REGIONAL

The Region 4 Board of Education (BOE) has begun looking for vendors to address the mold situation at John Winthrop Middle School (JWMS). The district released two request-for-proposal (RFP) documents on Oct. 16, which seek the services of a mechanical engineering firm to perform a root causes analysis on the growth of the mold at the middle school building and for a project management group to oversee the necessary steps taken to decontaminate the building and return staff and students back safely.

In the past few weeks, key steps have been taken leading up to the remediation process. Representatives of the school district, including Superintendent Brian White, performed a site walkthrough on Oct. 25 with environmental specialists to perform investigative work on some of the environmental factors that the BOE has said at previous meetings likely contributed to mold formation.

“There was a lot of investigative work. We did have specialists in the building; we have been actively addressing the environmental conditions in the buildings, specifically the humidity levels,” said White.

The district is currently working with its consultant, EnvironMed, to write up a cleaning protocol to satisfy previous concerns raised by JWMS staff about retrieving potentially contaminated education resources integral to learning.

Facilities training has also been ongoing at JWMS. This process has involved training maintenance staff at JWMS on safely entering and navigating the building while keeping it and its systems in good condition.

With an initial investigation and current custodial training at the building, White said that “the board and the administration is highly motivated to move as quickly as possible” with the release of the RFPs marking “a phase where we can really start the remediation process.”

According to White, the district is looking for a mechanical engineering firm to perform a root cause analysis of the JWMS building “to understand what were the contributing factors to this mold event” and give recommendations on the root cause.

Along with the environmental factors, the district has “strong evidence” that a failure of the school’s HVAC system contributed to the mold. Other unanticipated factors may be uncovered as a result of hiring a firm.

“The reason why you want to have engineers is because there could be other variables that aren’t as obvious or that we may not be aware of that, once identified, become part of the fix,” said White. “Part one to address the building is obviously to clean the mold and to address that, but then you have to make sure it doesn’t come back. To do that, you need that root cause [analysis].”

In addition to finding the cause, the district has an RFP for a project management group to oversee “critical path schedules,” such as the investigation and remediation work of the mold through the implementation of a four-phase approach, according to the document. White said this was partly necessary since the district does not currently have a district-wide facilities director.

White said that in the future, the district will hire another vendor to perform any necessary building repair work, including fixing or replacing the HVAC system. The district will also seek a vendor to perform the mold remediation. Post-remediation plans include testing the safety of the building’s environment, restoring the facilities with additional maintenance work, and allowing for staff to retrieve resources.

White also said that the project management firm would be at the center of the entire effort, making sure all communication, collaboration, and materials are following a satisfying timeline.

“What they’re going to do is make sure, for example, that vendors meet all of their deliverables; if there’s timelines or deadlines, making sure those are being met, reporting back to the Board of Education, providing updates to the community,” elaborated White. “They will, in effect, take over the managerial part of all of this.”

No timeline has been established, but White said the district is determined to see all necessary work done “very quickly” to return staff and students of JWMS back to the building as soon as possible.

While JWMS staff wait until they can retrieve educational resources, White said the administrations of JWMS and Valley Regional High School “have been working to provide all of our teachers and staff at Valley with any critical items for instructional use.”

Since the relocation of JWMS staff and students to the high school, the district has been purchasing resources to support the education of its middle school students, moves that “are definitely able to meet student needs at Valley right now, as we work to get people safely back to the middle school as quick as we can,” said White.