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10/06/2023 04:40 PMREGIONAL
The Region 4 Board of Education (BOE) is determined to address student and faculty needs, including the remediation of the growth of mold at John Winthrop Middle School (JWMS), following a special meeting on Oct. 4.
The BOE gathered at the Library Media Center at Valley Regional High School (VRHS) and was joined by Larry Cannon, president of EnvironMed, the consulting firm that is conducting research and working with the district on the situation at JWMS.
Superintendent Brian White gave a timeline of events leading up to the early dismissal of JWMS students on Sept. 7. White said staff at the middle school became aware of moisture issues through the building as the school year was about to begin. The district held a meeting with the JWMS maintenance staff and administration on Aug. 29 about concerns on the issues. Sampling and assessments by EnvironMed took place at the building on Sept. 1, and initial testing results found harmful mold growth in the building, resulting in the early dismissal six days later.
Since then, the district has worked with its consultant and the Connecticut River Area Health District to conduct inspections to determine all root causes of the mold, thus uncovering a revelation.
“We have identified at least one potential source of the moisture: The insulation around pipes that carry cold water throughout the building for air conditioning has failed,” said White.
Believing this could indicate an infrastructural issue at the middle school, EnvironMed recommended to the BOE that the district “undertake an engineering analysis...to determine the root cause(s) that led to high moisture and mold amplification in the school building.”
Cannon spoke largely in reference to a “Mold and Indoor Air Quality Report” on EnvironMed’s findings that was presented at the meeting. The report found that many indoor moisture readings at JWMS were above 76%, indicating “a moisture retention concern” above recommended levels. Indoor relative humidity level readings were somewhere between 64.5 to 91.3%, above the maximum of 60% per federal recommendations of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Broader environmental factors, such as this year’s summer being the 15th wettest season in Connecticut’s history, may have also contributed to the high humidity levels, said Cannon.
Although the report also states that while 51 out of a collected 72 indoor air samples “did not indicate any interior amplification of mold,” and Cannon added that not all people at JWMS may be negatively affected by the mold, he nonetheless believed it was “a very professional and intelligence decision” to relocate students and faculty considered susceptible to mold.
Cannon stated in summation that, “Considering the high humidity levels above 60% in the building, and the high humidity outside the building for this very wet summer...it’s clear that the school in its condition, what we found when we went to the school, and the information that we received from the lab...all of that leads us to believe that the district absolutely did right decision to remove the students.”
Since the remediation process at the middle school will take an undetermined number of months to undertake, there is no definitive timeline for when students can return to the building.
Public testimony that followed was given by faculty and parents of students at both the middle and high schools. Several of those who spoke were in agreement with the BOE and Cannon on the relocation of JWMS students to VRHS, but concerns were still raised. They related to a perceived lack of urgency by the BOE on the situation at the middle school; the difficulty for students of varying ages, abilities, and developmental stages to navigate a more densely packed and highly populated learning environment; and the difficulty for teachers to connect with those students.
Nicole Waz, a third-grade teacher at Chester Elementary School who is also president of the Region 4 Education Association, told the BOE that “the displacement of the John Winthrop staff and students has created an unfortunate reality for our two schools, both separately and collectively.”
Waz informed the board of an “overcrowded environment not conducive to teaching and learning” and also stated that accessing and storing necessary educational resources “has been challenging for most and impossible for some.” She urged the BOE to act immediately so that students and faculty can be appropriately accommodated while at VRHS, adding that educators of an already exhausted staff on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic may consider leaving their district without a supportive solution.
The BOE acknowledged all concerns raised by those who spoke and stated that transparent communication between the board and district staff is a priority going forward.
The board held another meeting at the VRHS library on Oct. 11(after press time) with the purpose “to start taking action to address the space needs at Valley Regional High School to ensure that our students and our teachers are in a safe and positive environment for teaching and learning,” said White.
“We will also be simultaneously determining how to best proceed with addressing the facility’s needs at the middle school, which will include hiring a mechanical engineer to conduct a root cause analysis and hiring a company to remediate the mold,” White added.
The BOE will also develop request-for-proposals for services to address each aspect of the remediation process, “so that we can continue moving forward as quickly as possible, and most importantly to safely return staff and students [to JWMS],” said White.