The Shawnee Mission School District has allocated nearly $3.8 million so far in federal COVID-19 relief money since the start of the 2020-21 school year. Nearly $1 million of that, or roughly a quarter of the total, has been spent on upgrading schools’ air ventilation systems, seen as a critical need to tamp down potential spread of the airborne pathogen. In August 2020, the Board of Education approved spending nearly $800,000 to purchase and install heavy-duty negative air machines and air scrubbers to better filtrate air in school buildings and have since okayed the use of higher-grade air filters for buildings’ HVAC systems.
Source: Prairie Village Post
