Follow-Up Public Posting

Susan Brinchman, formerly of Fairfield and now the Director of The Center for School Mold Help had a second posting at WestportNow.

In it she states:

Parents are correct to be highly concerned, I applaud this community for organizing and forcing school officials to take corrective action.

As Director of The Center for School Mold Help, and a disabled teacher from working in two damp and moldy schools in the past 7 years, I can assure you I never would have stepped foot in either of those schools had I known what ill health would follow.

Mold in our schools is a very serious public health threat that is not being adequately addressed by all health authorities and needs to be. We have found public health authorities all over the nation to be very uninformed about this significant public health problem. They tend to minimize it and don’t conduct proper testing to discover the extent of the problems. Government seems to back government, rather than trying to protect the occupants of damp schools.

I am a former lifelong Fairfield resident, with my family in Southport going back to the mid-1800’s in that area, now living in So.CA. My best to all of you.

Posted by Susan Brinchman on July 27, 2007 at 01:34 AM

Teacher(s) to Join The Effort

There was an exchange today in the comments section to WestportNow's story on our Selectman's formalizing a committee to address the health and air quality issues at King's Highway Elementary School in Westport.

To summarize, Mr. Joseloff has invited teacher participation at the first formal meeting this week and as part of the ongoing effort to improve the mold and CO2 situation at KHS. Given the number of teachers who've shared their health issues, we agree that it is extremely beneficial to have their participation.

The exchange is copied below:

As the Westport Education Association clean air liason, I wonder why Mr Joseloff has not appointed a teacher to this committee. Documented air problems at KHS reach back to 2002. The WEA and the teachers in our system are not represented.

Gerald Kuroghlian, Ph. D.
WEA Clean Air Liason

Posted by Gerald Kuroghlian on July 31, 2007 at 12:19 PM
____________________________________________

I am happy to have Gerry Kuroghlian serve along with anyone else from the WEA, an invitation communicated today to the union president.

I was told that attempts were made by KHS parents to contact Dr. Kuroghlian to determine his interest in serving but that they were unsuccessful in reaching him.

His school e-mail says he is out until Aug. 30 and his voice mail says he is in Wisconsin for the summer. Happy to use WestportNow to relay an invitation for Gerry and anyone else from the WEA to participate and attend the committee’s first meeting on Thursday, Aug. 2 at 5 p.m. in room 309.

Posted by Gordon Joseloff on July 31, 2007 at 03:04 PM

Public Postings

We've started to see parents and others posting comments at the media outlets and on our blog. Some of them are reprinted below:

As seen at WestportNow:

The Center for School Mold Help, an educational nonprofit, applauds the First Selectman’s stance.

A history of having a documented mold problem that the parents were not warned about, with teachers complaining, many sick children ... this is reprehensible. The superintendent should have alerted the parents as a whole.

If they are removing the rugs without special mold remediation procedures, they are spreading it into the HVAC system and entire school. That would be typical of many school districts.

Posted by Susan Brinchman on July 27, 2007 at 10:45 AM

On our blog

Anonymous said...

I have 3 children in the Westport Schools (Greens Farms) and think heads should roll over this!

July 30, 2007 11:43 AM

Tile It Over

Unfortunately the Westport school administration did not follow our request to test the carpet and the flooring beneath the carpet in room 28. The administration had a luan plywood sub-floor tacked to the bare floor and then covered with adhesive and tile. Our video of room 28 flooring taken after the carpet was removed suggests the wood on the base floor has decomposed. We will try and post this video in the next few days.

As Marian Heyman mentioned in her presentation, painting over mold won't kill it. Installing a layer of plywood over mold won't kill it either. We expect the KHS Maintenance Committee will look into this area.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, there are serious questions around the care with which the carpet was removed from King's Highway Elementary. This new photo clearly shows that no precaution was taken to enclose pieces on their way from the school to Wallingford nor to protect the workers who were transporting the material for the roughly 1 hour drive. [click on photo to enlarge]

Formal News Release

The town website announced the First Selectman's formation of a King's Highway Maintenance Committee. The Committee will be charged to:

1. Evaluate the school’s present conditions related to air quality and other matters, including potential health risks, using past data currently available as well as results of any additional assessments the committee deems necessary.

