Air quality, fire safety concerns plague Poughkeepsieschools

Nina Schutzman, Poughkeepsie Journal Published 6:00 a.m. ET Dec. 14, 2018

Older buildings with classrooms that are chilly in thewinter and stifling in the warmer months.

Mold growth in several schools. A high number ofsevere and major fire safety code violations.

An elementary school nurse's office that wasdeclared "unfit" for students and staff, but apparentlykept in use for another 2 1/2 months anyway.

Environmental reports from the past two years — along with legal documents andinterviews with staff, school officials and parents — reveal multiple air quality and firesafety concerns in the Poughkeepsie City School District.

Governor Clinton Elementary School in the City of Poughkeepsie on December 3, 2018. (Photo: PatrickOehler/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Officials say they are "rapidly addressing" the issues, attempting to overcome whatthey characterize as an inadequate effort by previous administrators to maintainbuildings.

Research shows that school facilities have a profound impact on student outcomes.

Like many urban schools, "we have issues with aging infrastructure," said interimSuperintendent Kathleen Farrell, who took over in July. "There has been sporadicmaintenance over the last 10-20 years."

The district-wide phone system needs to be replaced, "we have boilers that need to bereplaced, roofs that need to be replaced, some areas of plumbing that need to beupgraded," Farrell added. "Those are just a few of the issues that we face."

Air quality investigations in August and October revealed mold growth in parts ofPoughkeepsie Middle School Morse Clinton and Warring elementary schools

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(Photo: NinaSchutzman/Poughkeepsie Journal)

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according to reports obtained by the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Warring Elementary School | Health office at Warring Elementary | ClintonElementary | Morse Elementary | Poughkeepsie Middle School | Other

schools

The district was hardly alone. A wet and humid summer left numerous local districts —Beacon, Dover, Hyde Park and Millbrook — grappling with mold.

In Poughkeepsie, "areas that were noted did not have mold of toxicity such as the'black mold' folks speak about," Farrell told the Journal. "We have done air qualitytesting in all of our buildings...where we had issues of any type of mold infiltration,regardless of the type (of mold), it has been abated."

Morse Elementary School in the Poughkeepsie School District (Photo: Nina Schutzman/PoughkeepsieJournal)

Since then, "we have re-tested and we've got the 'good-to-go' from our DutchessBOCES environmental expert," Farrell added.

But Poughkeepsie's facilities problems, compounded by its financial hardships, are notlimited to mold.

Take the nurse's office at Warring Elementary School. In April 2017, Dutchess BOCESsaid it was “unfit for student and staff occupancy" because it had no mechanicalventilation, a violation of state regulations that dictate airflow requirements.

Despite that, district officials say it was in use until the school year ended in June 2017,during which time the office door was left open to move air through the area.

"They were good at masking problems instead of addressing them," said CindySlayton, who retired in June after more than three decades teaching special educationin Poughkeepsie.

Old buildings

Alysia Green, an advocate and mom of three district graduates, agrees with Slayton.

"I feel like they have been putting band-aids on things for a very long time," Green said.

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The "outdated" buildings are detrimental to students, Green added. "I think they needto be torn down. We need new buildings. Those buildings are ancient. My father wentto Warring... and he was born in 1940."

Indeed, while the average U.S. school building is 44 years old, Poughkeepsie's eightschool buildings are older, a Journal analysis of data found.

Its newest, the middle school, was built in 1969. Its oldest, which houses the EarlyLearning Center at Smith School's pre-k and kindergarten students, was built in 1912.

Poughkeepsie's Early Learning Center at Smith School in September 2018. (Photo: NinaSchutzman/Poughkeepsie Journal)

"I don’t feel like our kids are getting the same things that everybody else is getting,because our buildings are so outdated," Green said.

Sarah Weyant's two children have attended a number of district schools. She's got oneson in the middle school, her older son already graduated.

Some schools "are more kept up than others," Weyant said. "We've seen buildings invarious states of disrepair. This year, we're concerned about air quality in the middleschool."

Weyant knows solutions are complicated and costly, and the district has financialhardships. Still, there are "improvements that need to be made," she said. "Studentsare spending huge amounts of their lives in these buildings."

District Facilities Director John Willabay has been crafting a "comprehensive facilitiesreport to determine what areas are the most critical to address and then lay out a planof action... to develop a priority list," Farrell said.

