Work crews to tackle Davison High air quality

Sunday, June 9, 2002

By Nick Chiappetta
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Davison, MI - When the last teacher leaves Davison High School for summer vacation Thursday, crews will arrive to start correcting an air quality problem that has plagued the school for years.

Meanwhile, a second teacher in two years is leaving because of health worries.

English teacher Dan Conger said he's had it with dry eyes, fatigue and other symptoms.

After just one year, Conger, 24, has resigned and taken a job with the Frankenmuth School District. He said he has other reasons for leaving, including his upcoming marriage, but the main reason is his health.

"I've never had any health problems like I had this year," Conger said. "It's been frustrating. It's been wondering in my mind if this is normal teacher fatigue (or something else). ... It's been an anxious time."

Last year, Jennifer Tews, 33, quit what she called her dream job as a French teacher and track and cross-country coach because she said she could no longer handle the dry eyes, bad sinuses and fatigue she blamed on the building.

Now, workers will begin dismantling the first five of the high school's eight antiquated air handling units - two the size of school buses - as part of a $2.3-million project.

"Since 1995, we've been investigating musty smells and stale air (at the high school)," said Gary W. Kelley, the district's former assistant superintendent of fiscal affairs, who is overseeing the project.

Many staff members have had respiratory and sinus problems they say are related to poor air, poor circulation or mold in the building, which is more than 30 years old.

Kelley himself is under doctor's orders not to enter the high school.

Tews is still bitter six months after taking a $5,000 pay cut for a job at Lake Fenton High School.

"I guess I'm still a little angry that I had to leave because a building was making me sick," she said.

Tews is doing the same job at Lake Fenton and said her symptoms have improved, but she said she still is not at 100 percent. And she doesn't think Davison officials are doing enough, quickly enough, to correct the problem.

Tews says reams of information and air quality reports going back several years show school officials have dragged their feet.

Kelley disagrees. He said those documents have been available to the public and show the district has been upfront about the issue.

"We have done everything that every staff member has asked us to do to check out an area," Kelley said.

He also said the district has followed every recommendation from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and from the environmental companies they have hired.

Kelley estimates the district has spent more than $500,000 over the years, before the current $2.3-million project.

The issue got personal for Kelley in 1999, when he inhaled a large amount of mold from an air duct while looking for the cause of an odor in a high school room, he said.

"Within four hours I couldn't talk," Kelley said.

He said he was sick for six months with pneumonia and other respiratory problems, and his doctor told him he has developed a hypersensitivity to certain kinds of mold.

Kelley retired about a year later, but was hired by the district part time to see the air quality project through.

Among the project's improvements:

· all eight 30-year-old air-handling units will be replaced, at a cost of about $120,000 each.

· Asbestos will be removed.

· Ducts will be cleaned and sanitized.

· Damaged walls, tiles and wastewater leaks will be repaired.

· Windows that open will be installed.

This summer, the first five air-handling units will be replaced, the windows will be replaced and the asbestos will be removed. The rest will be done next summer.

Special education teacher Anne Kelley, no relation to Gary, is Davison High School's staff representative for indoor air quality.

She and other teachers are "keeping our fingers crossed" that this round of repairs will make a difference, she said.

"We still have people who are sick, but (workers) really haven't done anything yet," she said.