Newtown Resident Celebrates––

A Success In The Campaign For Healthier Schools

By Kaaren Valenta

For Newtown resident Joellen Lawson, the opening of the new McKinley Elementary School in Fairfield is another success in her long battle against mold and other health hazards in schools.

Mrs Lawson was a special education teacher at the old McKinley Elementary School from 1991 until she was forced to end her 21-year career in 1998 because of health issues caused, her doctors said, by mold conditions in the school.

This week, more than two years after the school was closed and demolished because of the high mold levels, a new $23 million replacement school is set to open for Fairfield students on September 5.  Attempts had been made to renovate the building, but the decision to knock down the building and start over came after angry parents confronted the Board of Education. The school was demolished last summer.

 McKinley’s problems were an extreme example of the problems mold and other irritants can cause for schools. In Litchfield, a mother is suing the superintendent of schools and the local school board, claiming that poor air quality, mold, and dampness in school made her daughter sick.

This year, a group of teachers and parents, led by Joellen Lawson, lobbied the Connecticut legislature to pass a bill aimed at improving the air quality in school buildings. The law, signed by Gov John Rowland on July 9, requires school districts to better maintain heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.

The new law also requires local school boards to conduct environmental assessments for proposed school construction sites as well as evaluate any renovation projects for air quality.

Ms Lawson said a press conference will be held on September 17 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford to celebrate passage of the law. Among those organizing it will be State Rep Bob Godfrey of Danbury who was among those instrumental in its passage.

“There will be 25 students and ten staff members from Brookfield representing Huckleberry Hill School where asbestos was found,” Ms Lawson said. “That’s where teacher Margaret Fitzgerald brought the problem to everyone’s attention.”

Ms Lawson said the number of persons who have been sending her newspaper and magazine articles about towns that are already remediating these problems has amazed her.

“The towns are finally owning up to the problems,” she said. “Some are acting early like Newtown did when they took care of the problem at the new Reed Intermediate School.”

Ms Lawson said parents everywhere should take the initiative in asking their school districts what is being done to incorporate the evaluation and remediation plans spelled out in the US Environmental protection Agency’s “Tools for Schools.”

“They should ask ‘Do we have an indoor air quality plan and can I see it?’” she said. “I think if superintendents of schools are smart, they will make it available.”

Newtown’s school district has the Climate Control Committee, which has made recommendations that $14.5 million be spent in maintenance projects at Head O’ Meadow School, Hawley School, Newtown Middle School, Sandy Hook School, and Middle Gate School. The report was accepted and its recommendations were endorsed by the Board of Education August 12. (See separate story.)

“I couldn’t be more pleased by the number of school districts that are taking action,” Ms Lawson said. “It could save a person’s life or quality of life by what they are doing. It makes me very happy.”

(Associated Press reports used in this article.)