Board: Mold not our fault

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Board: Mold not our fault

Greenwich Time*

By Hoa Nguyen

Staff Writer

06/29/2008

http://www.greenwichtime.com/localnews/ci_9733334?source=rss

Three months after some parents called for the firing of

administrators responsible for a mold fiasco at Hamilton Avenue

School's temporary quarters, Board of Education members are now

saying those officials were not to blame.

" So many people were criticized so harshly for that, when it, in

fact, turned out not to be their fault or their responsibility, "

said school board member Ellis, who praised school district

leaders for their handling of the fallout. " They really got it in

public for things that were not their fault. They just took it and

kept on doing their job. "

In March, significant mold was found growing in the roof overhang,

crawl space and inside some walls of a modular unit occupied by

Hamilton Avenue School and students had to be relocated. At the

time, parents and town officials called on the school board to

identify and hold accountable the administrators who allowed those

conditions exist. Hamilton Avenue School first began using the

modular in 2005.

Several months ago, the school board formed a committee and hired

Fairfield-based Navigant Consulting to investigate what led to the

mold growth and who was responsible. Those consultants, committee

head Moriarty said, recently concluded that design and

construction flaws caused the mold growth, not a lack of maintenance

or oversight by administrators.

" The findings have all pointed to design and construction issues, "

she said.

Navigant's report is in draft format and will not be released until

it has been finalized, which is expected to occur within the next

couple of weeks, school district officials said. A representative

from the consulting firm could not be reached for comment.

A Navigant consultant has said at past Board of Education meetings

that the design of an unventilated roof overhang coupled with

insulation and other construction shortcomings, including improper

building seals, allowed moisture to build and mold to grow. Because

the modular was built at a factory where workers sealed the walls

and overhang before delivering the structure to Greenwich, school

administrators and town officials could not have been expected to

uncover the defects, Moriarty said.

" It's very easy to look backwards and say people should have focused

in on that particular aspect, " she said. " But it was the way the

building was put together, the plans were not specific and it came

to us closed up. There was not the expectation that the problems

could have been anticipated. "

The committee is now conferring with lawyers about how to hold the

contractor and other outside entities responsible for the modular's

flawed design and construction. Officials from Milford-based Carp

Building Structures, which sold the modular to the school district,

could not be reached for comment. Officials at Building

Systems, the subcontractors that built the classrooms in its Leola,

Pa., factory, also could not be reached for comment.

While several school board members said district administrators

should be exonerated from blame in this case, some Hamilton Avenue

School parents said their children were exposed to high levels of

mold because they said the board and district were negligent in not

finding the problems sooner.

" This is not going away; it may take time but someone will be held

accountable, " said Mina Bibeault, a Hamilton Avenue School parent

who is part of a group that has hired environmental consultants and

lawyers to represent them in a possible lawsuit against the

district. " I will make sure that someone is going to be accountable

for their actions because they put my kids at risk. "

The three-year-old modular has had a long history of frequent water

leaks and moisture issues dating back to well before students and

staff moved out in March that were not thoroughly investigated,

Bibeault said. If they had been, she said, the problems would have

been uncovered months earlier.

Bibeault said she believed officials made temporary repairs to the

leaks for months and failed to investigate the possibility of a

larger problem until March because they were counting on the new

Hamilton Avenue School being completed this fall, and having the

summer to make repairs at the modular.

" Don't tell me you didn't know, " she said. " You overlooked it. You

put all your eggs in one basket. You were banking on the new

building to be done. I get it. But don't you dare tell me that you

didn't know. "

School officials have said they investigated and addressed all water

leaks and other problems that were brought to their attention, and

nothing about what they saw would have indicated a more serious mold

problem was brewing. School board members said their consultants

have corroborated this explanation.

" From a due diligence perspective, we feel comfortable with those

reports and we feel comfortable with what those reports have

indicated, " school board chairman Weissler said.

First Selectman Tesei said he has heard from parents who

believe administrators have made missteps in their handling of

problems at Hamilton Avenue and other schools and that they should

be held accountable. Tesei said that although he does not have

authority over the district or school board, he has echoed those

same sentiments to administrators.

" You have to look at it more broadly, " Tesei said. " At the end of

the day for any position, or entity, you want the overall population

that you serve to have confidence in that organization. Clearly

there are elements of the school population that have questions and

whose confidence is lacking. "