System to study air quality plan

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System to study air quality plan

2TheAdvocate - Baton Rouge,LA*

By PATRICK COURREGES

Advocate Acadiana bureau

Published: Apr 30, 2008

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/suburban/18392034.html?index=1 & c=y

LAFAYETTE — Lafayette Parish School Superintendent Burnell Lemoine

met Tuesday with staffers and parents to discuss a proposed plan for

maintaining good air quality in parish public schools and how best

to react when problems such as mold infestations occur.

Lemoine's staff has drawn up a plan for maintenance and problem

responses that will have an initial hearing before the School Board

at its regular meeting next week.

One of the key issues he said he wanted to address at the Tuesday

meeting was when is the right time to notify parents of a problem in

a school.

To that end, Lemoine invited the parents from two schools that have

recently dealt with mold concerns: Plantation Elementary, which was

closed for a week for mold cleaning in spring 2007, and N.P. Moss

Middle School, which has been closed since December because of mold

concerns after leaks in the outer walls of the school were found.

Lemoine said he believes parents should be notified of air-quality

concerns in schools, but realized that differences of opinion exist

on when would be the right time to make a public announcement.

In the case of Plantation Elementary, parents complained at the time

that the school system was too slow to move on reports of a possible

mold infestation.

In the instance of the N.P. Moss closure, parents complained that

they knew nothing of any problem until school system officials

suddenly announced that a problem existed and the plan was already

in motion to close the school and move students to alternate sites.

Lemoine said he has felt that system officials in such cases should

wait until they have a plan to deal with a problem before making any

announcements to parents, because telling them of a problem without

a solution would only serve to alarm.

Myra Celestine, the grandparent of an N.P. Moss Middle student, said

parents should be notified by letter or through calls from the

schools as soon as a potential problem is detected, and possibly

schedule a meeting for parents to hear options.

" Parents are not just going to up and panic, " she said. " We could

find out ahead of time, before things get out of hand. "

Celestine said that the N.P. Moss situation was not well handled.

Mark Fontenot, a parent of Plantation Elementary students, said that

holding a large parent meeting might not be a good idea, because

that could incite more fear than necessary.

He said that informing parents through automated phone messages of a

situation would be a good option.

Mona Bernard, director of risk management for the school system,

said that part of the proposed plan includes a central office team

to monitor schools for air-quality concerns and managing the

response when problems arise.

Smaller teams will be organized at each school under the proposed

plan, as well, she said.

Bernard said that employees would be educated on how to spot

potential problems that could be signs of mold or other air-quality

issues.

A key, she said, would be quick response to problems when they are

detected.