Mum's the word after Poinciana High school mold settlement

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Mum's the word after school mold settlementBy Willoughby noSentinel Staff WriterMay 14, 2003KISSIMMEE -- Years of legal wrangling over construction and mold problems at Poinciana High School are drawing to a close as a company hired to supply air conditioners agreed to give the Osceola County school district $1.9 million.The settlement with Trane, a Piscataway, N.J., company, marks the final stages in a string of lawsuits over a new high school so damp and uncomfortable a decade ago that multicolored mold grew on classroom equipment. Teacher allergies worsened, and school operations were thrown awry, School Board attorney Usher "Larry" Brown said."The bottom line is we settled; it's over and the School Board can move on," Brown said Tuesday. Etscorn, Trane's attorney, would not comment other than to say the company is satisfied with the agreement. The settlement requires parties to keep the terms confidential and limit public comment, although an attorney for the Orlando Sentinel and an open-government expert said state law clearly requires the School Board to disclose the settlement.The school district issued a news release last week announcing the settlement -- without getting into the details. The release said district officials "are prohibited from disclosing the specific terms. However, pursuant to the settlement, the School Board is authorized to report that the parties have settled amicably, and that the School Board is very satisfied with the resolution of the case through this settlement."Despite that language, a School Board attorney released the settlement on Monday after a request by Sentinel attorney Bralow.The long and winding case stemmed from a School Board suit against the Co. of Orlando and others in 1997 for breach of contract after "widespread construction deficiencies" were found at the $12 million high school. These companies failed to make repairs, district officials complained.Trane, an air-conditioning company, "fraudulently misrepresented" to the School Board that it had air-conditioning units able to work in Florida's notoriously hot and humid weather, school officials complained. The School Board later settled the fraud accusations with Trane for $15,000,but was slated to go to trial on other issues last weekThe 10-year-old school has seen trouble from the start. Nearly everything in the school's air-conditioning system was flawed or the wrong type of equipment, officials complained.Leaky roofs, moldy insulation and wet carpets have not helped either. During one tour of special-education classrooms, Brown said he found orange and green mold growing on a felt board.The school was in nasty shape, said former student Alvarez Jr., 21. Mold was everywhere. "It grew in the cracks in the walls," he said.For a full semester, Poinciana High School students had to move out of their classrooms into a collection of mobile units on leased land dubbed "Portable City," while workers repaired construction problems, Brown said.During years of litigation, the School Board has received additional money from the contractor, architects, and several subcontractors in settlements worth roughly $3.8 million, plus a new roof for school, Brown said.This money will not cover all the school's construction flaws, said , associate superintendent for maintenance and facilities.The lawsuit only covers the school's classroom building, which means the district must eat the bill for mold and water woes in the band room, auditorium, gymnasium and other areas built during a separate phase of the project, said.By the time the district found out about these additional flaws, the statute of limitations on filing a lawsuit had run out, and the district could not sue, said. Next year, the district plans to pour an additional $2 million to $3 million more into repairs on the school's kitchen, cafeteria and air conditioning.That district officials agreed to keep the settlement confidential worries Barbara sen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, which advocates for open government. Brown, the school district's lawyer, said officials agreed to confidentiality because Trane asked for it.But sen said state law requires such settlements must be kept public."These are our schools and our money, and we have the right to know what they're [school Board members] agreeing to," sen said.Bralow agreed."To me it is . . . bad public policy to have a term in a settlement agreement that purports to gag elected officials on matters of public concern," he said.The agreement says district officials are not to talk to the media about the settlement except to say "the case has been settled and the parties are satisfied with the resolution."The outcome is little consolation for Marilyn Terrico a member of the Poinciana school advisory council whose two children have attended the school.Son Matt Terrico, now 22, spent his senior year dodging raindrops as he walked from one portable classroom to another. Daughter Terrico, 18, now a senior, wears the same red, hooded sweatshirt to class every day because the rooms still are too cold."It's shameful things like this get past inspection. You don't have faith in the system that new schools won't have the same problems," Marilyn Terrico said.Willoughby no can be reached at wmariano@... or 407-931-5944.