Too hot, too cold

Issues with school boiler systems are frequent, staff and parents say

"Heating is a big issue," Green said. "Throughout the years of my kids being in thedistrict, there were buildings without heat — kids were sent home early or kept in thebuilding, wearing their coats during class."

Half of Slayton's 34-year-career was spent at Warring, where the heating system "washorrific," she said. "Certain rooms never got any heat... the kids would have to relocate

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to different classrooms. Sometimes they would have to sit and work in their coats andgloves."

Warring Elementary School in the City of Poughkeepsie on May 8, 2018. (Photo: PatrickOehler/Poughkeepsie Journal)

The district often handled complaints by sending staff to check room temperatures withinfrared thermometers, known as temperature guns, Slayton said.

"They would say, 'oh look, it's fine,' and then they would leave," she added."Meanwhile, we are there…(mimicked shivering). All we know is, we were cold."

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Financial crunch | Fire safety | Mold | Schools

But in a way, the warmer months are more difficult to handle.

"Once the cinder block buildings would heat up, it would become a sauna," Slaytonsaid. Teachers would bring students water or ice pops, turn the lights off and do "veryquiet activities with minimal movement. When it was unbearable, we would let the kidsput their heads down and rest. If you didn’t have an air conditioner, it was miserable."

Weyant's family has been in the district a dozen years, during which "consistentheating throughout all the schools" has remained a concern, she said.

"Kids need to wear their coats, or it's stifling hot," Weyant added. "One or the other."

Teaching in Poughkeepsie

Slayton taught at three schools: Clinton for a couple of years, Krieger and Warring forthe rest.

"The buildings weren’t very clean," Slayton said. "The bathrooms for the childrenalways smelled like urine. The floors would get cracks and holes."

At Warring, problems with roaches and mice led teachers to avoid placing their bagson the floor, she said. A fellow teacher once discovered a baby mouse nesting in herjacket pocket. And Slayton remembers watching a rat dart out of the Krieger kitchenand into the cafeteria during a school board meeting a few years ago.

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In this photo from 2017, Cindy Slayton, a special education teacher at C.B. Warring Elementary Schoolin the City of Poughkeepsie, looks at photos in her classroom. Slayton retired in June 2018, after morethan three decades in the district. (Photo: Alex H. Wagner/Poughkeepsie Journal)

The district would respond quickly and send exterminators for complaints of bugs orvermin, "but it was just never ending," Slayton said. "There were times when roacheswould crawl out of desks and bookcases" at Krieger and Warring. "It wasn’t aneveryday occurrence, but it happened."

Despite the issues, Slayton describes her time in Poughkeepsie as "some of the bestyears of my life."

As for the building conditions, "I think you kind of get used to it," she added. "It'suncomfortable, it's unpleasant, but it is what it is and it's not going to change. So youjust deal and you try the best you can."

Farrell, the interim superintendent, said there's not a problem with "roaches or othercrawlers" now — the district uses a state-approved contractor. There are "occasionalmice," attracted to food in the buildings, and for that, the district uses a "humane"contractor.

Financial crunch

In many instances, it's difficult to make a direct comparison between Poughkeepsieand other local districts, none of which face the same level of financialchallenges. State data shows the Poughkeepsie district has the lowest property wealthand the highest school-age poverty rate in the region.

Detailing the district's financial situation for a school funding lawsuit, officials in 2014reported “a constant need for repairs and renovations to the aging facilities andschools in the district,” including its steam heating systems.

As a small city district, Poughkeepsie faces constitutional and legal barriers related toits debt limit, which impacts its ability to borrow or bond for capital projects likerenovations or new construction.

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Poughkeepsie High School in the Poughkeepsie City School District, November 2018. (Photo: NinaSchutzman/Poughkeepsie Journal)

"The lower property wealth and income in high-need, small city school districts meansthat local property taxes produce relatively fewer resources while having a muchgreater financial impact on community residents," said the Association of SchoolBusiness Officials of New York, in a recent report.

Certain rooms or areas of school buildings are described as "dirty" or "not clean" in2017 environmental reports.

During the 2014-15 school year, there were 26 full-time and two part-time custodialpositions in the budget, according to district financial records. For the following twoschool years, only 22 full-time custodial salaries were in the spending plan.

In most buildings, "we had one person (custodian) working at night," said districtfacilities director Willabay.

