Marysville School District school-sponsored athletics and activities officially start Monday, August 21. We take our student’s health and safety very seriously. Wildfire smoke is affecting air quality in the entire region. We are closely monitoring air quality conditions to guide our decision-making around school-sponsored outdoor student activities.
Marysville School District staff regularly monitor the air quality and conduct regular visual inspections of outside air quality to determine outdoor activity levels for students.
In light of recent information from the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), Marysville School District will now be using the Washington Department of Ecology’s Washington Air Quality Advisory (WAQA) system for all decision-making surrounding air quality.
Washington Department of Ecology Air Monitoring Network information:
Washington Map
The map on this website uses the national air quality reporting system called the Air Quality Index (AQI) for calculating the air quality health category. However, the state uses the Washington Air Quality Advisory (WAQA) system of calculating air quality. Both use color-coded categories to show when air quality is good, moderate, or unhealthy. The difference is that the state's WAQA is based on lower levels of fine particle pollution than the federal AQI, providing an earlier alert of potential air quality risks. If in doubt as to which better represents public health risk, we will use the more stringent of the two (i.e. the map showing worse air quality).
School-sponsored outdoor activities, including sports and marching band, will not be held outdoors when WAQA reaches the unhealthy level of 151-200. Activities will be limited to 1 hour outdoors when the WAQA is 101-150. During periods of unhealthy air quality, everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory diseases, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.