The Town of Westport has added video of the Sept 25th King's Highway Maintenance Review Committee meeting and posted it to its website. You can see a complete list and access all the videos by clicking here and scrolling down the screen.
Alternatively, you can click below to see the specific meeting which runs for 1 hour 18mins.
Sep 25, 2007
You may need Windows Media Player on your computer in order to run these videos.
Last week, Gavin Anderson, Chairman of the Westport King's Highway Maintenance Review Committee and Gil Cormier, the consultant leading the air quality cleanup at KHS, gave a history of the work at the school and took parent questions.
Here are a number of quotes from that evening:
1. Gil re: CO2 levels in the school
"May co2 levels were too high"
"Guidelines are 700 plus outside"
"Outside is up to 500"
"2000 to 3000 is too high"
"3000 parts per million [ppm] is not a good thing in classrooms"
2. Gil re: CO2 monitoring
"Gary Martin is learning how to use a monitor"
"I'm setting up the monitoring protocols"
"Monitoring will start probably next week"
"The one meter purchased cost $5,000"
3. Gavin re: air quality issues
"Need to think how to ventilate a building like this"
"[children & teacher] Symptoms are important to develop hypotheses"
"Our traditional experiences of inspection need to be changed"
"In the older part of the building [KHS] unit ventilators don't run unless heat is on"
4. Gil re: air purifiers
"Air purifying units will do no harm"
5. Gavin re: carpeting in the classrooms
"Don't want to see kids sleeping or lying on carpets"
"Not a good idea for them to sit on or lie on"
6. Gavin re: cleaning and maintenance
"[he] Hasn't received quantities of cleaning solvents used"
"Asked Nancy Harris again for it yesterday"
"Heater fins hadn't been cleaned for years"
7. Gil re: pod that was demolished
"Saw visible mold inside wall cavity"
"Water coming through the brick veneer"
"No way to remediate [the pod]"
"I came up with the idea of a bubble isolation chamber and to create negative pressure"
"Room 28 just outside the modular"
Under questioning by members of the BOE at the September 24th Westport Board of Education meeting, Elliott Landon explained his desire to seek funding to re-point brick at all the town schools instead of getting data first and then requesting funds by stating "I would rather be safe than sorry".
Landon didn't answer when questioned on why he wouldn't "rather be safe than sorry" and let parents install air filters at their cost in their children's classrooms.
At the September 24th Westport Board of Education meeting a parent in a third grade classroom with a functioning air purifier asked why the school administration and Landon refused to allow a teacher across the hall to plug in a matching air purifier that another parent had purchased for another third grade room.
Landon forcefully declared that this parent was wrong and that no such air purifier existed across the hall.
A few minutes later, the parent who purchased the non-existent air purifier spoke. She stated that it did exist, that she and her husband bought it on the recommendation of their child's doctor. She stated that it was in the classroom and that the school administration would not allow it to be operated.
Since the BOE meeting last month, the administration has disconnected the original air purifier that was running in the third grade class. We now have two third grade classrooms with non-operating air purifiers.
At the September 24th Westport Board of Education meeting, there was extensive questioning of Elliott Landon by parents about his refusal to allow HEPA air purifiers in the classrooms.
A number of parents offered to pay for the units and would match the single air purifier currently functioning in one of the classrooms (also parent purchased). A parent with a prior sick child at KHS stated that their kid was better since the purifier was installed.
When pressed by a parent and RTM member on why air purifiers were not allowed, Landon quoted 'policy'. When the same parent pressed on what policy he was referring to, Landon admitted there was nothing in writing. When pressed on why parent requests were being denied, he said it was his decision based on advice he had received. When pressed on whether it was legal or health advice, Landon tried to avoid a clear answer and admitted that legal advice has set his personal decision not to allow parents to purchase and install air purifiers in the classrooms at KHS.
After questions from the parents and BOE, Elliott agreed to review his decision by Friday the 28th.
His decision was a continued refusal to allow the installation of air filters in KHS classrooms.
During questioning by the Board of Education at the September 24th meeting on the lack of window pulls in classrooms at KHS (that would allow teachers to open windows and improve air flow per Gil's recommendation) Nancy Harris, Elliott's right hand, stated that her provider had been unable to secure them. She offered no time frame for getting window pulls in every class even though the BOE, Maintenance Review Committee and parents wanted it done.
A parent who spoke was stunned by Nancy's inability to find window pulls and remarked that she found them the prior week in a few minutes for minimum cost after searching on Google.
It is going to take creative solutions to get the air quality improved at KHS per the MRC recommendations. We hope that Nancy doesn't consider Google or the Internet to be a creative solution.
At the Sept 24th Board of Education meeting, seven items were on the original agenda. Continued questions on KHS air quality was number seven. The night went roughly as follows:
Meeting schedule 8:00 pm
Meeting start 8:15 pm
Item 1 start 8:30 pm
Item 1 end 11:10 pm
Item 2 start 11:20 pm
1:30 am parents get to speak on KHS as part of item #2
after 2:00 am meeting adjourned
Remaining items were postponed.
We were heartened by the 60 or so King's Highway Elementary School parents who were present at the meeting. Of those who arrived at 8:00pm, some 40 of them were still present at 1:30am when public questions were allowed on item 2 on the agenda.
A number of concerned parents, some with sick children, spoke for the first time at a BOE meeting and expressed their frustration with Landon and the school administration.
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:
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:
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.
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.
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]
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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