Workers take a break outside the closed Renaissance
Middle School as the asbestos cleanup continues inside.
Staff photo by Adam Anik
Renaissance Middle School students returned to their classrooms yesterday after a tumultuous week during which they got an unscheduled three-day holiday and their parents and teachers experienced the high anxiety of an asbestos scare.
Schools officials tried to calm and reassure students, parents and teachers that the nearly century-old four-story schoolhouse was safe for them to reenter. Many community members expressed misgivings, however, about the ongoing repairs to the building and the Montclair Board of Education’s response to their recent concerns about the presence of asbestos.
"The school is absolutely safe to go back into," said Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez. "We’ve had results from two different tests, and no asbestos was detected."
But representatives of the school’s Health and Wellness Committee, its PTA Board and concerned parents drafted a letter to Alvarez and members of the Board of Education in which they said: "We consider the efforts to protect our children’s health and efforts to allay parents concerns regarding the potential exposure to asbestos faced by Renaissance Middle School students as wholly inadequate."
The episode which had the Renaissance community on edge began to unfold last week when a construction crew installing new fire doors inadvertently dislodged asbestos contained inside the brick-and-masonry walls of the school structure.
The building is owned by the Archdiocese of Newark and is leased to the Montclair School District for more than $170,000 a year in a lease agreement that is renewed annually. The lease for the upcoming 2008-2009 school year was approved by the Board of Education at its meeting only last Monday. The school serves 239 sixth-, seventh- and eight-grade students.
District officials who were alerted to the plaster around the door jams that had been broken during the installation brought in an outside firm to conduct air quality tests.
When the results turned up "unacceptable level of airborne asbestos fibers" near one of the doors on the third floor, district officials had the school evacuated the children were sent home with a letter from Alvarez.
Detail Associates, the district’s asbestos consultant, reported the test sample had "460 structures" or more than six times the acceptable level.
"The building will be cleaned, tested and cleared for occupancy," Alvarez promised.
School was subsequently shut down the following day, Friday, May 16 to allow for a cleanup and further testing. On Monday, Alvarez met with parents to explain the situation. The session was a tense one and many parents found it difficult to hide their frustration.
For Renaissance parents the deteriorating condition of the school building has been an issue for many months. Parents complained about dusty conditions, flaking paint, and worn windows, floors and doors.
Earlier this year, Renaissance students were allowed to eat lunch in their classrooms after parents complained about dusty conditions in a hall that had been used as the school’s cafeteria and which was undergoing renovations. The hall’s ceiling was found to contain asbestos boards.
"The kids were in there for seven months during construction," said Mary Ann Cucci, a PTA co-president. "We don’t know exactly what they were exposed to at that time."
Alvarez said the district decided to keep the school closed Monday and for a third day on Tuesday to allow for additional testing and to clean nearby lockers that may have been affected by the airborne asbestos fibers.
"Over fifty samples were taken by two independent firms and sent to appropriate state officials cooperating with the district, including agents from the Asbestos Control and Licensing division of New Jersey Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Montclair Building Inspector," the district said in statement released late Tuesday. "All agencies indicated the school was safe for students and staff.
"The personal items belonging to students which were in the building during the evacuation and clean-up were placed in plastic bags and returned to the lockers. In addition, the surface of the backpacks and other items were randomly sampled by the environmental firm and found completely clear of any contaminants."
