Campus-Wide Safety Upgrades

Early in the summer of 2020, St. Mark’s initiated a plan to upgrade all of the air filtration systems across campus to mitigate the potential risk of airborne spread of COVID-19. The School’s facilities team, led by Mark Webb, Director of the Physical Plant, began working on plans in early June to upgrade all of the air filters on campus to MERV-13 which, “are typically used for hospitals, surgery, and health care facilities, smoke removal, and as the “superior” option for commercial buildings” according to an August 4, 2020 article in The Dallas Morning News. MERV-13 filters are also recommended by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and their Healthy Buildings program.

 

“Upgrading air filters to MERV-13 in every building is part of a comprehensive, campus-wide strategy to proactively strengthen the health and safety of our facilities to support both students and adults alike,” said Suzanne Townsend, Chief Financial Officer. “We constantly strive to maintain buildings that not only serve our boys well, but that are also safe, energy-efficient, and well-maintained.” St. Mark’s is fortunate to have substantial sustaining endowments that have been developed over many decades to support the longevity, functionality, and upkeep of every building across campus.

 

Centennial Hall, Hoffman Center, McDermott Green-Science Building, and the Winn Science Center have already been ungraded to MERV-13 filters, with the remaining buildings on campus scheduled to be completed with similar upgrades before the end of August. The three newest buildings on campus, The Winn Science Center, Centennial, and Hoffman, are all LEED Silver certified for environmental sustainability by the U.S. Green Building Council.

 

In addition to the upgrading of air filtration, touchless fixtures have also been installed in buildings across the campus this summer to further mitigate the risk of virus transmission, including new water fountains with bottle fillers, lavatories, and sinks. One-way traffic patterns have also been outlined for the whole campus and safety signage is being installed to support social distancing, hygiene practices, and other safety measures.

 

Finally, every classroom and teaching space on campus has been reconfigured to support social distancing. 100% of the teaching classrooms achieve spacing between 5-6 feet, while 64% of the other rooms support 6 feet or more between each student. In every teaching space in every building, teachers are at least 6 feet away from the closest student. Rooms are also configured so that desks are all facing in the same direction, toward the front of the room. Harkness Tables have been disassembled in many classrooms and are being temporarily stored to make way for appropriate distancing.

 

All of these efforts are part of a systematic and ongoing effort to make our campus as safe as possible and to respond to public health developments and guidance.