By leveraging internal technical expertise, such as that of industrial hygienist Jake Lacey, the district ensures that healthy learning environments remain a permanent institutional goal. To overcome significant logistical hurdles and resource constraints across its 119-building portfolio, BPS secured ESSER funding to invest in energy-efficient infrastructure and real-time monitoring. These digital systems allow teams to track pollutants and respiratory triggers, shifting from reactive maintenance to a proactive strategy that protects the well-being of the entire school community.

Northeast – Salamanca City Central School District, New York

• Rural & Tribal
• Schools – 3
• Enrollment – 1,252

Guided by the Seneca principle of stewardship for the next seven generations, Salamanca City Central School District has redefined facilities management as a cultural and educational mission. This transformation was sparked by critical mold challenges and a rise in pediatric respiratory issues, leading the district to establish IAQ as a top priority. By deploying real-time digital monitoring at Prospect Elementary, staff now leverage data-driven insights to increase student attendance and teacher well-being. This strategy is bolstered by a $110,000 investment in energy-efficient infrastructure and the appointment of an on-site manager to optimize healthy learning environments through collaborative teamwork.

East Coast – Prince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland

• Suburban
• Schools – 187
• Enrollment – 132,854

Overseeing the third-oldest portfolio of public school buildings in Maryland, Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) allocates nearly half of its capital resources toward the high cost of deferred maintenance. These aging facilities often struggle with critical IAQ challenges, particularly humidity-induced mold that legacy HVAC systems were not designed to remediate. In response, the district has deployed a fleet of over 500 air scrubbers and dehumidifiers while prioritizing community transparency by sharing real-time environmental data. Central to their modernization roadmap is the Climate Change Action Plan, which integrates energy stewardship—including zero-waste initiatives and electric bus transitions—into a larger organizational shift. By moving from reactive repairs to a data-driven framework, the district aims to establish a healthy, sustainable infrastructure as a permanent pillar of student achievement.

Pro Tips from Leaders Who Paved the Way
To ensure institutionalization of IAQ Management year-over-year, school district leadership must transition from viewing facilities management as a mere budget line item to recognizing it as a fundamental pillar of student achievement. This transition involves a comprehensive approach across four key pillars.

1. Shift Organizational Culture
District leadership must initiate a top-down commitment to redefine the facilities mission from reactive maintenance to proactive health and achievement.

“We want to make sure that this wasn’t looked upon as some silo. The air quality operation impacts student achievement, attendance, grades, and just the health of our students in general,” says Arthur Culver, superintendent of East St. Louis School District 189. “In our district everybody knows that when the superintendent is actively on point and involved in any initiative, that means that it’s important. The sense of urgency has been there from day one.”

By codifying these priorities into formal policies and adopting a holistic view that integrates infrastructure with curriculum, districts ensure that health and safety remain permanent institutional goals.

“Air quality isn’t just a facilities priority. This is an educational priority that goes to the very core of our district vision and mission ... [students and teachers] cannot thrive if they cannot breathe the air in their environments,” says A.J. Taylor, an Issaquah school board member. “Our school board is really responsible for passing policies that reflect our community values, and then we hand off day-to-day operations to our superintendent to execute against those policies.”

“When students are breathing better, when they’re not worried about their respiratory conditions flaring up, then you can talk about all of those other aspects that allow them to thrive in an educational space,” says Stephen Alkins, a member of the Boston Public Schools Committee. 

“Believe the employees and the parents when they tell you the children are sick, or the employees saying this building is making me sick. You can’t see the water in the walls right away ... you have to believe them that their body is telling us there’s something wrong,” says Pamela Boozer-Strother, a school board member of Prince George’s County Public Schools. 

“The school building is likely the safest building that most of these kids are going to see ... For seven hours of their day, they know they’re safe. They know they’ll be fed. They know they’ll be warm,” says Ken Wertz, executive director of NSPMA. 

2. Prioritize Preventative Maintenance and Strategic Funding
Strategic financial commitment is essential. Proactive investment in preventative maintenance (PM) avoids the high costs of deferred maintenance and prevents permanent health issues for students.

“Deferred maintenance costs $4 of deferred maintenance for every $1 of preventative maintenance ... causing a child to have asthma because you had to make a budget cut when they were in 3rd grade isn’t a great place to be,” says Wertz.

