A Message to the BOE

Tonight the following letter will be presented to the Westport Board of Education during their meeting at Staples High School. It calls for immediate action to be taken at the school as an outcome of the MRC recommendations. Some actions include:

• retaining the outside consultant who has led the analysis to date and supervised the removal of the pod
• remediation of the remaining 2 mold infected pods
• monitoring of CO2 levels across the classrooms
• publication of the findings to date including tests and photographs
• review of health issues since the school reopened
  
• updating of processes that let this situation happen
  

The letter is signed by over 50 parents representing roughly 15% of the King's Highway Elementary School population.

If you would like to add your name to the list, please email us at amdconsult@yahoo.com.

Click here to read the word document version of the letter.

Back at the BOE

KHS is back on the agenda (last item) for the upcoming Westport Board of Education meeting this Monday September 24th. The meeting is held at 8:00pm at Staples High School.

You can access the agenda here.


The title is "Response to Outstanding Questions re: King's Highway Elementary School" and the presenter is Elliott Landon. We hope the BOE presses Elliott to answer open questions related to the Air Quality history at KHS and includes the following:

• Why did he omit the damning 2002 Air Quality study from his August 10th presentation to the BOE on the History of Air Quality at KHS?
• Of the list of violations stated in that study, which have been remedied some five years later?
• The study sited air flow at less than 25% of design - what is it operating at today?
• Did he turn over the bi-annual Radon reports to the MRC and Gavin Anderson?
  

Live on Video

The Town of Westport has been capturing video of the King's Highway Maintenance Review Committee meetings and posting them to its website. You can see a list and access the videos by clicking here and scrolling down the screen.

Alternatively, you can click to see the specific meeting:

Sep 06, 2007 — 1 hour 32 mins
Aug 30, 2007 — 1 hour 38 mins
Aug 22, 2007 — 1 hour 54 mins
Aug 16, 2007 — 1 hour 42 mins
Aug 09, 2007 — 1 hour 46 mins
Aug 02, 2007 — 2 hours 32 mins

For information on the 1st grade wing, act/art room, choose Sep 6th above and fast forward to 24 minutes into the meeting.

On the same site the town has also posted MRC Chairman Gavin Anderson's email so you can send him information or comments related to the Air Quality efforts at KHS.

Email Gavin here

At the time of posting, the videos were working intermittently. Please try more than once if you don't get them to run. You may need Windows Media Player on your computer in order to run.

Mold, CO2... now Radon?

As the Westport school administration kept air quality reports to itself from 2002 on poor ventilation and 2006 on mold and CO2, it does not surprise parents to learn that the administration has not been forthcoming with producing reports on Radon levels at King's Highway elementary school.

Parents attending the MRC meetings have reported that Elliott Landon and the school administration have not satisfied Gavin Anderson's request for past Radon reports at KHS. Supposedly these reports are required every two years at each of the school buildings.

Given that every homeowner in Westport likely ran a Radon test before purchasing their home, this is data that parents can easily understand and interpret.

We hope Mr. Anderson or one of the town media outlets is successful in having Landon produce these Radon reports going back to when he began in his role. We hope the BOE that was unaware of the 2002 and 2006 reports makes a similar request of the school administration.

You can read about Radon at the EPA site, at the National Safety Council, or at the Connecticut State Department of Health.

Reporting Health Concerns

The Town of Westport, through the Westport Weston Health District has established procedures for students or teachers wanting to report health issues or concerns at King's Highway Elementary School. The procedures were distributed to KHS parents through email over the past day. [click on the image to enlarge and see the contents of the email attachment]

Elliott's in Your Pocket

As reported on WestportNow.com, the Westport Board of Education is planning to ask for $5 Million (that's $5,000,000) to remediate the mold and improve the air quality at King's Highway Elementary School and Staples High School.

This amount is shocking given the 2002 Air Quality report that Elliott Landon kept hidden from the BOE, media and parents recommended roughly $200,000 in expenses. As of last year, his planned 2010 request (reported in Westport News) was roughly $500,000.

