Central Lafourche High School

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CL students stay home

By Eloria Newell

Staff Writer

The Lafourche Parish School Board Wednesday in a special meeting closed

Central Lafourche High School today for health reasons.

The newly constructed school received water damage on March 23 during a

weekend event sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.

School officials said five students attending the diocese's youth rally

vandalized the school by leaving an emergency eye wash/shower on for about

two hours. " We have floors on both the first and second floors damaged,

textbooks and all kinds of equipment, " Superintendent Elmo Broussard said.

" We had standing water from this incident. The closing of the school is a

precaution. We would rather be safe than sorry. "

School Board President Dave DeFelice called the event " unfortunate. " " It's

just an unfortunate incident that we have to deal with, " DeFelice said. " It

was just so much water involved. " The board last month declared the matter

an emergency to speed up the process of making repairs needed for the next

school year.

Broussard said the state of emergency would allow the board to proceed

faster and avoid delays in repairing the new structure. Broussard said a

mold called Stachybotrys Chartarum has been found in the walls.

" There has been much publicity recently implicating Stachybotrys Chartarum

in health events; however, there has been no scientific substantiation

connected to these allegations. Again, acting in an abundance of caution,

Environmental Measurements Corp. was instructed to conduct air quality

tests to determine if any molds or spores were airborne. These tests were

done on May 2 and 3 and consisted of air samples taken inside and outside of

Central Lafourche High School, " he said.

Broussard said it's important to note that " there was no airborne sample

that indicted the presence of Stachybotrys Chartarum. "

However, he said the board should take precautions.

" In an overabundance of caution we are taking the necessary steps to protect

the health and well-being of our students and employees at Central Lafourche

High School, " Broussard said. " I have instructed Mr. (Blaine) Degruise

(Central Lafourche's principal) to discontinue using the rooms impacted by

the water for the remainder of the school year and to secure alternate sites

in which to conduct classes. "

Broussard said Wednesday that today's closure was the result of

recommendations by the architects and health officials.

" We have to close the school to begin remediation work on the site, " said

Skipper Holloway, architect with Goossen-Gasaway-Holloway architectural firm

of Thibodaux. " One day is needed to rearrange the school site to accommodate

the closing of the 24 classrooms, four labs, eight teacher planning rooms

and storage areas that were damaged. "

Broussard said Wednesday that today's closure is necessary to ensure the

safety of all.

" While the damage needs to be repaired during the summer, recent wallboard

and air quality samples indicate the health risks are minimal, we cannot

predict the effect on our students and employees in the future, " the

superintendent said.

Officials said the school would be closed for one day only.

Degruise said the school has developed a plan to allow all but two teachers

to have classrooms for the remainder of the school year.

" We have made the adjustments and we believe we can accomplish this, "

Degruise told the board. " We have also talked to the school nurse and there

has been no sharp increase in students reporting to be sick or absent. We

have also not experienced an increase in the teachers and faculty. "

The superintendent said today will allow the staff to move furniture and

make other plans to resume classes Friday. Broussard said senior events will

remain on schedule.

Floyd Benoit, communications specialist for the School Board, said athletic

practices and other extra-curricular activities at Central Lafourche High

School have been canceled for today. The Top Scholar Banquet, which is

scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the school's gymnasium, will take place as

planned.

Classes will resume Friday.

Broussard said students at Central Lafourche will make up the day on May 31

and the teacher record day that was scheduled for that day will be moved to

June 1.

Broussard said the board's lawyer will meet with the diocese's officials

today to discuss the matter.

Eloria Newell can be reached at 448-7639 or by e-mail at

eloria.james@....