A bill that passed the legislature this session makes HVAC funding more accessible to school districts, and Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz and Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Michelle Halloran Gilman visited East Hartford High School today to get the word out about the grant program, which goes live August 1.
“We want to make sure the whole state knows that we have a new HVAC program for schools, because every town and every city across Connecticut has a school that is in need of HVAC upgrades. We found when we first started this program that the need was so great that to have a couple of opportunities a year for towns and cities to apply was not enough,” Bysiewicz said.
She thanked legislative partners who supported the new program, which makes the HVAC grant program that originated during COVID a permanent part of the state’s school construction funding system, allowing applications for funding to be submitted every month.
At East Hartford High School, funds from that previous grant program are going to replace four rooftop units that are almost 30 years old and are at the end of their lifespan for circulating fresh air and heating and cooling the library—a large room that many of the schools nearly 2,000 students and teachers pass through at some point during the day. The new units are arriving from Texas in mid-August and will be installed before school begins.
“We need a healthy environment for our kids so they can learn and for our teachers and staff so that everybody can be healthy while we’re preparing our future leaders,” Bysiewicz added.
“If our students are unhealthy and our conditions aren’t safe, our students aren’t able to learn the way they need to,” said CEA President Kate Dias. “Teachers are happy to know lawmakers have listened to our concerns about ventilation and properly heating and cooling our schools. This new program provides grant funding that will be vital to making the air in our schools healthier for students and staff alike.”
Halloran Gilman said that her department has distributed more than 175 million dollars to school districts over the last two years.
A board in the East Hartford High School library shows the four units the school is able to replace thanks to state HVAC grant funds.
“But that was through a competitive grant program,” she said. “Schools had to get a grant application through our agency on a limited-time basis. This now allows school districts to apply monthly, very similarly to how they apply for grant funds through our roof program and others.”
She said that districts are already used to the process and DAS’s grant team works with districts every day explaining how to submit applications.
“We’re really excited that this program is going live in just a few days,” Halloran Gilman said. “We know from a day like today, one of our hottest days of the summer, that schools need this program. With all of the effects of climate change taking place and the ups and downs of what we’re seeing in cooling and heating across our country this program is very timely and very much needed.”
She acknowledged the work of CEA, AFT Connecticut, and the state’s Indoor Air Quality Commission that together advocated for years to provide schools with access to funding to improve HVAC systems.
“This isn’t about comfort, and I think that when we started these conversations years and years ago, it was perceived that this was about comfort,” Dias said. “We now know better. We know that when you overheat spaces they become unhealthy for many reasons. Hot spaces increase lethargy; they make it harder for our students to learn. We’re now acknowledging that proper ventilation and proper cooling systems are just as necessary as proper heating systems. This grant program also helps address the socioeconomic disparity between districts.”
“We know that if an individual is exposed to allergens, their ability to concentrate decreases significantly,” said Senator Saud Anwar, a pulmonologist and chair of the legislature’s Public Health Committee. “All that we have done, what the governor and the legislator and DAS has done, is for our children but also for our teachers and everybody who is in this building who is working non-stop.”
Connecticut Association of Public Schools Superintendent Fran Rabinowitz previously worked as superintendent of Hamden and Bridgeport public schools.
“I remember how many times I had to go to schools to check the temperature and make the difficult decision to release students early because it was just too hot,” she said. “That’s a dangerous situation. You’re releasing students but you’re not quite sure that there is childcare at home in the middle of the day. I can’t say enough about this program and what it will do for schools everywhere.”
