New HVAC unit sitting outside Ottawa school for months

Air purifier sits uninstalled outside school CTV's Colton Praill reports on one school where an air purifier has sat outside for a year.

Severn Avenue Public School is used to success, with students passing every year making the jump to the next grade.

The school’s air conditioning unit, however, has been held back a year.

Ordered during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new filtration system for the school gym has been sitting in front of the school since last fall.

It prompted questions from parents in January, when at the time MPP Jeremy Roberts wrote in a social media post that the school board was “waiting on a delivery of structural steel, which is required before they can hoist the new unit onto the roof and install it (expected in early Feb.)”

But when spring came and went, and the months dragged on, parents began to wonder.

“We kind of figured that something was going to happen over the summer and so it’s still there,” Tanys Uhmann, whose son Quinn attends the school, said.

“It lasted the whole school year and now it’s still there and you just kind of watch the pile,” she added.

In a statement to CTV Ottawa, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board says structural issues during construction and supply issues for steel reinforcements along with “other factors” have delayed the installation, but there are plans to install the system before the new school year.

“It is our intention to have this work completed by the end of next week, September 2, 2022,” OCDSB Communications Coordinator Darcy Knoll said.

The school year starts on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

“The school’s been really good with keeping parents up to date. Ironically though we really haven’t heard too much about that filtration system,” Uhmann said.

Still, some say safety measures like these shouldn’t spend months out of use.

“We have to prioritize some of the main concerning issues, for example we have a lot of students here who might have immunity deficiency issues cases,” Tamim Ansar, whose sisters attend the school, said.

Ontario’s Ministry of Education says the new ventilation system is part of a $24-million joint provincial-federal project to upgrade ventilation in schools across the province.

A spokesperson for the education minister could not say how many units have been installed or if other schools were experiencing similar delays, noting that responsibility falls to the school boards.

A spokesman for the OCDSB would not say whether other schools were experiencing similar delays installing air filtration equipment.