2. Determine corrective action that may be required, and the time needed for such measures to be effective.

3. Recommend to the First Selectman, the Board of Education, and the Superintendent of Schools, steps that will ensure the opening of the school by the planned date of Aug. 27, 2007, in an environmentally safe and healthy condition.

4. Keep the parties mentioned in [3] above fully informed of progress and, in a punctual manner, of any results or determinations that might affect the planned school opening date.

5, Report in writing full details of work performed, results, findings and conclusions, together with plans for immediate short and longer term remedies, including recommended practices to prevent recurrence of any health safety issues identified.

You can read the full press release here at the town site. The release was also covered by WestportNow.

First Selectman Takes Action

As you can read in the enclosed email that we sent to all parents who've contacted us, First Selectman Gordon Joseloff has taken significant action by retaining the services of Gil Cormier, a respected independent air quality specialist with Occupational Risk Control Services. Gil has worked with other Connecticut school districts to improve the air quality in their schools and to recommend specific actions to remediate mold and to lower CO2 levels.

The state health representatives who attended last Wednesday's WWHD meeting knew of and were supportive in bringing Mr. Cormier on board.

After being retained by Mr. Joseloff on Friday, Mr. Cormier took his first 90 minute tour of the school with a member of our committee. Though he was denied access to the classrooms, we expect he will have full access to the school starting Monday when he begins a process to examine:

• heating and cool systems
• pathways
• crawl spaces
• roof
• behind ceiling tiles
• rugs
• unit ventilators
• external pods (e.g., music pod)

In addition, Mr. Cormier is expected to interview teachers and maintenance workers for historical background and test for mold and bacteria.

You can get more detail by reading our email here.

We need to thank Gordon for taking this important step to safeguard the students and teachers at King's Highway Elementary, to better understand and baseline the current exposures at the school and to set in place a plan so that the school can reopen next month with parents fully confident that it is safe for their children.

Landon's Letter

On Friday July 27th, this letter from Elliott Landon arrived at the homes of King's Highway Elementary School parents and guardians. A copy of the letter was also mailed from a KHS PTA email box to the same set of parents.

In the letter Mr. Landon categorizes the air quality at King's Highway Elementary as "acceptable" and that the Westport school is a "healthy school". Unfortunately Mr. Landon chose to ignore that the pod was attached to the school when he wrote the letter, that an independent firm characterized the conditions in the pod as "unacceptable" back in Sept. 2006 and that air from the pod was venting into the main part of the school due to the fact that the administration never applied a vapor barrier to stop the air circulation and waited until March 2007 to board up the entry passage.

Fortunately, Westport First Selectman Joseloff decided to take this Committee's advice and hire independent consultant Gil Cormier to assess the situation at KHS.

Westport News Coverage

Westport News published this morning the most detailed media account to date of Wednesday's WWHD meeting at town hall that includes interviews with and quotes from:

• Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff
• State Sen. Judith Freedman
• State Rep. Joseph Mioli
  

Two of our members are quoted and our concerns were detailed.

You can read the article here.

Connecting the Dots

The Westport KHS Clean Air Committee has requested various documents from Mr. Landon's office pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 5 U.S.C. 552. The request goes back a number of years and covers items such as:

• water leakage
• indoor air quality
• HVAC records
• maintenance programs
• King's Highway E.D.O. 50 report

Click here to see the complete request delivered to Mr. Landon earlier this week.

Making The Case

At the WWHD meeting on Wednesday evening a member of the Westport KHS Clean Air Committee delivered a detailed presentation on the situation and our goals. Click here to view a full copy.

Per Marian Heyman's presentation earlier in the evening, levels above 800 indicate an elevated level of CO2.

Test and Take Down The Pod

A question was raised at the WWHD yesterday on whether the Westport KHS Clean Air Committee's intent is to try and prevent the pod from being removed. Elliott Landon had stated at the podium that we're "preventing the removal of the pod". This is not the case.

Mr. Landon has known of the condition in the pod attached to the school since he received his consultant's report in Sep 2006. He didn't remove the pod in October, November, December or any point up to now. He's had almost 300 days to seal and remediate the pod.

