HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning

Wisconsin school districts are increasingly putting referenda on the ballot to build, expand, or upgrade school buildings and to support their ongoing operational costs. Two new schools in Dane County and now Menasha School districts are zero net energy buildings. A practical resource that should be useful to school leaders and community supporters in guiding their analysis of what a healthy, energy efficient, and cost-effective facility can be and how it will improve the health of students is available from Rocky Mountain Institute. HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning: What Policymakers, School Leaders and Advocates Need to Know provides research findings on the on the health and pollution impacts of outdated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and their connection to student health, learning, and equity. It provides examples of configurations of electric HVAC system technologies integrated into school buildings and a framework for evaluating costs and approaches to funding HVAC investments using the federal Inflation Reduction Act to support informed decision-making by school district leaders for replacing or updating unhealthy, inefficient HVAC systems.