HAMILTON — Nationwide, school districts are spending billions of dollars on technology to keep students and staff healthy and a Blue Ash company is on the forefront of the sales.
At Butler County Educational Services Center in Hamilton, the Head Start preschool classrooms all had NanoStrike units installed. So did staff areas. They've purchased 66 in all.
"We want kids at school as much as they possibly can be, so the reason we went with these is because they really help us with all the germs," said Suzanne Prescott, the early childhood programs director.
The preschool classes there got hit especially hard by RSV this winter. And that's not to mention continued COVID-19 cases, the flu, and colds.
"Kids can't learn if they're not here," she said.
The center turned to Blue Ash-based Protect|ED to bring the small, mountable air purifying units to the classes.
Indian Hill Exempted Village School District purchased enough units for all K-12 facilities in 2022, according to a district spokesperson.
"Clean air in schools is no longer a privilege, it's a requirement," said Lindsey Haglage, Protect ED's vice president of business development.
The white boxes aren't filters, though they have one to catch dust and anything that might disturb the technology inside. Instead, there are fans and coils the manufacturer says can destroy any pathogen that comes through intake.
"There's so much osmotic pressure in those coils that when pathogens come in contact with those coils, they actually burst," Haglage said.
Haglage said each NanoStrike unit costs about $2,500 but requires no ongoing expense.
It's one element in a huge amount of spending by districts nationwide using American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds (ARP-ESSER). A late 2022 report from the Center for Green Schools at the US Green Building Councilshowed districts expected to spend more on air filtration and HVAC than any other health segment, except staffing - an estimated $5.5 billion in ARP funding.
The small, quiet NanoStrike units appealed to Butler County Head Start's somewhat unique needs.
"Sometimes we're in a building when they're there a year or two, so we're able to take them with us," Prescott said.
Like Indian Hill, the early reaction from staff and students has been positive - and healthy.
"We have kinda noticed that when we have people sick in a room, we haven't seen it spread as much," she said.