We would like to take samples through the school including in areas near the pod and are willing to fully pay for this testing. We have a statement of work from a respected testing group. It will take 3 days to conduct the tests near the pod after which the pod should be removed.

Westport Now Gets Interested

Westport Now has published a comprehensive article that covered last night's meeting about the air quality condition at KHS. It quoted a number of our members and highlighted some of the concerns that were raised about our school and noted that the discussion was heated. They are also the first media outlet to provide a link to our blog.

You can read the article here.

State Involvement

At yesterday's WWHD meeting at town hall Marian Heyman of the Connecticut Department of Public Health was asked to present to the parents on the air quality condition at King's Highway School. Ms. Heyman let us know that her tour of the school was brief. She summarized her brief walk-through by saying that in her opinion the school is safe. Her situation slide was blank.

Parents questioned what background she had been given about the situation at King's Highway School. Here are some of the questions from the 50 plus parents in attendance and Ms. Heyman's answers that evening:

1. Had she received or reviewed the Sep 2006 report? No
2. Had she received or reviewed the 2001 report? No
3. Had she received a copy of the documentation we sent to Elliott Landon? No
4. Had she entered the pod? No
5. Did she see the mold in room 28 that we photographed less than 48 hours prior? No
6. Did she interview the teachers in the affected classrooms? No
7. Did she review maintenance records on how & when the pod was boarded up? No
8. Did she test or cut away sections to look in the walls of the affected classrooms? No
9. Did she test or cut away sections of walls near the pod? No
10. Was she aware of how the carpet was removed from room 28? No
11. Was she aware that after the carpet was removed from room 28 that tile was laid without the sub-floor being cleaned according to health standards? No
    
12. Did she know about the concentrated health incidents in room 28? No
13. Was she aware that the administration had not followed the Sep 2006 consultant recommendations with regard to the pod? No
14. Did she read a 5/15 memo between school administrators stating "there is absolutely no evidence that there is a problem with mold at King's Highway School" when the Sep 2006 report stated there were "unacceptable" levels of mold and those had not been remediated? No
    

Today Mr. Landon's lawyer let our committee know that he will not allow the tests that we request and we are willing to pay for out of our own pockets. One of his reasons is that Ms. Heyman had said during her presentation that the school is safe.

Stachy in the Pod

Results from the mold testing conducted in 2006 showed levels of Stachybotrys. Attached are the sample reports that show Stachy in the pod.


You can read more about Stachybotrys here, here and here.

A Call For Action

At 7:00pm this evening the Westport Weston Health District (WWHD) held a public meeting at town hall to address concerns regarding the air quality and general environmental conditions at the King's Highway Elementary School. Westport-news.com posted notice of the meeting and background on the situation. Overflow interest by parents and the media moved the meeting to the auditorium.


Speakers at the meeting included representatives from the state, from the town, Mr. Landon, and members of the KHS Clean Air Committee. Our presentation will be posted in the next couple of days.

A number of parents voiced their concerns that Mr. Landon, the BOE and administration has not taken enough steps to safeguard the school and demanded more testing. It was evident that the representative from the state had not been fully briefed on the situation, had not visited the entire school and had not been provided with history and records beyond the recent May 2007 report.

The meeting was covered by News Channel 12. You can see their detailed report here. WestportNow provided limited coverage after the event. Click here to read their note. The Hour in Norwalk also covered the event. Their report requires a subscription. Click here to see Google's cached version of their article.

Why Was This Kept Quiet?

Attached are images of a Sept 2006 report detailing unacceptable levels of mold at King's Highway Elementary School. This report was not shared with parents until May 2007 and we can find no evidence if and when it was shared with teachers at the school. It calls for specific actions to be taken to safeguard our school. We are concerned that these actions were either not taken or not taken in a timely manner.

As an example, we know that desks and furniture was move from the mold infected area of King's Highway school to Room 28 (second grade class) in August of 2006. On page 4, the report calls for cleaning of such items with an EPA registered disinfectant.

The questions raised include:
1. Why were parents and teacher of Room 28 not notified that material that called for cleaning had been placed in their classroom?
2. Who did the cleaning?
3. What procedures did they follow?
4. Was this material cleaned with an EPA registered disinfectant?
5. If so, which one?

