Children up to age 10 have three times as many colds as adults. School facilities, by design, are densely populated, making the task of maintaining acceptable indoor air quality more difficult than many other types of buildings. The sole purpose of a school facility is to foster the learning process, which is directly impacted by the quality of the indoor air. Contaminated indoor air causes drowsiness, lack of concentration, headaches, difficulty in retaining detailed information, reduced comprehension, and diminished motivation. Managing schools involves the combined responsibility of stewardship of public funds, pursuing high educational objectives, and championing child health and safety issues.
Budgets are tight, and maintenance often receives the largest cuts during budget reductions.
A large number and wide variety of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems place added strain on the maintenance staff. As schools expand, the new facilities usually introduce different designs, equipment, and operating challenges. Many schools use existing rooms, portable classrooms or buildings, which were not originally designed to service the unique requirement of schools. A typical school building has four times as many occupants as an office building with the same amount of floor space. The human traffic into and out of school buildings every day introduces and stirs an unusually high mix of indoor pollutants.