It it is only the second week of school and here we ago again with closed schools and utter confusion, not to mention inconvenience, for hundreds of primary children and parents.
Frank Roberts Jr High and St. George's Elementary in Conception Bay South are closed for an indefinite period of time as the Eastern School District tries to come to grip with the extent of a mould problem in both schools.
Apparently students and staff noticed mould on the windows and a foul smell permeating the air, leading to the installation of air exchangers in the classrooms and the removal of walls. The news does not seem to be good. This could be a big clean-up.
I give the board full marks for pulling a plan together to deal with the displacement but failing grades for not picking this up earlier. As president of a school council in the city, I find it unacceptable that maintenance staff would not have realised there was a problem before kids were send back. The time for this kind of work is July. I gather the schools just sit empty in the summer, no exchange of air, the heat from the sun cultivating bacteria waiting to hurl pores of toxic mold at unsuspecting students on their return.
It is not like the board has not been through this before. Why does this story keep repeating itself like some stupid Ray Stevens song on heavy rotation? I heard the director of the board, Darrin King answer some tough questions this morning on CBC Radio but he was unable to provide answers. He sounded frustrated.
The health and welfare of the children is priority one but what about the confusion this causes for those impacted. The return to school is problematic enough. Let's throw some confusion into it shall we. What about childcare while kids are off school? What are folks expected to do?
The focus for now is on establishing an alternative plan for the kids and starting the clean-up. That is fair but I think the parents deserve some accountability about why this happens and how a mould problem that can close a couple of schools can be missed until the students return. Something is seriously wrong!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank You for your comments.
The anonymous comment feature is turned on, but I will not be automatically publishing them all. P&P reserves the right to not publish offensive or libelous comments.