These emails are being copied here to help bring more awareness to all parents about what is going on, not going on that should be and hopefully bring about even more parents together in our quest for a healthy school for all our kids.
Dear Mr. McKay,
I am an concerned parent at Peace Arch Elementary and am contacting you about a situation that I feel has been inadequately addressed by those in a position to do so and am hopeful that you will be able to assist. The issue as I’m sure you are aware concerns asbestos, mould and water damage to 4 of the pods on our school site. Whilst some extensive remedial work has been carried out there is also a sense that perhaps a ‘band-aid’ approach has taken place and some very valid concerns remain with regards to the potential for continued water ingress resulting in further exposure to mould and vermiculite. To date no one has explained why the district is failing to carry out a thorough inspection of all the crawlspaces to identify and remediate any water ingress and fungal contamination as per the recommendation from Pacific Environmental and Occupational Hygiene Services. (Report dated Sept, 14/2010 Ref 11186L01)
I would like to share with you below the recent correspondence between myself and Ms. Nancy Johnston who I understood to be responsible for answering questions and ensuring the health and safety of the schools in our district. I have found the responses to be less than forthcoming. I don’t believe that I am asking questions that any concerned parent wouldn’t ask and I believe that the school district has a responsibility to respond. In Ms. Johnston’s initial email response she indicates that the district has hired a highly credentialed environmental consulting company and yet indicates that there isn’t an immediate plan to investigate the crawl spaces as per their recommendations. On the one hand we are being told to trust the experts and yet on the other we are being told we’re not going to follow through on the experts recommendations, that seems concerning to me.
Ms. Johnston indicates in her last email that it would be my responsibility to contact the PAC at our school and request a meeting and yet it has also come to my attention that in fact other parents had requested an information meeting be granted in a meeting held on Sept. 9th at Peace Arch school with Ms. Janet Brine in attendance and that request was refused. Would it not seem prudent that with an issue as alarming and concerning as asbestos and mould potentially having been exposed to our children that the school district would want to take any and all steps to ensure parents have an opportunity to ask questions and hear directly from the environmental agency who have been entrusted to carry out and monitor this work?
It would seem to me that parent’s deserve to be treated and informed in a manner different to what has been experienced. I do not believe that this issue will go away and I also believe that a fairly large parent group are willing to investigate any and all means to ensure that our concerns are adequately addressed.
I trust that I will soon be receiving forthright answers to my questions and look forward to your reply to this urgent and important matter ,
Sincerely,
Heather Dale
From: Bruce and Heather Dale [mailto:thedales@telus.net]
Sent: September-23-10 2:29 PM
To: 'Nancy Johnston'
Cc: 'ormond_j@sd36.bc.ca'; 'Ms. Brine '; 'Brad A. Helland'
Subject: RE: Recent fungal summary report
Sent: September-23-10 2:29 PM
To: 'Nancy Johnston'
Cc: 'ormond_j@sd36.bc.ca'; 'Ms. Brine '; 'Brad A. Helland'
Subject: RE: Recent fungal summary report
Nancy,
I would like to provide clarification that I do not find the back and forth of emails confusing, I find the answers to my questions confusing. I had understood from everything communicated at the parent level that if we had concerns or questions that they were to be directed to you. Now if I am not mistaken you are indicating that I need to speak with the PAC so that they may or may not recommend a meeting and from that I’m not sure but you seem to be indicating that Ms. Brine would answer these difficult questions?
I would appreciate answers to the following questions;
1. Have all the recommendations in the consultant’s report been carried out?
2. If so what is the status and who investigated the crawlspaces and where can I read that report?
3. Were our kids ever in harm’s way of the mould and vermiculite found in certain locations throughout the school?
4. Is there a potential that our kids will be subjected to these substances in the future? Has everything been done to prevent that?
5. Has the water ingress issues both from above (ceiling) and below (crawl space) been fully investigated and remediated?
6. Does the district plan to hold a meeting with the Environmental consultants present to answer parent questions and concerns?
I appreciate your time is valuable as is mine. I hope this has taken away any confusion and I look forward to receiving these answers.
