COVID-19 Emergency: What is the Ventilation Like in Your Child's Classroom? MCPS won't answer basic ventilation questions as school reopens January 3, 2022.

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The Montgomery County Board of Education and Superintendent Monifa McKnight have announced that MCPS schools will reopen on Monday, January 3, 2022.  COVID-19 is currently surging in our area and we are in a high transmission community.  

Ventilation is one of the major ways of dispersing the COVID-19 virus and keeping down the spread of the virus from person to person.  

What is the ventilation like in your child's classroom?  MCPS won't say.  Instead, they have assigned "diamonds" to each school to supposedly represent the quality of the ventilation in each building.

But how were those "diamond" ratings determined? Don't ask. MCPS won't tell. 

What parents and teachers want to know is how were these "diamond" ratings created?  The key questions to access the ventilation in each school building have not been answered and school opens in 48 hours.  

Here are the unanswered questions:   

1.  What are the filtration levels at each school (MERV 13 or higher is recommended for HVAC recirculation to be effective)?  When were these filters last replaced?

2.  What are the filtration recirculation airflow rates for each classroom?  (or at least averages, can be absolute or on an air change basis)  When were these flows last tested?

3.  What is the outdoor ventilation rate in each classroom?  When were these flows last tested?

4.  What is the maximum CO2 in each room after the room has been occupied all day?  This will help find the poorly ventilated classrooms.