While negotiations are still ongoing with private and public sector partners for more research funding, Dr. James Woods of the HP-Woods Research Institute says other parts of the "Health, Energy & Productivity in Schools" project are quickly moving forward.

"The criteria for selecting the schools are being developed now," Woods told IE Connections. "We anticipate that one or two schools within a school district will be selected for the pilot program. One school is anticipated to serve as the 'case' and one as the "control."
According to Woods, the primary "aim" of the research program is to improve the health and the educational performance of students and teachers through cost effective and energy efficient design, construction, and operations of schools facilities. Another "aim" of the research program is to develop procedures, an accompanying database, and a training program that can be used by school districts and facilities managers to help them make better informed decisions regarding investments in design, construction and operations.

The "objectives" of the research program are to: 1) establish scientifically valid and reliable data that quantify the relationships between indoor environments, human responses, occupant performance, and productivity; and 2) disseminate the data to enable informed decisions by school boards and other decision-makers that will result in improved health and performance of students, teachers, and other occupants.

The "scope" of this program focuses on a a four-year "pilot program" to complete the development of the experimental design, to acquire and analyze data from the schools selected in the pilot program, and to develop the training program and the database.

The "pilot program" will consist of two "periods": a development and planning period; and an implementation period. During the first period, to be completed by July 31, 2000, the school districts who will participate in the pilot study will be selected, the school facilities to be studied within the school districts will be selected and characterized, and the experimental design will be finalized. During the second period, August 2000 to June 2003, baseline data will be obtained in the schools, interventions will be identified and implemented, and results of the interventions will be evaluated.

It is envisioned that the results of the "pilot program" will lead to a national program to improve to improve the health and the educational performance of students and teachers through cost effective and energy efficient design, construction, and operations of schools facilities.

"The first part of the research will focus on the development of the performance evaluation criteria, and methods of measurement and control of the parameters and values of these criteria," Woods said.

Good progress has been made in obtaining both private and public sector sources of funding, and Woods said that he anticipates a formal start-up of the project next month.

When asked about the costs for the project, Woods told IE Connections that the expected cost of the implementation will be estimated during the first period.

"There are two types of costs to be considered: the cost of conducting the research, which requires external funding, and the cost of intervention, which is expected to have two components: operational changes with minimum costs to the program, and capital costs which may require additional external funding," he said. "These issues cannot be resolved at this time, and will evolve during the program."