As a second example, page 4 of the Sept 2006 report calls for the "remediation area [i.e. the pod] should be segregated with poly sheeting and placed under negative pressure". As of July 2007 [see pod photos], the two exterior doors to this area are not sealed, there is open access at the base, and there is no visible negative pressure system in place. The interior hallway access to the pod from the Kindergarten area of King's Highway was not sealed. Some time in March of 2007 the interior access was boarded up with sheetrock.

The questions raised include:
1. Why was no negative pressure system put in place?
2. Why was the remediation area not poly sheeted?
3. Why did the administration wait from Sept 2006 to March 2007 to restrict access from the Kindergarten area of the school to the pod?
4. When and how were teachers informed to not enter this area of the school?
5. What, if any classroom material was stored in this area between the report being issued and interior access being closed off?

Please read this report and ask your own questions.

A Picture Speaks...

These pictures were captured in the past two weeks by a parent with children at King's Highway. They were taken by looking through an open unsecured section of the pod classroom attached to the main building. They clearly show mold at King's Highway.
[click on photos to enlarge]

If you have taken your own pictures of the conditions at King's Highway school and would like to share them with the KHS Clean Air Committee, please email them to khscleanair@yahoo.com
Click Here

Leadership

WestportNow finally gave some coverage to the mold and other health issues at King's Highway Elementary School by noting that our First Selectman is getting involved and will bring his resources to assist in safeguarding our children and teachers.

As the town owns the schools and the Board of Ed operates them, the committee is looking to our First Selectman to push for more testing and to have the town take over decisions that regard the health and well being of those who enter town property and town schools.

You can read more about Gordon's efforts at WestportNow.com. The news release at the Westport Town site has since been removed.

Media Coverage

News Channel 12 picked up the story and sent a reporter to the school. The coverage included key points of our desire for testing and disbelief on how the carpeting was removed.



Click here to read their story and view a video of the broadcast.

Three Men and a Van

Coincidentally on the morning that the KHS Clean Air Committee delivered its letter to Elliott Landon requesting that he preserve material for testing, three men with a van arrived at King's Highway Elementary School and removed the carpeting from room 28 (second grade class). The parents had wanted testing conducted below the carpet and between the layers of carpet.

Thankfully a concerned parent passing by the school noticed what was happening, spoke to the workers doing the removal, took some photos to document their actions and preserved a sample of the carpeting. [click on photo to enlarge]

This event was covered in the Westport News.

The administration actions opens up a host of questions on how Mr. Landon, the BOE and school administration handled the carpet removal from room 28 at King's Highway Elementary School:

1. How was the removal firm selected?
2. Was the removal firm informed of the health condition associated with the carpet that necessitated the removal? According to the workers – no.
3. Was the removal firm told to follow specific guidelines with regard to disposal of the carpet? According to the workers – no.
4. Were the three workers who removed the carpeting informed of the health conditions? They indicated that they were not.
5. Did the workers who removed the carpeting wear protective clothing? No
6. Did the workers who removed the carpeting wear protective masks? No
7. Did the workers who removed the carpeting wear protective gloves? No
8. How was the school safeguarded from the carpeting as it passed through the various hallways?
9. Why was the carpet taken to the Wallingford dump and not dropped in Westport?
   
10. Were any federal or state guidelines followed in how the carpet was disposed?

An Unfortunate Need

Welcome.

This blog was created in parallel to parent efforts to conduct additional testing at King's Highway Elementary School in Westport, Connecticut and to have the administration take immediate action to eliminate the mold and other harmful substances from the school.

To date, the administration lead by Superintendent Elliott Landon has been unwilling to conduct new tests even though 130+ parents have requested that he do so and even though there are serious concerns with the testing process and remediation efforts to date.

To learn more, please:
1. click here for the July 17th letter to Elliott Landon and the BOE
2. click here for the recent history fact sheet on health problems at King's Highway

After reading the above, if you are a parent of a King's Highway student and would like to add your name to those requesting more action from the Westport Board of Education and Elliott Landon, please copy and complete the following in an email to info@khscleanair.org:

"I am concerned by the potential mold and ventilation problems at KHS and support the proposed request for action from the parents group. Please include my name on the letter to Dr. Landon et al

Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
Email address:
Ages and 06/07 grades of all your children:"