State funds schools' air quality upgrade

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State funds schools' air quality upgrade

$3.9M divided among three ailing Lee County schools

By JENNIFER BOOTH REED, jreed@...

The Lee school district's fight to fix indoor air quality and fire code

problems got a $3.9 million boost from the state this week.

Three schools, Lehigh Elementary, Lehigh Acres Middle and Heights

Elementary, will split the money and accelerate their renovation time lines

by at least a year.

Those schools have had wide-ranging air quality issues and, like most of the

district's 68 schools, were found in violation of state fire code

regulations.

The grant will also pay for about $83,000 worth of technology for disabled

children.

For teachers and parents of children prone to respiratory problems, air

quality has been a key concern.

" I'm thrilled, " said Dickson, the mother of a Heights Elementary

School student.

Her 6-year-old son was sick often during kindergarten last year. He has not

been absent once this year, thanks to a school decontamination. Yet Dickson

knows the air will likely sour again if broader repairs aren't made to the

air-conditioning system.

" I'm very impressed, but they've got to keep it that way, " Dickson said.

Lehigh Acres Middle School went through the same decontamination and similar

repairs as Heights, but mold is starting to grow back at that school.

The money will pay for more permanent solutions. Leaky roofs will be fixed.

New air-conditioning systems and dehumidifiers will be installed. The

buildings will also be sealed to prevent untreated air from getting into the

systems.

" We've had air quality problems since I've been here. It seems this will

completely eradicate these problems, " Lehigh Acres Middle School Principal

Jerry Demming said.

Heights Elementary School Principal Ed Steinwand said the money will likely

mean the school can complete a list of recommendations an indoor air

consulting team made last year.

" We feel good that we got the basic things completed, now this will help us

get it completely done, " Steinwand said.

As for fire codes, the money will repair fire doors, add strobe lights,

replace and upgrade fire alarms. In some cases, money may be used to build

ramps to bring schools into Americans with Disability Act compliance,

district facilities planner Keyes said.

The three schools are by no means the only ones with widespread air quality

problems.

Earlier this week parents at Spring Creek Elementary School in Bonita

Springs complained that air remediation efforts so far have done little to

improve the situation.

Keyes said the three schools picked most closely matched the grant criteria,

which took into account poverty rates.

Yet, in a way, the money will help the other schools, Keyes said. Money

budgeted for Heights and the Lehigh schools can be redirected to other

buildings, she said.

The district also got a $1.4 million check from the state last month as part

of Gov. Jeb Bush's attempt to stimulate the economy by accelerating public

construction projects, she said.

Copyright 2001, The News-Press.