Sincerely,
Heather Dale
From: Nancy Johnston [mailto:johnston_n@sd36.bc.ca]
Sent: September-23-10 1:38 PM
To: Bruce and Heather Dale
Cc: Janet Brine; Brad A. Helland
Subject: Re: Recent fungal summary report
Sent: September-23-10 1:38 PM
To: Bruce and Heather Dale
Cc: Janet Brine; Brad A. Helland
Subject: Re: Recent fungal summary report
Heather,
You're right -- this back and forth of e-mails is getting confusing, which is not my intention. Why don't you see if the PAC recommends a parent meeting, which would be a good time to get everything explained to all interested parties. I believe they meet on Tuesday? If that doesn't happen, I'll touch bases with you in person, by phone, and see if I can't make myself clearer.
Regards,
Nancy
"Bruce and Heather Dale" <thedales@telus.net> writes:
Hi Nancy,
I greatly appreciate your timely reply and would like to share that I am left extremely confused as to why the school district is neglecting to follow through with the recommendation on Page 6 from Pacific Environmental Consulting and Occupational Hygiene Services report and I quote “ we recommend that the crawlspaces are investigated to ensure that any sources of water ingress and/or fungal contamination are identified and can be remediated accordingly. As you stated in your initial email these professionals were hired by the district to ensure the health and safety of our school and yet you seem to be indicating to me that the district has no plans to follow through on all of their recommendations. I would request that the district reconsider this decision and request that this same group of professionals be charged with this task and complete a follow up report to indicate that this has been done and any work or concerns connected with this part of the school are being suitably addressed. Both the consultants reports regarding the prevention of further vermiculite and mould outbreaks indicate the paramount importance of addressing the water ingress issues. I find it confusing that your email states the crawl spaces are not wet due to drainage or pipe leaks and yet John Ormond’s letter ( Aug. 31.2010) states that ‘workers have been replacing drainage tiles along the outside of the school and the flooring in classrooms 304 and 306 has been replaced as well..... this work was performed after evidence of water seepage was discovered in the area of the crawl space under the two classrooms earlier this year”.
I would hazard a guess that 100% of parents would appreciate their hard earned tax dollars being used to follow all the recommendations in these reports that directly affect the health and safety of our children. Further to that, I have strong indications from a large parent group that if the school district is unwilling to follow through on the recommendations in this report then all means available will be considered to ensure the future and contiued well being of our children. It seems to me that the district has more to do in order to claim that they have thoroughly investigated and remediated all potential sources of water ingress at our school and with this being such an obvious contributing factor with regards to the more serious mould and vermiculite concerns that the district cannot ignore these recommendations. It would seem to be that to do so would be to potentially put our children at unnecessary risk for further exposure to harmful mould and asbestos in their learning environment.
I appreciate your time and commitment to ensuring that the parents at Peace Arch are satisfied that the district is meeting its mandate to ensure the health and safety of the students and teachers at our school.
Sincerely,
Heather Dale
From: Nancy Johnston [mailto:johnston_n@sd36.bc.ca]
Sent: September-23-10 11:03 AM
To: Bruce and Heather Dale
Cc: Janet Brine; Brad A. Helland
Subject: Re: Recent fungal summary report
Hello again Heather,
Please let me at first assure you that nobody has suggested to me that we call a halt to further investigations at Peace Arch due to financial considerations. We do have to be prudent in the use of our resources of course, as they come from hard-working taxpayers like yourself and your husband.
We don't have an immediate plan to inspect all the crawlspaces. At this moment in history they are not wet due to drainage or pipe leaks, and mould needs water to thrive. And the crawlspaces are vented to the outside and are not pressurized in relation to the classroom spaces above. Our final round of air sampling does not indicate that mold spores are at levels of health concern in classroom spaces. However, buildings do not remain static, and should we have evidence of a change in these conditions at Peace Arch - a pipe burst, a roof leak, or a new moldy smell, we will rely on your principal Janet Brine to let us know so that we can investigate and remediate as necessary.
Hope this clarification is useful to you. I have left your comments about a meeting, communications, etc. for Janet and Brad to take into consideration.
Regards,
Nancy
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your prompt reply and for your explanation regarding the School Districts’ responsibilities and the highly regarded credentials of the environmental agency , Pacific Environmental, that carried out the safety inspection at our school. I have no doubt that this company and their employees perform their job to the highest standards. I also appreciate that this work has been reviewed by WorkSafe BC. My husband works side by side with both these types of professionals/agencies in this line of work and has some experience with mould and asbestos in buildings, and after he read the reports he suggested we consider requesting either a second opinion and or clarification to the omissions in the reporting.