Given that some of this expense will cover Staples, this amounts to at least an additional $2-$3 million to fix KHS that Elliott Landon had deemed safe in July and not in need of any additional testing nor remediation.

We hope that First Selectman Gordon Joseloff and Board of Finance Chairman Jeffrey Mayer investigate line item by line item to ensure that these amounts are spent on specific remediation at the school and that any funds not spent on air quality improvements are returned to the town.

We hope that Board of Ed members investigate the detail request from Elliott Landon and question every underlying assumption given that he never shared with them the 2001 committee, 2002 report nor 2006 report on the issues that have now grown to millions of dollars in remediation costs.

Click here to read the WestportNow article.

Health Issues With Teachers

WestportNow published a comprehensive article last week detailing the health issues that have surfaced since the school year began at King's Highway Elementary School. The article noted 13 faculty complaints in the first week of school.

The article quoted both Democratic and Republican members of the BOE promising action.

You can read their article here.

Hit the Forward Button Mary

At tonight's Westport Board of Education meeting, it became clear that the September 4th email from Gavin Anderson to Chairman Mary Parmelee was not forwarded to the other members of the BOE and that she had conversations alone with Elliott Landon on its contents.

Mr. Anderson stated that he had expected her to forward it to the other BOE members. A parent remarked that it was a matter of public record having been discussed last week at the King's Highway MRC meeting. It is attached here.

The letter highlights the fact that the school administration which failed to detect the mold in the gym, failed to correct the ventilation problems in the school and failed to disclose 2002 air quality reports to the media, parents, teachers and the BOE, is still operating alone and seemingly unwilling to leverage the town's experts. To quote Mr. Anderson from the letter:

"I am very disappointed that this tile removal work should have been undertaken without the knowledge of Gil Cormier or myself, and at a time when we are deeply involved in mitigating health risks to the students and staff in this school."

Landon Knows Best

In an email last week from King's Highway MRC Chairman Gavin Anderson to First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, Elliott Landon, and BOE Chairman Mary Parmelee, Mr. Anderson recommended a number of actions with regard to the first grade classrooms at KHS.

One action was to conduct PCR testing of the ceiling tile dust and debris that was found in the rooms after replacement of ceiling tiles ordered by Nancy Harris. A number of children and teachers in these rooms reported health issues after the ceiling tiles were replaced. Per Mary Parmelee, a PCR test is like 'DNA testing' of a substance.

At tonight's Westport Board of Education meeting Elliott Landon confirmed that he had decided not to follow Mr. Anderson's request and did not conduct PCR testing. Mr. Anderson confirmed that he would still recommend that PCR testing be completed.

The opportunity to follow Gavin's recommendation and conduct the PCR testing is unfortunately impossible as the administration disposed of the old ceiling tiles and dust/debris that was in rooms 104, 105, 106, and the Art/ACT rooms.

More Mold at KHS

At tonight's Westport Board of Education meeting Gavin Anderson, Chairman of the King's Highway Maintenance Review Committee confirmed what a number of parents had long expected. Mold exists in the two remaining pods at the elementary school.

He noted that cultures had produced mold in the KHS Music room and adjoining pod but could not at this time confirm the type of mold or action that he would recommend.

BOE on, BOE off

At tonight's Westport Board of Education meeting a number of parents spoke during the 'non-agenda' item period about the air quality situation in the first grade class rooms and Art/ACT rooms.

We commend the BOE for voting unanimously to add King's Highway Rooms 104, 105, 106 (teachers: Lynch, Petit, Neak) and the Art/ACT to the agenda this evening and for quizzing Elliott Landon and Nancy Harris on the administration actions since late August with regard to those rooms. Gavin Anderson also spoke about his concerns for those rooms.

At the end of the session, unfortunately, Mary Parmelee recommended that KHS be removed from the Sept 24th BOE meeting agenda where discussion would have been had on the Westport MRC report from Gavin on his recommendations to improve KHS air quality. We hope Mary reconsiders and keeps the air quality at KHS on the agenda.