October 14th, 2022

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We remain committed to ensuring Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) schools are safe for students and staff. In support of this we have made significant investments and improvements. These are outlined in detail below.

WRDSB Facilities Services has continued to implement a range of strategies to improve ventilation with the goal of reducing the spread of COVID-19. This work was completed in partnership with the Ministry of Education and utilizing available provincial, federal and Board of Trustees approved funding.

Want to learn more about the school-specific ventilation improvement measures taken? You can find them on our website: Ventilation in WRDSB Schools.

Measures Taken

Here is an overview of the measures taken to improve ventilation and filtration in WRDSB schools:

  • Investing approximately $53 million in improvements to:
    • Ventilation and filtration systems, including upgrades to ventilation infrastructure,
    • Deployment of standalone HEPA filter units and other ventilation devices
    • Funded through Provincial, Federal and Board of Trustees approved funding
  • Installing 3,504 HEPA units in WRDSB schools.
    • All 303 full-day Kindergarten classrooms and all 93 Alternative Continuum of Education (ACE) classrooms have been equipped with a portable HEPA filtration unit
    • Other units have been deployed to:
      • Portables
      • Gyms
      • Libraries
      • Auditoriums
      • Music rooms
      • Admin areas
    • In addition, some units have been reserved as spare
  • Increasing the frequency of changing filters in existing mechanical systems.
  • Prioritizing repairs for mechanical systems to ensure they are operating efficiently.
  • Setting the systems to run at maximum outside airflow before school starts and after it ends
    • This will refresh the air before arrival and remove remaining particles at the end of the day
  • Encouraging schools to open windows for short periods of time throughout the day
    • This will increase ventilation and bring in natural fresh air

New Measures

This year, we will be implementing a new air-quality pilot project in some of our schools. Our goal is to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of placing CO2 monitors in schools. This would be to determine whether they could be used to measure and log statistics on air quality and clean air delivery rate.

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