Districts also should secure external resources like grants, rebates, and partnerships to fund efficiency and IAQ work. East St. Louis School District 189 partnered with its local utility, Ameren Illinois, to convert all facilities to LED lighting with occupancy sensors and weatherized building envelopes with new window seals. These upgrades are projected to save $300,000 over a 10-year period at the high school alone.

“We depend on federal money, on any grants. We applied for a Texas Safety Grant. With that grant we were able to replace all the windows at the junior high and the intermediate school … We changed from fluorescent to LED [lighting]. We [retrofitted] the elementary school. With the cost savings, we were able to buy new lights for the intermediate, and now we’re retrofitting the high school. Most of our classrooms had 10 fluorescent light bulbs. We went down to 7 with the LEDs. So it saved us quite a bit of money,” says Rene Estrada, the facilities and transportation director at Tornillo Independent School District. 

“Collaboration is the force multiplier,” says Joe Haskell, director of maintenance, operations, and risk management at East St. Louis School District 189. “We really want to make sure that the students and staff are comfortable when they’re there, but the buildings aren’t wasting energy when no one is there.”

“I also encourage folks out there to really lean in on your educational institutions of higher ed that are just there to establish some of those partnerships to sort of help with the buy-in,” says BPS Committee member Alkins.

3. Implement Data-Driven Systems
Empowered facilities teams rely on rigorous assessments and centralized control. Utilizing facilities condition assessments and building-specific testing provide a reliable baseline for planning. 

“[We helped people] understand how [IAQ] connected to our strategic plan, our campus plans, and all our department plans. We showed the impact of indoor air quality and how it impacted our attendance,” says Superintendent Culver. “When this started, our rates for chronic absenteeism was about 56%, which is more than double the state average of 26%. So we talked about the airborne pathogens and diseases that are spread when you have outdated HVAC systems that aren’t cleaning the air the way that it should. We had a group of environmental consultants that came in and did an air quality assessment of all our schools and all our buildings and showed that we really need to upgrade the systems.”

“Building on baseline assessments, the district secured $110,000 in new funding to deepen their energy efficiency efforts,” says Sandra Brundage, a grant administrator at Salamanca City Central School District. “We are also in the process of hiring an on-site energy manager through a NYSERDA grant to optimize their new and existing spaces.”

Furthermore, investing in integrated digital control systems and specialized technical expertise allows staff to monitor campuses remotely and address maintenance based on actual necessity rather than on arbitrary schedules.

“When ESSER grants were coming from the federal government, we invested approximately $35 million into the district infrastructure. We had aging buildings at the time. We replaced all the chillers, physical plants, boilers, pumps, as well as the rooftop units, ERVs, basically all the mechanical systems for all the buildings. The biggest aspect that we also added was having integrated controls for all those. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time to drive to 10 different buildings around the district and check what’s going on. Every time a teacher puts in a work ticket now, we can just hop online and see what’s going on with that specific room. And it makes a huge difference on my guys’ times. They love it,” says Haskell of East St. Louis.

4. Foster Collaboration and Transparency
Leaders should increase transparency by sharing IAQ reports online and empowering all staff through professional development and collaborative partnerships. “The partnership with the union [has] been really, really beneficial in our district,” says Issaquah school board member Taylor.

By enforcing clear protocols and educating the community on the impacts for students and staff, districts create a collective responsibility for maintaining a healthy school environment.

“The CCAP [Climate Change Action Plan] has beautifully been this conduit and bridging silos ... so that all of our departments are aligned with the district’s sustainability goals,” says Sheila Stevens, Prince George’s County Public Schools program manager. 
Effective facilities management requires communitywide engagement. 

“For us on the Seneca Nation territory, we have a very strong connection to the environment,” says Mark Beehler, the superintendent of Salamanca City Central School District. “Whatever we do, we have to consider how it will impact the next seven generations.” 

School districts can revolutionize their instructional spaces by institutionalizing four core principles: transitioning organizational culture toward a proactive health strategy, anchoring budgets in preventative maintenance and external grant acquisition, deploying data-driven monitoring systems, and cultivating community transparency. By solidifying this roadmap, district leaders establish facilities management as a permanent pillar of student achievement, guaranteeing a sustainable and healthy learning environment where every student can flourish.

Jill Buck (jillbuck@gogreeninitiative.org) is the founder and CEO of the Go Green Initiative.