Pioneer at Youngson and Holladay Center

Pioneer students spend the day in classrooms with inadequate ventilation

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

Pioneer's HVAC system delivers air-change rates that mostly range from low to marginal in classrooms and other learning spaces. The district's own measurements show that Pioneer 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 Pioneer currently falls short on both.

The one air purifier originally assigned to Pioneer‘s rooms is insufficient and undersized for Pioneer 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 Pioneer's classrooms, kitchen, library, and main office to more effectively clean the air. That’s why the Oregon Health Authority provided additional free air purifiers for Pioneer in 2023. The district received these units, enough for a second air purifier in each classroom, but never delivered them to the school. Pioneer's second air purifiers are in district storage. Teachers and staff at Pioneer 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 Pioneer, join our Pioneer group, and learn more about Pioneer‘s air quality below.

Without air purifiers, Pioneer does not have sufficiently clean indoor air

One air purifier is undersized for Pioneer classrooms

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

Although the Intellipure air purifiers originally assigned to Pioneer improve the school's clean airflow rates, they are insufficient in Pioneer 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 . 12 — is still far below healthy airflow targets. With room . 12 at 3.5 air changes per hour, kids’ and staff’s viruses in their respiratory aerosols linger for over 39 minutes.

At 3.5 air changes/hour, 39 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 . 12) is still less than 4 air changes per hour

✘ 2 more Pioneer classrooms have less than 4 air changes per hour

✘ 14 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.

Pioneer 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 Pioneer 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, Pioneer‘s worst-airflow classroom — Room . 12 — is 5.5 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 2.6 air changes per hour the room gets with no air purifiers running. Room . 2 follows the same overall pattern: it reaches only 5.8 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 24 minutes. But without both air purifiers, Room . 2 is only 3.0 air changes per hour. Room . 1 is a third example with the same story. Even when operating two units, Room . 1 is only 5.9 air changes per hour, but that airflow level is an important health protective improvement over the 3.1 air changes the room gets if relying on the HVAC system alone.

Visualizing how much air purifiers improve Pioneer classroom airflow

The graphs below show how little ventilation most Pioneer 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 3 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

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

The storage of Pioneer’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. Pioneer's second air purifiers should not be left in district storage when district data shows Pioneer'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 Pioneer's second air purifiers out of storage and into classrooms and ensure clean classroom air. Join SIAFOS and our Pioneer group to connect with others who care about clean, cool classroom air at Pioneer.

How can you help with clean air for Pioneer?

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

Two air purifiers running at quiet settings in each classroom would provide more air filtration to the 2 Pioneer classrooms that do not even get 3 changes of air per hour and the 17 classrooms that only get between 3 and 6! Using multiple air purifiers would also ensure Pioneer‘s —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 Pioneer. 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 Pioneer, 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 Pioneer, conducted in August 2021 (available at safeairoregon.org/original-airflow-reports) but corrected gaps and errors.