Oshkosh schools struggle with building maintenance

[Guest guest]

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/local/022402-5.html

Sun 24-Feb-2002

Oshkosh schools struggle with building maintenance

By Bradley of the Northwestern

It started shortly after Rich Thiel started working at North High School.

Fellow teachers started complaining of chronic sinus infections, some went

to the doctors the same time every year for unexplainable headaches or chest

infections.

We've had a water problem in this school for the last 25 years, said Thiel,

whose class of science students found concentrations of several varieties of

mold in the school. We've made complaints and they have been ignored. Even

when we complain about visible mold or water dripping from the ceiling

nothing's been done.

At the request of staff, American Air Environmental tested the school for

mold Feb. 5 and in some areas found levels comparable to that found in the

now-closed Sunset Elementary School. Thiel's complaints are echoed across

the district and have been documented by staff and parents.

EA ceiling leak went undetected at North High School for so long the

bathroom of the girl's locker room has been sealed with plastic sheets

because water dripped on the girls when they used the facility. The ceiling

has been pulled down.

The district closed Sunset Elementary School for the remainder of the school

year because a chronic water problem caused rampant mold growth behind walls

and ceiling tiles. The district decided before 1998 to make repairs to the

building to only keep it operating properly, according to district records.

EA broken steam coil at Green Meadow Elementary School went unrepaired for

months, presumably causing mold to grow in kindergarten and first-grade

classrooms.

EA cracked foundation at Read Elementary School allows water to seep into

electrical outlets of a basement band room, causing the outlet to spark and

sizzle. The district did replace a soaked carpet this month, but it has no

plans to fix the broken concrete wall.

The district has spent $15,191 on mold testing and abatement during the last

two years. That's before bills accrued during the last month for testing at

North and at Green Meadow and Sunset elementary schools are submitted and

paid.

The full cost is not yet known, but Superintendent Heilmann said the

impending charges will be expensive.

Director of Buildings and Grounds Diamond said he could not answer for

maintenance projects that went unfinished before he was hired, but he

acknowledged the district is not happy with the state of its buildings.

Are we unhappy with the state of our buildings? Sure. No one is (happy), he

said.

Diamond said the cause of the persistent leak at North is not a faulty roof

but warm moist air from the school's pool meeting cool air near the roof. It

was discovered this year after a team of contractors, architects, building

specialists and district staff searched the school.

The warm, moist air subsequently condensed on a steel beam near the roof

area. The water is running down the steel beam and is dropping on the

ceilings of the locker room, the pool office and storage area, prompting the

mold growth.

The district has plans to spend $75,000 to repair the roof and $35,000 to

repair the girl's locker room ceiling.

We still have to figure out how to fix it, Diamond said.

Water leaks are the cause of mold growth, consultants from Oshkosh's

American Air Environmental said as they searched Sunset Elementary School

two weeks ago.

The company and its contractors have found and cleaned mold in the

district's central office, North High School, South Park and Webster Stanley

middle schools and in Read, Emmeline Cook, Green Meadow and Shapiro

elementary schools.

Steve Bentivenga, from the biology and microbiology department at University

of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, said building a school or other public building not be

susceptible for mold growth is nearly impossible.

Unfeasible and unrealistic, said Bentivenga, a mycologist, or scientist who

studies molds and fungus.

Mold is a bother to humans because some are allergic to the toxins it

produces. Some mold have been linked to dangerous toxins as well as

infections in those who have compromised immune systems or are highly

susceptible to allergies, he said.

There are no federal guidelines that state acceptable levels of mold because

it is so prevalent in nature and occurs in nearly every building, except two

or three built by the federal government for the Center of Disease Control

among others, Bentivenga said.

The only thing the district can do to curb mold growth is to stop water

leaks or otherwise prevent excess moisture in schools.

If you clean the water problems it will take care of the mold problems, he

said.

Since a 1998 referendum to replace Jefferson Elementary School, which was

condemned by the city before it was replaced, the district has increased its

annual maintenance budget from $600,000 to $800,000.

Ideally, the district should spend up to $3 million annually on

maintenance - which is about 2 percent of the district's $150 million total

capital value, Diamond said.

That's based on a straight line, 50-year depreciation, he said. When you

design buildings you design them to last at least 50 years. If it

depreciates about 2 percent each year at the end of 50 years it should still

be a good building.

However, schools have not operated in ideal political and economic climates

since 1994 when state funding was frozen through revenue caps.

Oshkosh was a historically low-spending district when its annual property

tax increases were restricted and the state pledged to pay about two-thirds

of a district's operating costs, Diamond said. That prevented the district

from increasing spending on capital improvements and limited large, costly

projects to referendums, he said.

The district plans to spend more than $844,000 this year on maintenance

projects including partial roof repairs to the West High School gymnasium,

North and the Webster Stanley schools.

Oshkosh has been very frugal, Diamond said. Although I've got to say the

school board has been really responsive to things when we've told them they

need to be done.

Superintendent Heilmann said there are between $6 to $7 million worth

of capital improvement projects that are on a backlog list. The maintenance

demands might be more acute in Oshkosh as opposed to other districts such as

Appleton and Green Bay because the district has more buildings to maintain,

Heilmann said.

There are 17 elementary schools, five middle schools and two high schools in

the Oshkosh school district.

With $800,000 to share at all of the buildings, some projects are postponed

in favor of more pressing ones, Diamond said. But the district has never

ignored health complaints when made by a staff member, Heilmann said.

We have been responsive to health complaints and concerns, Heilmann said.

We've made sure of it.

Some Read Elementary School teachers and parents of Sunset Elementary School

disagree.

I'm really hesitant to send my daughter back there, said Kim Iversen, a

parent of a Sunset kindergarten student. Parents are sick of fighting with

the school board. There are structural issues out there that the board is

hiding from.

Teachers at Read Elementary School said they have had CAT scans, sinus

surgery and have had to take antibiotics from what they say is related to

mold in the building, according to a month-by-month detail obtained by The

Northwestern.

Throughout the year staff/student teachers and guest artists became ill with

a variety of symptoms, the memorandum said. Contacted Oshkosh Building and

Grounds Dept. and requested tests be done to verify what was causing the

problems. Three men came and observed with no follow-up to fix the problem.

They came, they saw, they went.

Mold was discovered by American Air Environmental in May of 2001 and when

wet carpet was not removed during the summer, Diamond was sent a letter in

September 2001 and participate in meetings with environmental consultants in

November 2001.

Teachers, tired of waiting contacted North science teachers in December 2001

who also tested the basement classrooms and carpet for mold. Students sent

the tests to M.A. Rouf, an Appleton microbiologist, who found several molds

as well as staphylococcus, which causes infections in humans.

The carpet was replaced this month.

The complaints in the memo were reviewed by Heilmann and Diamond at the

request of The Northwestern. Diamond said there are some projects that are

not done immediately because of a lack of manpower or time or because other

projects across the district take precedent.

We try to be responsive and take care of these things as they come up,

Diamond said.

Increasing the amount of money spent on capital projects is not likely to

happen any time soon - not when the school board was forced to cut $950,000

in expenses to ward off a budget deficit, said Board President Bowen.

Schools like Sunset, possibly built by neighborhoods or farmers in the

1930s, reach a certain point when it is not worth maintaining the building

for future use, she said. Adding more money to the district's budget to take

care of the buildings that have a strong future is unlikely as well, she

said.

Impossible. It's impossible, she said. It's unfortunate but the ideal is not

the real in this age of budget cuts.

Bradley: (920) 426-6668 or ebradley@....