Remediation Work To Begin At RIS This Weekend

By Tanjua Damon

Workers will begin replacing sheetrock at Reed Intermediate School this weekend that became wet when a coil froze on an air handling system this winter, causing gallons of water to be dumped. Officials hope this will take care of whatever is causing six sixth graders to continue to have symptoms from a mysterious aliment that began at the school in March.

There was a public meeting held May 5 at RIS for parents to provide information and answer questions. The district hired Gil Cormier of Occupational Risk Control, an industrial hygienist, to consult on the project. He recommended that the district not waste time on testing, but to take care of things that have a probability of being a problem such as sheetrock that has gotten wet.

“We’re taking a multipronged approached,” Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff said.

Tim Alix of Strategic Building Solutions, the firm acting as an agent for the town and school district, reported to the school board Tuesday night that Haynes Construction has hired an outside firm to do the remediation work at the school. It could take at least two weekends to complete the replacement of the sheet rock from the floor to the upper deck between the classrooms and corridor wall, according Mr Alix. There will also be sheet rock replaced at the lower level where water could have built up. Three feet from the floor up will be replaced and there will be three feet from the floor removed in the fan room where the air handling system that dumped the water is located. Some of the sheetrock could be harboring mold because it was saturated with water.

“Haynes Construction will have the sheet rock that could have gotten wet removed over the weekend. It may require two weekends,” Mr Alix said. “It’s not to say all has mold or that anything that is necessarily wrong. The industrial hygienist has said when in doubt take it out. That is the approach we are taking. Its’ not taken lightly. They are taking this seriously.”

The parents of the six children who experience symptoms when at RIS have agreed to take their children to allergists and share the information with the district, according to Dr Pitkoff. If there is an allergen that affects all six then the district to investigate further what the cause of their symptoms might be.

Dr Thomas Draper, the school district’s medical advisor, also attended the meeting Tuesday night telling the board there is still no determination of what could be causing the symptoms, and the answer may never be known.

“Whether they are related or not are still undetermined,” Dr Draper said. “The girls have less or nonexistent symptoms when in the middle school.”

Mr Alix explained that there was a meeting scheduled for this week with the manufacturer, contractor, and installer of the air handling system to see what the cause of the frozen coil was and who was responsible.

“It’s probably not one single thing, but multiple things that contributed,” Mr Alix said.

School board Chairman Elaine McClure said she hoped the removal of the sheetrock remedies the problem.

“It’s a shame they aren’t able to finish the school year in their building,” she said.

The girls are being taught a full curriculum at Newtown Middle School by a certified substitute.

Mr Alix also reported to the board that Haynes Construction continues to work on the punch list and the outside work on the fields and playground area at the school. He explained that pricing has come in for the canopy material replacement at the front of the school, which architects Jeter, Cook & Jepson are reviewing.

“The price is higher than they expected. They are going to try to get pricing as well to see if they can reduce some costs,” Mr Alix said. “We’re trying to narrow down all our outstanding issues. There are several change orders out there.”