Emergency Status, State Funds Sought for King's Highway

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Emergency Status, State Funds Sought for King's Highway

By Luongo

09/14/2007

Westport News,Westport,CT*

http://www.westport-news.com/ci_6893322

The Westport Weston Health District (WWHD) could be moving to the

front and center of the air-quality saga at the King's Highway

Elementary School (KHS) with respect to the funding of mold-related

costs and the handling of health complaints.

First, two town residents and parents of school-age children are

asking the health district to certify that there has been a " school

indoor air-quality emergency " at KHS, an action which could enable

the Westport Board of Education (BOE) to apply for state help with

the cost of dealing with the school's mold contamination.

Stacey Prince and sent an e-mail request for the

certification to WWHD Director Jacozzi on Wednesday. At the

same time, they asked the school board to inquire about the criteria

for and the availability of state emergency funding.

This week also found the health district launching a new initiative

to monitor the future health of KHS students and staff members by

issuing a protocol that provides a new mechanism for reporting

health symptoms at the school.

In the protocol, Jacozzi states that the purpose of the reporting is

to correlate health symptoms with KHS classroom locations in order

to " identify air quality issues in specific locations. "

The WWHD initiative was recommended by the special KHS Maintenance

Review Committee, which had called for improving the process for

communicating health concerns within the school system without

violating the confidentiality rights of those making the reports.

In requesting the certification of an air-quality emergency at KHS,

and Prince are relying on a section of the Connecticut

General Statutes, which defines a school air-quality emergency

as " the existence of a building condition determined by the

Department of Health to present a substantial and imminent adverse

health risk that requires remediation in an amount greater than

$100,000. "

The parents noted in their e-mail that the BOE this week voted to

ask town funding bodies for $116,000 in supplemental funding to

reimburse the school system for the cost of inspection and testing,

demolition and removal, remediation and cleaning of mold conditions

at KHS.

In an e-mail message to the Westport News, also said that

Mayer, chairman of the Board of Finance, which will take up

the BOE funding request, has requested and received a copy of the

certification request.

Jacozzi said, " I am looking into that bill right now, but based on

the facts that I have before me at this moment, there is no reason

to declare a health emergency at this moment. "

She said she is looking to see if there's another way for the school

district to become eligible for state funds, but based on the

information she has right now, there is no need to declare a health

emergency. She anticipates that she will have more concrete

information within the next week.

Visual inspection of the school late in July by both Jacozzi and two

state health officials that did not result in the declaration of a

health emergency would likely not help make the case for the

certification of such an emergency.

However, a subsequent physical inspection of a modular classroom by

the special committee's consultant uncovered much more mold

contamination than was thought when the modular was closed and

slated for demolition and removal earlier in the year.

The consultant also discovered, for the first time, that there was

mold behind wallboard in the school gym and recommended the removal

of the wallboard and an environmental sanitizing of the concrete

surfaces that had been covered by the wallboard.

Dealing with the modular and the gym proved hazardous enough to

require the isolation of both impacted areas from the rest of the

school through the use of negative-air-pressure measures.

The application for the emergency reimbursement could require an

evaluation by the health district of many past reports of chronic

fatigue, nosebleeds and coughing by KHS students and staff.

In a telephone interview about the new protocol, Wheeler, the

WWHD director of community health and a registered nurse, said that

a number of calls coming to her office still refer back to those

past symptoms.

Wheeler said her goal would be to aggregate the data that comes to

her to show trends at the school, a process, she said, that would

not compromise the confidentiality of individual details.

" We want to know when the symptoms appeared, what they were and

where persons with the symptoms spend most of their time in the

school, " Wheeler said.

The protocol asks that all health concerns be reported to Wheeler's

district office by phone at (203) 227-9571, ext. 242, or by e-mail

at mwheeler@... and the protocol promises a response within 24

hours, except on weekends, to phone messages and e-mails.

Summaries of the information obtained from the reports will go to

the KHS Special Committee, the superintendent of schools and the

nursing supervisor, according to the text of the protocol.