My concerns do relate to specific portions of the report and that centers mostly around the area of omissions. I note that in the report it is very clear that Pacific Environmental did not investigate the crawl spaces at the school, that they recommended doing so in the likelihood that water ingress is likely a consideration. My limited understanding is that the water problem encourages the ant and mould problems and that in order to ‘prevent’ further vermiculite disturbances I would wonder if this source of water ingress would be considered a priority and requiring immediate attention. I believe that the report is only valid and accurate, as with any situation, based on material tested and/or observed. It concerns me that the crawl spaces haven’t yet been an area of further investigation as potential sources of water damage/mould/ant infestation etc. It concerns me that perhaps the work done to date has only been to address obvious areas of either water damage and mould and that a thorough investigation , including and i would think with great importance assigned to ascertaining the state and safety of the crawlspaces underneath each pod has for some reason not been done. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to why this hasn’t been done and who will carry out this recommendation and under what timeframe.
I have read all the reports on the school website, including the letter to parents from Mr. John Ormond and I can only think that with an issue of this much significance to the health and safety of children and teachers that an information meeting with parents would only be beneficial. Due to the demographics of our school I would think that a good percentage of homes may not have computer access or parents with computer skills. I think that as with any issue there is a large majority of ‘silent’ parents who are very worried and concerned, I know this to be the case at Peace Arch and I consider myself one. I think in any situation giving information in an accessible, forthright, open and candid manner is always beneficial. I can see that the school/district has provided some information in this manner and I believe there is some sense at the parent level that this information/reports has been hard to source and that perhaps there is a feeling of information being hard to find. I believe that a meeting with parents and school board officials and most importantly with the environmental representative present may help to decrease parents uneasy feelings and encourage a better understanding. It would also allow for questions to be asked and responded to, which in my experience is useful to increasing understanding and sharing information.
I appreciate your comments regarding being a parent and being concerned and I would hope that the district would not be in a position, or put dedicated employees such as yourself in a position, to put financial concerns/constraints ahead of a through and proper resolution to the mould, water, and asbestos issues that a deteriorating building such as Peace Arch School seems to be suffering from.
I have had three daughters who have enjoyed a combination of 21 years at this wonderful community school and it saddens me to think that their health may have been potentially affected by the poor and aging conditions of this building. You are right, as parents we will do what is necessary to ensure that is not the case and ensure the best outcome for our children.
I appreciate your time and look forward to you reply,
Sincerely,
Heather Dale
Sent: September-22-10 1:59 PM
Cc: Janet Brine
Subject: Recent fungal summary report
Dear Heather,
Thank you for your e-mail. The District does not permit contractors or consultants on our property unless they are being paid by the district. The school is the property of the District and as such we are entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that it is safe for students and staff. All of us at the School District take this responsibility very seriously.The consultant we used for the work at Peace Arch, Pacific Environmental, has been in business in BC since 1990. Their personnel include Professional Engineers, Certified Industrial Hygienists, Registered Professional Biologists (RPBio), Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (CRSP), and Applied Science Technologists. We use them precisely because they are so highly qualified, which gives us the assurance that we are protecting the children and employees in our care. These professionals also have to subscribe to a code of ethics, or risk their certifications being lifted. For example, the certified industrial hygienists are to "deliver competent services with objective and independent professional judgment in decision-making". The work at Peace Arch has also been reviewed by WorkSafeBC, which gives us an extra level of reassurance in the process.
I know that Janet Brine will be consulting with the Peace Arch Parent Advisory Commiittee to determine whether a parent meeting about these issues is warranted. If you would like to meet with our consultants in this sort of forum, please let Janet or a PAC representative know. Or if you have specific questions about a particular aspect of one of the reports, I would be pleased to answer them for you myself.
I hope this helps to ease your mind. I'm a mom too, so I know what it feels like to want the best for your children.
Kind regards,
Nancy
Nancy Johnston, ROHT
Health and Safety Officer
School District No. 36 (Surrey)
14225-56 Avenue, Surrey BC V3X 3A3
tel 604-599-7484
fax 604-596-3192
Regards,
Nancy
Nancy Johnston, ROHT
Health and Safety Officer
School District No. 36 (Surrey)
14225-56 Avenue, Surrey BC V3X 3A3
tel 604-599-7484
fax 604-596-3192
Regards,
Nancy
Nancy Johnston, ROHT
Health and Safety Officer
School District No. 36 (Surrey)
14225-56 Avenue, Surrey BC V3X 3A3
tel 604-599-7484
fax 604-596-3192
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