Rosa Parks Elementary School

Rosa Parks students spend the day in poorly ventilated classrooms

Unless air purifiers are run consistently

Like nearly all PPS schools, Rosa Parks's HVAC system delivers low air-change rates in classrooms and other learning spaces. The district's own measurements show that Rosa Parks does not meet health-based goals for ventilation. The best way to reach healthy air targets is with a combination of building ventilation and effective in-room filtration, but ventilation in Rosa Parks is poor, and it is critical that Rosa Parks receives ongoing support for placing and using in-room air purifiers.

The one air purifier originally assigned to Rosa Parks‘s rooms is insufficient and undersized for Rosa Parks 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 Rosa Parks's classrooms, cafeteria, and library rooms to more effectively clean the air. That’s why the Oregon Health Authority provided additional free air purifiers for Rosa Parks in 2023. Rosa Parks received enough additional units that every classroom should have two air purifiers each. However, the district did not provide clear guidance to schools about how the new units were meant to be used alongside the existing air purifiers. As a result, our understanding is that Rosa Parks's first air purifiers were swapped out for the new Medify air purifier, still resulting in only one air purifier per classroom. We hope to work with the Rosa Parks staff and community to fix this and achieve two units per classroom. Teachers and staff at Rosa Parks 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 Rosa Parks, join our Rosa Parks group, and learn more about Rosa Parks‘s air quality below.

Without air purifiers, Rosa Parks does not have clean indoor air

One air purifier is undersized for Rosa Parks classrooms

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

Although the Intellipure air purifiers originally assigned to Rosa Parks improve the school's clean airflow rates, they are insufficient in Rosa Parks 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 C101 — is still far below healthy airflow targets. With room C101 at 1.3 air changes per hour, kids’ and staff’s viruses in their respiratory aerosols linger for over 1 hour and 46 minutes.

At 1.3 air changes/hour, 1 hour 46 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 C101) is still less than 2 air changes per hour

✘ 10 more Rosa Parks classrooms have less than 2 air changes per hour

✘ 5 classrooms are between 2 and 3 air changes per hour & 7 more are between 3 and 6 – all below recommendations

If one Intellipure unit is running at its quiet noise level, only 3 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.

Rosa Parks 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 Rosa Parks 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, Rosa Parks‘s worst-airflow classroom — Room C101 — is 3.2 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 0.4 air changes per hour the room gets with no air purifiers running. Room C102 follows the same overall pattern: it reaches only 3.4 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 41 minutes. But without both air purifiers, Room C102 is only 0.7 air changes per hour. Room C109 is a third example with the same story. Even when operating two units, Room C109 is only 3.7 air changes per hour, but that airflow level is an important health protective improvement over the 0.5 air changes the room gets if relying on the HVAC system alone.

Visualizing how much air purifiers improve Rosa Parks classroom airflow

The graphs below show how little ventilation most Rosa Parks 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 most classrooms short of 6 air changes per hour, having two units per room would move 7 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

Rosa Parks needs two air purifiers in classrooms, but during delivery, the original units got swapped out for the second units

Although Rosa Parks received its second air purifiers, our understanding is that classrooms used them to replace, rather than add to, their original units, effectively leaving Rosa Parks classrooms with only one air purifier. This is an understandable outcome. When a new unit arrives, it is natural to assume that it replaces the old one. Many schools have not been given clear information about how multiple air purifiers running quietly together are needed to clean the air in a full classroom of 20 or 30 kids. And finding a spot for two units can take a little effort and problem-solving.

But in a building where district data show extremely low ventilation rates, this swap has left kids and teachers with too little clean air. As a result, classrooms full of kids are being exposed to high levels of viruses lingering in their air and are missing out on the increase in air cleaning possible with two units tucked in a room and running at quiet speed settings. Other schools with small classrooms have found practical ways to place two units once the health and learning benefits are clear. Running two air purifiers, instead of just one, moves clean airflow toward health-protective benchmarks, providing critical benefits of clean indoor air, such as reduced illness, improved learning, and better attendance.

Placing 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 two air purifiers working in Rosa Parks classrooms and ensure clean classroom air. Join SIAFOS and our Rosa Parks group to connect with others who care about clean, cool classroom air at Rosa Parks.

How can you help with clean air for Rosa Parks?

Let's get Rosa Parks's two air purifiers into classrooms — Sign up to help fix this so the air cleaners Rosa Parks needs are in place and running quietly to keep Rosa Parks classroom air clean!

Two air purifiers running at quiet settings in each classroom would provide more air filtration to the 18 Rosa Parks classrooms that do not even get 3 changes of air per hour and the 7 classrooms that only get between 3 and 6! Using multiple air purifiers would also ensure Rosa Parks‘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 Rosa Parks. 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 Rosa Parks, 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 Rosa Parks, conducted in August 2021 (available at safeairoregon.org/original-airflow-reports) but corrected for gaps and errors.