Fix Our Schools connected with CASLE several years ago and this Nova Scotia-based organization has provided valuable mentorship and guidance to Fix Our Schools. For 25 years, CASLE fulfilled the following mission and made significant changes in Nova Scotia’s schools: “With solid information, respect, and persistence as our primary tools we can help provide environmentally healthy products and practices in schools, and healthy school buildings.” We were saddened to hear of CASLE’s closing and wanted to share the following excerpts from their final email to members:
In late 2017, CASLE closed. CASLE’s website will remain active so as to keep important healthy schools information available for the ongoing task of providing healthy school environments.
In 1992, the founding members of CASLE were astounded by what they found in schools in Nova Scotia. Some were parents whose children were made sick by their school buildings, and some were teachers whose health has never been the same. They found each other and set out to change that.
Since that time, CASLE has partnered with each successive provincial government. They have made schools better across Nova Scotia and across Canada, from Whitehorse to St. John’s, and as far away as Australia.
Children can’t learn well if they don’t feel well. Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxins and hazards in their environments. Our schools, their condition and the products and practices used in them, can influence children’s health, well-being and educational outcomes. Researchers have found a 5-to-10-point grade difference between children in good quality buildings versus those in poor buildings.
In Nova Scotia, schools now use healthier products for cleaning and teaching, less toxic maintenance materials and safer practices for maintaining the buildings. Most schools have been repaired or upgraded, and many that can’t be fixed are being replaced. CASLE helped develop a new approach to building healthy new schools, called Healthy School Design and Construction. All new public buildings in Nova Scotia are built following these healthy new building guidelines.
Since 1992, every Nova Scotian student and everyone who worked in our schools has benefitted from CASLE’s efforts. Because systems were changed, the benefits are expected to continue into the future.