Marysville Elementary School

Marysville students spend the day in poorly ventilated classrooms

Air purifiers that would clean classroom air at Marysville are in district storage

Like nearly all PPS schools, Marysville's HVAC system delivers low air-change rates in classrooms and other learning spaces. The district's own measurements show that Marysville does not meet health-based goals for ventilation, air filtration, and clean indoor air. The best way to reach healthy air targets is with a combination of building ventilation and effective in-room filtration, but Marysville currently fails on both.

The one air purifier originally assigned to Marysville‘s rooms is insufficient and undersized for Marysville classrooms and large spaces. Two or more air purifiers per classroom can substantially improve air quality, reduce respiratory viruses and air pollutants, and achieve effective air cleaning, while running at quiet settings.

Two air purifiers are needed in Marysville's classrooms, auditorium, kitchen, and teacher's lounge to more effectively clean the air. That’s why the Oregon Health Authority provided additional free air purifiers for Marysville in 2023. The district received these units, enough for a second air purifier in each classroom, but never delivered them to the school. Marysville's second air purifiers are in district storage. Teachers and staff at Marysville have also not gotten great guidance on running their one air purifier or why using two matters. At other PPS schools with the same problem, we've been able to help get this sorted out, especially when parents at a school work with us. To connect and support next steps for clean classroom air at Marysville, join our Marysville group, and learn more about Marysville‘s air quality below.

Without air purifiers, Marysville does not have clean indoor air

One air purifier is undersized for Marysville classrooms

With only one air purifier per classroom, Marysville classrooms still lack clean air:

Although the Intellipure air purifiers originally assigned to Marysville improve the school's clean airflow rates, they are insufficient in Marysville classrooms. Even with an Intellipure air purifier running at its reasonable noise level (half speed), the classroom with the lowest ventilation from the HVAC system — room 127 — is still far below healthy airflow targets. With room 127 at 3.4 air changes per hour, kids’ and staff’s viruses in their respiratory aerosols linger for over 41 minutes.

At 3.4 air changes/hour, 41 minutes is how long it takes for the HVAC system and Intellipure air purifier to clear out 90% of the respiratory aerosols being produced when kids and staff breathe, talk, sing, cough and sneeze.

With only one air purifier per classroom:

✘ Worst-airflow classroom (room 127) is still less than 4 air changes per hour

✘ 1 other Marysville classroom has less than 4 air changes per hour

✘ 19 classrooms are between 4 and 6 air changes – below recommendations

If one Intellipure unit is running at its quiet noise level, only 4 classrooms meet our minimum goal for healthy ventilation and filtration of 6 air changes per hour or more, clearing 90% of aerosols out in 23 minutes or less.

Marysville needs two air purifiers per classroom to clean classroom air

Two air purifiers make a big difference — but some rooms would still fall short

In some Marysville classrooms, the baseline ventilation is so low that two air purifiers alone cannot fully solve the problem. Even so, using both an Intellipure and a Medify Pro still makes a major difference in these rooms, reducing exposure for students and staff compared with using only one unit, or none.

For example, Marysville‘s worst-airflow classroom — Room 127 — is 5.2 air changes per hour even with two air purifiers. Although this is still below the minimum healthy air target of 6, it is far better than the 2.5 air changes per hour the room gets with no air purifiers running. Room 133 follows the exact same pattern: it reaches only 5.2 air changes per hour with two air purifiers, meaning that viruses, bacteria, asthma triggers, and other air pollutants linger in the classroom air for over 27 minutes. But without both air purifiers, Room 133 is only 2.5 air changes per hour.

Visualizing how much air purifiers improve Marysville classroom airflow

The graphs below show how little ventilation most Marysville classrooms get without any air purifiers running. They also show how the addition of one air purifier per classroom shifts the rooms’ airflow rates higher but still leaves most rooms below health-based benchmarks for clean air. With two air purifiers per classroom, the pattern changes. Although two air purifiers would still leave 2 classrooms short of 6 air changes per hour, having two units per room would move most classrooms into the healthy air range above 6, and the lowest airflow classrooms would be much improved.

Number of classrooms vs air changes per hour

Marysville needs its second air purifiers in classrooms, not in storage

The storage of Marysville’s second air purifiers — as well as other PPS schools’ second units — has left resources meant to improve classroom health and safety sitting unused, when they could be making a meaningful difference to health and learning. Marysville's second air purifiers should not be left in district storage when district data shows Marysville's clear need for more air filtration capacity. These second units should be in classrooms and other school spaces, providing critical benefits of clean indoor air, such as reduced illness, improved learning, and better attendance.

Distributing and using this clean air infrastructure needs action at all levels, from district leadership to the classroom. Parents, caregivers, and school staff also have key roles to play to help get Marysville's second air purifiers out of storage and into classrooms and ensure clean classroom air. Join SIAFOS and our Marysville group to connect with others who care about clean, cool classroom air at Marysville.

How can you help with clean air for Marysville?

Let's get Marysville's second air purifiers out of storage and into Marysville classrooms — Sign up to help fix this so these air cleaners get delivered and running quietly to keep Marysville classroom air clean!

Two air purifiers running at quiet settings in each classroom would provide more air filtration to the 3 Marysville classrooms that do not even get 3 changes of air per hour and the 21 classrooms that only get between 3 and 6! Using multiple air purifiers would also ensure Marysville‘s cafeteria, where kids pack in close to eat lunch, and library and other key spaces get better air quality, too.

Join us to be part of a group of parents and community members advocating for strategic, effective, and science-based planning for sufficient ventilation and filtration capacity in PPS schools — including Marysville. PPS air quality efforts have cycled between strong progress as well as periods of inaction and missteps. We are now working more collaboratively with district leadership, yet long-standing gaps in ventilation and air filtration persist across the district — which is why parent, staff, and community involvement at the classroom level, school level, and district level remains so important.

Changing our schools in PPS to have good air quality practices only happens when families and staff work together. When you join us, we’ll connect you with others and share simple processes that help PPS kids and staff, including kids and staff at Marysville, learn and work in classrooms with cleaner air, less illness, and healthier learning environments. Sign up below to join our organizing for PPS air quality!

*Notes on our numbers

Air changes per hour given on this page are “equivalent” and include ventilation and filtration.  These numbers are based on the district’s airflow report for Marysville, conducted in August 2021 (available at safeairoregon.org/original-airflow-reports) but corrected gaps and errors.