Elementary school Principal Tom Meehan is set to retire at the end of the year. Photo from PJSD
Tom Meehan, current Edna Louise Spear Elementary School principal whose education career spans over 40 years, has announced he will retire in December.
Meehan, who originally retired in 2006 from the Middle Country School District, came back to work at the Port Jeff elementary school during the 2011-2012 school year initially on an interim basis. Later that year it was changed to a permanent position.
“I thought I was going to be filling in for a couple of weeks, almost 10 years later I’m still here,” he said, jokingly. “I couldn’t have been happier with how these past few years have gone; it’s been great.”
The educator said deciding to retire again was a tough decision for him. He hopes students will be able to come back to the building during his last few months on the job.
“It broke my heart not being able to see the students these past months,” he said. “I like being in the hallways talking to them and just seeing their excitement.”
Meehan has a long history in Port Jefferson. He has raised his family in the village, he graduated from Port Jefferson High School and is an elected commissioner of the Port Jefferson Fire District.
“It’s a great community, I’m proud to be from Port Jeff,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of families in the district. I’ve coached some of their kids in baseball. It is nice seeing them grow up here,” he said.
The elementary school principal was often seen walking to school every morning, and said he enjoyed being spotted by students who saw him making the trek to work in his suit and hiking boots.
For his dedication to Port Jefferson’s students and the greater community, Meehan was chosen as a TBR News Media Person of the Year in 2015.
The district hasn’t officially announced a successor, though Meehan said he believes Assistant Principal Amy Laverty would be a great choice for the job.
“She would make an excellent principal,” he said.
Meehan said he will miss the students and his staff he has gotten to know over the years. In retirement, he is looking forward to going on more hikes and spending more time with his grandchildren and family.
“I want to thank the district and community for the opportunity to do this job. It is hard to walk away,” he said.
2020 Valedictorian Christine Iasso and Salutatorian Kyle Onghai. Photos from PJSD
Earl L. Vandermeulen High School is proud to announce that seniors Christine Iasso and Kyle Onghai have been named valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, of the Class of 2020.
Iasso’s well-rounded education and extracurricular activities include being a member of the Academic team, Environmental Club, Interact Club, Mathletes team, captain of the junior varsity basketball team and a junior counselor at vacation Bible school. She also took advantage of the impressive MIT LaunchX, a program that teaches entrepreneurial skills and mindset through starting real companies, with interactive lectures, business simulations, entrepreneur panels and the actual design and launch of a company.
The valedictorian will major in sustainable agriculture and food systems at the University of California, Davis.
Onghai’s interests in math, investing, entrepreneurship, research and scientific journals have paved the way to being a National Advanced Placement Scholar, a National Honor Society member, a recipient of a Regents scholarship, captain of the Mathletes team and president of the Latin Club, where he has received five gold medals in the National Latin Exam. He has been honored in advanced calculus on the county level and has been an award winner in the school’s Physics Bowl, Quiz Bowl, Robotics and Science Olympiad. Onghai received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for his church altar service and for working in the patient education department at Stony Brook University Hospital. He took part in the Simons Summer Research Program at Stony Brook University as a researcher in biomedical engineering using MATLAB and quantitative ultrasound. He has been on the varsity tennis team for all four years of high school along with other local athletic pursuits. His musical accomplishments as a cellist and pianist have led him to the Young Artist Program at Stony Brook University and as a participant in Levels 1-6 of the New York State School Music Association Festival. Onghai will attend UCLA and major in mathematics.
Ward Melville’s salutatorian capped off the school year with a 104.85 weighted grade point average.
With the school year behind him, Matthew Fiorella is ready to head to the University of California, Los Angeles and major in engineering. He said when it came to choosing colleges it was down to the California school and the University of Michigan. He decided he would have better intern and job opportunities through UCLA. Plus, he said he liked California after visiting there a couple of times.
Originally living in Arizona and Ohio when he was younger, Fiorella moved to the Three Village Central School District for second grade. He started at Setauket Elementary School and then entered the Intellectually Gifted Program at Mount Elementary School in fourth grade. He continued his studies at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School.
During his high school career, Fiorella has kept busy both in and outside of school. He was the president of the Junior Model UN, a member of the National and Spanish honor societies and was named a National Merit Finalist. The salutatorian was also a member of the school’s band. He played first alto saxophone and was president of the wind ensemble. He also completed an internship at the biotechnology startup Vascular Simulations Inc.
As far as sports, he worked as a coach for the Three Village Youth Basketball organization and took part in the Sports Arena Basketball team.
He said balancing extracurriculars with schoolwork can be challenging.
“It’s trying not to waste time and not to procrastinate, which is difficult because it’s something that I think is natural to a lot of people,” he said. “I think being involved in a lot of things and moving around a lot helps me stay disciplined.”
Fiorella has been inspired by his father, Dr. David Fiorella, who works at Stony Brook University Hospital, and his mother, Andrea Fiorella, a former physical therapist. Besides his parents, Fiorella said his cousin David Lawrence has been an influence in his life.
