NEWPORT CITY, VT - Mold found in the basement of the Newport Town School has prompted drastic measures.

Half the school is now sealed behind plastic barriers, with students' musical instruments, books and snowshoes stuck inside the old gym that was converted into classrooms.

On the other side are jammed nearly 130 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, creating what Principal Dick Spaulding called unreal conditions.

Late Monday evening, the Newport Town School Board voted to ease stressful overcrowding by offering only half days beginning Wednesday through to Christmas vacation, closing the school for students and teachers after 1 p.m.

That decision is not likely to satisfy those parents and community members who demanded that the board close the school until the mold is removed. About 20 children have already been kept home since parents learned Thursday that there is a mold problem.

Parental concern was complicated by an unrelated sewer problem Friday, when a main line clogged because of paper Friday and students were removed from the school.

Jon Wilkinson of New England Air Quality Testing of Burlington told the board Monday they don't have to close the whole school. But the gym and basement must be closed, he said.

In his preliminary report, Wilkinson wrote of "urgent risk management decisions" that should be made by the school board because of the presence of a mold called Stachybotrys in the gym basement.

The board will need a trained team using masks, special vacuums and sealed disposal areas to completely remove all the gypsum wallboard in the basement and some of the wood and then clean the area completely.

Upstairs in the gym, the ceilings, walls and floors must be cleaned.

Then Wilkinson said the rest of the building can be properly cleaned before a final testing.

He recommended removing the old furnaces in the gym basement, which he said is contaminated and circulating mold spores into the gym.

The classrooms in the rest of the building are on a separate furnace and heating system and students can safely attend class there.

But squeezing all grades into that part of the school had teachers upset and at least one crying as they begged the school board to do something, and for the community to support change.

In November, voters defeated a proposed school expansion. The mold problem would still have needed resolution if voters had approved the $4.3 million bond request.

Teachers want the board to deal with the overcrowding problem after the holiday vacation. Newport Town School board members are talking with North Country Union Junior High School about sending the seventh and eighth grades there after the holidays.

Cleanup could take more than a month.

Wilkinson said he would not approve students going back into the gym until air tests are clear. "My reputation is on the line," he said. "In the basement down there, it's very bad. It's not real good in the gym."

The school board also has to deal with the chronic water leaks around the foundation and sewer leaks, or else the mold will grow back, Wilkinson said.

Parents were not happy. "As of today I have my daughter out of this building," said Angela Mead.

Another said her 9-year-old son with heart problems should not be in this school.

Said parent Kelly Robinson, "Can't we just close the school down until it's fixed please."

"I am fairly comfortable with this end of the building being safe," Wilkinson said, although he has not done airborne samples in the open section.

When asked how parents will know if the school is safe after the gym basement cleanup, Wilkinson replied he would do testing to check for mold. "I will make sure or I will shut it down."

Kevin Doering, chief of the state Environmental Health Programs, agreed with Wilkinson that addressing the mold-laden basement is the immediate priority.

Doering said he was concerned about the high number of asthma sufferers, 24, among the student population. At 16 percent that is high, he said.

The school board has also considered portable classrooms, which at $250,000 and three months for delivery won't solve the immediate space crisis. Space in the fire station, town clerk's office and a nearby church all have drawbacks, board members said.

Sending the seventh- and eighth-graders to the junior high is one option, even if voters opposed the idea last year.

The junior high school board is treating the Newport Town situation as a natural disaster that is affecting a neighboring school, said Superintendent Rod Weston. The junior high board voted unanimously Monday to enter talks with Newport Town.

Several critics were furious.

"There is nothing natural about this incident," said Ernest Choquette. "This is clear gross negligence. It's a man-made disaster and sheer carelessness on the part of the administration."

Choquette called for the board to close the school immediately for children's safety and to avoid putting the district at risk of a lawsuit.

But teacher union president Alan Wood, a Newport Town School teacher, said the board has no evidence that would require the school to close now. The teachers have not filed a grievance.

However, the union has asked the board to move quickly after the holidays to resolve immediate health and overcrowding issues.

The Newport Town School Board is expected to meet soon with the NCUJHS board.
 
 

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