MONROE - After initial legislation fell short in 2006, area legislators and state education leaders are pinning their hopes on two new pieces of legislation to regulate air quality in public and private schools.
State school officials support the measure, but local district officials and some state groups are concerned over the added government oversight and potential financial cost to the schools.
Senate Bill 41, introduced earlier this year, and Assembly Bill 358, which debuted in the Legislature July 31, would call on the state superintendent to convene a 17-member task force, which would create guidelines for each of the state's public and private schools to determine and implement a plan to maintain clean air and water in schools.
The task force would include the state superintendent, secretary of commerce, secretary of health services, a representative of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, as well as various state school administrative and union groups.
State Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, and his staff created the legislation to address needs in his Milwaukee-area district, which contains some school buildings over 90 years old, he said. Those buildings could hold the potential for unhealthy air and water quality, Sullivan said.
"I am a strong believer in the notion that without clean air and a safe school environment, it makes it a bad place to learn," he said.
The Senate bill, which had a public hearing July 9 in Madison, is supported by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, state Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, though the later group has trepidation over the cost of future implementation of the bill's requirements.
"We are concerned, however, that the recommendation of the task force could result in the costly new mandates which could put additional pressures on many of our schools' capital improvement budgets," the Wisconsin Council said in its testimony to the state Senate committee at the public hearing.
Local school officials also are leery of any new state government intervention.
In the Monticello school district, which had a mold issue around 2003 in the band room and a classroom at the school building, the cost of keeping a healthy school has been felt, Superintendent Karen Ballin said.
"It was totally gutted," she said of the affected rooms. "It was hefty enough that we had to go to the voters to ask for (money,)" she said.
The bigger issue for Ballin is the ability of ventilation systems in older buildings to circulate air properly.
For Ballin, the problem with state guidelines on air and water quality is the arbitrary way in which air or water quality issues can be diagnosed, she said. Some things that one person might see as an issue, might not be a problem according to another professional.
"How you judge that is based on who you are and what you are looking at," Ballin said.
In the Monroe school district there have been no major air quality issues recently, Superintendent Larry Brown said.
He is wary of the state's involvement in regulating local districts.
"Anything new has the potential to have a negative impact on the budget," he said.
School districts typically fix air quality or pollution issues when they are discovered anyhow, he said.
"If there is a problem, we will fix it. Chances are we will not wait around until somebody says we have to do this," Brown said.
However, Sullivan says the task force's recommendations could be implemented without any new costs.
"I think this can be done with existing resources," he said.
Jeanne Black, Darlington, has been an advocate for increased regulation of school indoor air quality since her daughter, Jade, developed asthma due to poor air quality in Darlington's middle school building, she said.
Black first put her support behind Senate Bill 325 in 2006, but the bill was not signed into law because of a lack of support from interested parties around the state, she said.
"This one is different, everybody is getting in on this," she said.
In Black's testimony at the July 9 Senate hearing, she requested that if a child has a medical condition caused by the air quality in a school, the district find accommodations that would allow the child to learn in an environment outside the affected area.
Despite the possible economic costs that any recommendations the task force might cause to each school district - public and private - the bill is worth that potential, Black said.
"I know we have (tough) economic times, but that's not what this bill is for," she said.
An identical bill recently was introduced in the state Assembly. Sullivan did not know when the Senate version would come to a vote.
State Rep. Steve Hilgenberg, D-Dodgeville, formally supported the Senate bill, and had spoken to Black when she was addressing the air quality issue in Darlington.
The problem of air quality in schools does not appear to be a critical issue, but is important nonetheless, he said.
"It is serious in that we can't take it lightly," Hilgenberg said.
State school officials support the measure, but local district officials and some state groups are concerned over the added government oversight and potential financial cost to the schools.
Senate Bill 41, introduced earlier this year, and Assembly Bill 358, which debuted in the Legislature July 31, would call on the state superintendent to convene a 17-member task force, which would create guidelines for each of the state's public and private schools to determine and implement a plan to maintain clean air and water in schools.
The task force would include the state superintendent, secretary of commerce, secretary of health services, a representative of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, as well as various state school administrative and union groups.
State Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, and his staff created the legislation to address needs in his Milwaukee-area district, which contains some school buildings over 90 years old, he said. Those buildings could hold the potential for unhealthy air and water quality, Sullivan said.
"I am a strong believer in the notion that without clean air and a safe school environment, it makes it a bad place to learn," he said.
The Senate bill, which had a public hearing July 9 in Madison, is supported by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, state Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, though the later group has trepidation over the cost of future implementation of the bill's requirements.
"We are concerned, however, that the recommendation of the task force could result in the costly new mandates which could put additional pressures on many of our schools' capital improvement budgets," the Wisconsin Council said in its testimony to the state Senate committee at the public hearing.
Local school officials also are leery of any new state government intervention.
In the Monticello school district, which had a mold issue around 2003 in the band room and a classroom at the school building, the cost of keeping a healthy school has been felt, Superintendent Karen Ballin said.
"It was totally gutted," she said of the affected rooms. "It was hefty enough that we had to go to the voters to ask for (money,)" she said.
The bigger issue for Ballin is the ability of ventilation systems in older buildings to circulate air properly.
For Ballin, the problem with state guidelines on air and water quality is the arbitrary way in which air or water quality issues can be diagnosed, she said. Some things that one person might see as an issue, might not be a problem according to another professional.
"How you judge that is based on who you are and what you are looking at," Ballin said.
In the Monroe school district there have been no major air quality issues recently, Superintendent Larry Brown said.
He is wary of the state's involvement in regulating local districts.
"Anything new has the potential to have a negative impact on the budget," he said.
School districts typically fix air quality or pollution issues when they are discovered anyhow, he said.
"If there is a problem, we will fix it. Chances are we will not wait around until somebody says we have to do this," Brown said.
However, Sullivan says the task force's recommendations could be implemented without any new costs.
"I think this can be done with existing resources," he said.
Jeanne Black, Darlington, has been an advocate for increased regulation of school indoor air quality since her daughter, Jade, developed asthma due to poor air quality in Darlington's middle school building, she said.
Black first put her support behind Senate Bill 325 in 2006, but the bill was not signed into law because of a lack of support from interested parties around the state, she said.
"This one is different, everybody is getting in on this," she said.
In Black's testimony at the July 9 Senate hearing, she requested that if a child has a medical condition caused by the air quality in a school, the district find accommodations that would allow the child to learn in an environment outside the affected area.
Despite the possible economic costs that any recommendations the task force might cause to each school district - public and private - the bill is worth that potential, Black said.
"I know we have (tough) economic times, but that's not what this bill is for," she said.
An identical bill recently was introduced in the state Assembly. Sullivan did not know when the Senate version would come to a vote.
State Rep. Steve Hilgenberg, D-Dodgeville, formally supported the Senate bill, and had spoken to Black when she was addressing the air quality issue in Darlington.
The problem of air quality in schools does not appear to be a critical issue, but is important nonetheless, he said.
"It is serious in that we can't take it lightly," Hilgenberg said.