"You can't clean a building with one person," Willabay added. This year's budgetallowed the district to hire five more custodians, and "finally, we’ve gotten two(custodians) at all the elementary buildings."

Fire safety

Under state education law, any school building occupied by students and staff must beinspected annually for fire hazards. Code violations are classified as severe, major orminor, and each instance of a violation is counted separately. So, if a school buildinghas 10 nonworking emergency lights, 10 major violations are noted.

Recent annual fire safety inspections show Poughkeepsie has been cited for acomparatively high number of code violations: four severe and 90 major in 2018.

Hyde Park had 10 major violations in seven buildings. In both Arlington (11 buildings)and Beacon (six), one severe and 21 major violations were noted.

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Poughkeepsie Middle School (Photo: Nina Schutzman/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Poughkeepsie's severe violations this year were an emergency exit door in Morse'sboiler room that couldn't be opened; a blocked exit door in a basement storage room atWarring; a table, chairs and plant blocking a Krieger corridor; and access to an exitblocked near the middle school stage. Major violations were due to emergency lightsnot working, outdated fire extinguisher inspections, blocked rescue windows and more.

Violations had been corrected or were in the process of being corrected when re-inspections were conducted in June.

“The district is aware that there have been deficiencies in our regulatory compliance,"said Farrell, the interim school chief. "We have systematically corrected thedeficiencies, especially those that affect student, staff and community safety andhealth. Severe violations or major violations can be resolved, in some cases, ratherrapidly."

Krieger Elementary School in the City of Poughkeepsie on October 25, 2018. (Photo: PatrickOehler/Poughkeepsie Journal)

For instance, if classroom doors are propped open with a doorstop or wedge — amajor violation, prohibited by fire code — removing the stoppers means thosei l ti h b t d

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To fix the core compliance issues "we are slowly trying to retrain staff," said Willabay,the facilities director. "These are fire code rules, otherwise this is what you wind upwith."

Slayton, the recently-retired teacher, said high administrative turnover led toinconsistent expectations.

"One year, we're allowed to hang papers in the hall. The next year, we weren’t,"Slayton said. "With every turn of administration, the rules would change."

Poughkeepsie did have fewer issues this year than it did last: in 2017, a BOCESinspector cited six severe and 130 major violations.

Mold growing

There are no national or state standards for “safe” levels of mold: Spores are a naturalpart of the environment and are always in the air and on surfaces.

But exposure may be harmful to some, such as those with weakened immune systems,asthma or mold allergies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dutchess BOCES performs indoor air quality and other investigations for county schooldistricts.

If visible mold is present, air sampling is generally not necessary, saidthe Environmental Protection Agency. Air sampling for mold provides information onwhat was in the air only for the moment when the sampling occurred.

Poughkeepsie has every mold-related complaint investigated, Willabay said.

This October, BOCES performed an indoor air quality investigation in Warring's library,the occupational/physical therapy room and room 22 at the district's request, along withroom 24 after an inquiry from a classroom teacher.

A visual inspection in the occupational/physical therapy room "showed fungal growth inan unplugged refrigerator growing on food stuffs left in the refrigerator." There hadbeen a leak or leaks in the room, "which has resulted in the removal of multiple ceilingtiles."

BOCES recommended cleaning or removing the refrigerator and repairing any leaks.

Visual inspections and air sampling in the other rooms tested "showed nothing ofconcern."

Health office at Warring Elementary

The Dutchess County Department of Health got a complaint about Warring's healthoffice in early April 2017.

BOCES reported the nurse's office was “below grade area” — it was located on thebasement-level floor at that time — with no mechanical ventilation. Under stateregulations, any occupied area of a school building needs a certain amount ofmechanical ventilation.

Other concerns and potential health risks were noted.

This basement-level room inWarring Elementary School iscurrently used for occupationaland physical therapy, staff says.At the time of BOCES' April 2017investigation, it housed thenurse's office. (Photo: Courtesy)

Warring Elementary School in the City of Poughkeepsie on May 8, 2018. (Photo: PatrickOehler/Poughkeepsie Journal)

The nurse's office was dirty, "with accumulated dust, paint chips and debris," BOCESsaid. There were exposed heating pipes, some of which had not been "re-insulatedafter repairs." Air sampling for mold showed "low counts dominated by the commonoutdoor fungal types." With the office door closed, an initial Carbon dioxide readingwas "well above" the maximum acceptable limit.

