ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Jessica Klein said she has a first-grader who will be starting school at Baldwin Park Elementary for in-person instruction on Friday.
She said she donated to the school’s Bobcat Fund.
This fund is a parent foundation that helps raise funds from parents and local businesses to help with the school.
Klein said they fundraised enough to purchase 130 air purifiers for the classrooms but said the district will not allow them.
“I do have concern over the district telling us what we can and cannot provide to our children’s classrooms,” Klein said.
The Board of Directors for the Bobcat Fund tells WKMG in a Facebook message, that they voted to purchase 130 air purifiers for the classrooms. But, said Orange County Public Schools instructed the principal that the air purifiers would not be allowed in the school and that the school must refuse the shipment.
In a statement, Renee Burke, the Media Promotions Manager for OCPS, said in part:
“In order to ensure equity throughout the district, the district has an approved personal protective equipment (PPE) package of products for use in every school and classroom. Any items not on the approved PPE list must go through an approval process.”
But Klein said, on the issue of equity, Baldwin Park Elementary is an older school with dated HVAC systems.
She said the school was built in 2007 and that other schools built in 2014 and after, have better HVAC systems, and as a result, better air quality than their school.