Time for a Pod Update

When we send our children off to school we naturally assume that they are going to be:

• safe
• well educated
• nurtured by their teachers and staff
• fed, usually with a healthy lunch from home
• their physical needs for fresh air and exercise will be met
• be provided with a school that is healthy for them to be in

It is this last point that has brought about so much concern over the last year.  It took parents to expose the truth about the unhealthy conditions that existed within our school, conditions that were making many our of children very sick with unexplained symptoms that only occurred during the school year but mysteriously disappeared during school breaks.  Some of those children went through doctors and testing and it is now known that many of our children are literally allergic to the unhealthy conditions at our school, that our school was making them sick.  This is not acceptable and that is what many parents have been working to have corrected. 
Unfortunately, like almost everything else, the district has a budget and doesn't want to spend money they don't have to (except it seems unless it's for a brand new building for themselves).  Exposing the truth last year didn't seem to be quite enough for the district to act though. 
What also needed to happen was basically an intervention of sorts.  When a larger more powerful entity was approached, they were able to elbow their way into the picture and demand compliance from the district to start cleaning up their act. 
Has the school been compliant?  Sort of.  And very slowly.  In a way that is acceptable to the parents who have worked tirelessly to stay on top of this?  The answer is No. 
The truth is that the district has been ,as one parent beautifully puts it, "dancing" around these issues.  Many people in positions to push the district to do the work they should have done a very long time ago are equally frustrated that the district has taken so long to get any work underway.  Why?  Because it costs money, that's why.  The less investigating they do, the less money they'll need to spend.  The more investigating they do, the more they'll keep finding as is the case here and that costs more money.  Pretty simple really.  Money over kids.  That's no surprise. 
But, what is unacceptable is that the district has not actually come up with real solutions to these very real problems. 
Taking pod 300 as an example we, the parents, were lied to about the investigation even after repeated questions about how, where and when they had done an investigation.  When the truth finally came out the district really had some serious dancing to do.  And they should have been embarrassed by the truth. 
When they decided to dig up the south end of the building many parents in the construction and building industry were shaking their heads and wondering why they were doing what they were doing.  It didn't make much sense.  During the process the fans that were supposed to keep the air safe for the kids weren't all functioning and yet it was once again parents who discovered this and brought it to the attention of the school who then had to bring in the professionals right away to have fixed.  It was a mess.  How much money was spent on that operation?  And guess what, it didn't work.  Many of us aren't surprised.  Instead of resolving issues, the district continues to apply band aid solutions.  That never works.  Not in the long run. 
Now, they are going to dig up the west side of the building because the moisture, mould etc. is still continuing underneath that pod.  This problem won't go away until they get to the root of the problem which they should have done last summer while the kids were off. 

The recent reports regarding pod 400 are still coming out but at some point they are going to be installing a negative air system.  What they haven't told us is whether they are going to use a hepa filter or not.  That question has been posed and has still not been answered.  Ask anyone in the know and they'll tell you that it would be very foolish to not use a hepa filter as that would create all the unhealthy air to be blown out for everyone to breathe in.  That means mould, vermiculite and asbestos will be breathed in by our kids and parents who walk their children to classrooms.  Unacceptable.  Parents are once again pushing to have a hepa filter in place but who knows what they will do. 
Furthermore, if the district was smart about being money efficient they would apply a hepa filter negative air system underneath pod 300 until they resolve the water issues there.  It'll save them bundles in the long run. 
It has been widely discussed by many professionals in the field and reported back to not only the school district but to parents as well that the district has not done all it should have done, that the district is acting far too slowly and that they should be doing much more to ensure the safety and well being of our school for our children and their own staff. 
A building envelope report has been done, nobody has seen it yet but hopefully it gives us more answers and provides more information as to what needs to be done.  Why this report is taking so long to be released is also another question many people, not just parents, are asking. 
We don't want any more band aids, we want solutions and we want them now.