"This area cannot serve as a health office or any other type of occupancy for studentsand staff," BOCES said, on April 18, 2017. "The health office must be immediatelyrelocated to an area" with proper mechanical ventilation."

But it wasn't, said Willabay, the facilities director. For the 2 1/2 months left in the schoolyear, “they got around the ventilation issues by basically leaving the door open — notan exterior door, but the door to the hallway. So they were moving air through it thatway.”

Many of the administrators in charge during theinvestigation are gone now, making it difficult todetermine why such a decision was made. Farrellbecame interim school chief when SuperintendentNicole Williams resigned this past summer. She washired briefly as deputy superintendent soon beforeWillabay began in July 2017. And Warring (like severalother schools) got a new principal this year.

During Willabay's first summer on the job, "I hadseveral discussions with the administrator, at the time,of the building," he said. "There was no decision thatwas going to be made as far as relocating, eventhough I suggested bringing (it) upstairs. The answerwas, there was no room."

That summer, “everything that made it (the healthoffice) unfit was retrofitted and brought into

compliance,” Willabay said. "There was an exhaust fan next door... so we tied into thatand were able to pull air out of the room."

Slayton, who was still teaching at Warring at the time, said teachers were unaware

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The nurse's office at WarringElementary School was moved tothe main level of the building forthe 2018-19 year. (Photo:Courtesy)

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"The only reason we knew there was a problem was because the school nurse wouldconstantly bring it up at union meetings," Slayton said. "She was worried about the airquality and the dust, because of asthma."

This September, the health office was moved from the basement to the main floor —"programmatically, it made sense to move it," Willabay said. "But everything that madeit 'unfit' had already" been fixed.

Clinton Elementary School

BOCES checked for fungal spores in corridors of Clinton Elementary this October.

Air sampling revealed nothing of concern, but a "visual inspection revealed moldgrowth in a basement stairwell near a water damaged wall."

BOCES recommended cleaning or discarding wood where mold was growing, alongwith repairing a wall and a leak.

Clinton Elementary School in the Poughkeepsie City School District (Photo: NinaSchutzman/Poughkeepsie Journal)

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In September 2017, a visual inspection of Clinton's music room revealed "massivefungal amplification" on items throughout the room. BOCES re-inspected three weekslater and found "the room had been cleaned, no evidence of active fungal growth wasobserved and the results of air sampling indicated lower fungal spore levels."

A month before that, air sampling showed "highly elevated levels of fungal spores" inroom 30, which was "dirty with dust and debris," BOCES reported. There was evidenceof "prior water intrusion... including rusted electrical conduit that could lead to anelectrical hazard."

Morse Elementary School

BOCES found mold in three Morse rooms during a visual inspection in October.

Air and surface samples were taken in room 102, where the BOCES investigatorreported "numerous" spores, along with "occasional" spores of another commonvariety. Room 215 had mold growth in a vase filled with water and dead plant matter,and room 204 had a "small area of growth in a corner cabinet."

There was no visible mold in the library or the 10 other rooms BOCES inspected,though several rooms did have water-stained ceiling tiles.

Recommendations included cleaning surfaces, throwing away old instrument casesand more.

Poughkeepsie Middle School

BOCES conducted at least two air quality investigations in Poughkeepsie MiddleSchool this year.

In August, a tape lift sampling in rooms 218 and 317 "showed minor growth" of variousspores on a metal desk, in a cabinet and under sinks.

In January, visual inspections of the student services suite "showed one area ofpossible fungal growth... a tape lift sample taken (in the student services general office)showed moderate Cladosporium spores."

Air sampling during both of those visits "showed nothing of concern."

Other schools

BOCES reported that it found "nothing of concern" during recent air samplings taken inthree schools — Krieger Elementary (corridors and the basement stairwell), the EarlyLearning Center (corridors), and a server room in the Christopher Columbus building,which houses the district's alternative program.

The same was true during a late February visual inspection of a room in the Columbusbuilding, according to BOCES. But recorded humidity levels at that time were "belowwhat is considered adequate for human comfort."

It's unclear what recent air quality investigations, if any, have been conducted at thehigh school this year.

Nina Schutzman: nschutzman@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-451-4518, Twitter:@pojonschutzman