Lawrence is an electrical engineer, which Fiorella found interesting because there are creative elements to that field, and he had the opportunity to tour his cousin’s workplace when he was younger.
“It was always very interesting to me, and it was really cool to see the more imaginative side of engineering, and it’s kind of what got me interested in it,” he said.
However, with a recent curiosity in history and politics during high school, he said he may even consider studying law in graduate school one day.
“I like engineering, but I don’t feel like I have had the chance to really validate that interest because most of the courses you take in school don’t reflect engineering until you get into college,” he said.
With senior year behind him, and a possible in-person graduation in July, the salutatorian said he and others never imagined the possibility that they might not have a prom or graduation.
“It’s hard because you really don’t know what you’re missing because you haven’t experienced it or something else like it,” he said. “I feel like it’s a very singular experience.”
For those students he leaves behind at Ward Melville High School, he said his advice would be not to stress so much about the day-to-day things and focus more on enjoying everything.
“This year has really shown there’s so much you really can’t plan for,” he said. “Even just in the way college decisions come out, you really realize that things aren’t the way you expected them to be. You just kind of have to accept it.”
Northport Middle School has been deemed safe to reopen. Photo from Northport-East Northport Union Free School District
Following the release of Bohemia-based P.W Grosser Consulting’s environmental report on Northport Middle School that deemed the building safe to reopen, district officials addressed questions from parents and community members at a virtual forum June 25.
District officials hope that the over-three-hour meeting, which had a lengthy question-and-answer portion, is the first step in reassuring the community as remediation work continues to take place at the middle school.
PWGC senior project manager, Jennifer Lewis, said that the district should prepare a management plan to deal with the arsenic found in soils within the track field. The firm recommended that the district should do routine maintenance of the HVAC system, conduct sanitization of roof drains and have a roofing contractor inspect the roof drains to determine if they are properly sealed.
In addition, the firm asked for the district to seal the sanitary system and remove gas tanks from the school. The district has already begun some of the remediation work including moving school buses off campus to another location on Brightside Avenue.
“‘Safe to occupy’ is our collective opinion based on our investigation of the site,” Lewis said. “We did not identify a concern with a path of exposure that would render the building unsafe for students or staff to occupy. As long as the ongoing maintenance and remediations mentioned continue, we do consider this matter to be resolved.”
Trustee members praised PWGC for its work.
“There were a lot of dots that needed to be connected in terms of previous studies, to have a clear narrative of examples of the environmental conditions at the school,” said trustee Larry Licopoli.
“This study addressed the whole picture in a way that wasn’t done before,” he said.
Parents and community members asked PWGC if the problems found at the school could have caused previous ailments children and staff faced over the years.
The environmental firm couldn’t give a definitive answer.
“We can’t say in the past this wasn’t making them sick — we can’t recreate the past,” said PWGC project manager Heather Moran-Botta.
Moran-Botta reiterated that the firm is confident that the school is safe.
“We can only say, based on what we are seeing now, the building is safe for occupancy,” she said.
Trustee members will vote to approve all recommendations at a July 9 board meeting.
This spring, voting on the school budget and school board faced the notable challenge of taking place during a pandemic, but other than record levels of voter participation, the final results were anything but unprecedented.
Inger Germano. Photo from Germano
With the absentee ballots counted, Three Village residents voted overwhelmingly in favor — 6,096 for and 3,135 against — to approve the $218.84 million budget for the 2020-21 school year.
Residents also chose to return incumbents Inger Germano (4,727 votes), Irene Gische (4,506) and Dr. Jeffrey Kerman (4,479) to the school board, over challengers Shaorui Li (3,722), David McKinnon (3,799) and Vinny Menten (2,810).
During a phone interview this week, Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich expressed gratitude to the community for its support and confidence in the budget. But not everyone was satisfied with the election process.
Three Village parent David Tracy expressed his dissatisfaction in a letter that was read during the board’s June 24 meeting. He was “extremely disappointed,” Tracy said, with the teachers union’s ability to “enforce their will on a board of education election.”
The Three Village Teachers Association and New York State Union of Teachers endorsed Germano, Gische and Kerman and paid for the candidates’ campaign signs.
“Having independent candidates is absolutely paramount in ensuring the best interest of all parties involved, mainly the students and the taxpayers,” he said.
Tracy compared the unions’ public and financial support of candidates to “Congress or other political bodies voting for their own raises.” In his letter, he also spoke of what he said is a trend of budget increases despite declining enrollment and voiced his concerns about nepotism, favoritism and conflicts of interest.
While Barbara Rosati, president of the Three Village Parents Alliance, congratulated the newly reelected board members, she too questioned the election process, asking how independent, community-backed candidates could compete against the efforts of the TVTA and NYSUT.
Rosati is married to McKinnon, one of this year’s independent candidates. She said that with the union president having “regular access” toadministrators and board members “in private settings,” that such access can sometimes mean that the board as a whole is bypassed in some decisions — something she believed happened with the launch of this spring’s remote learning.
Irene Gische. Photo from candidate
“I love and support our teachers, and they deserve to have a strong union, but I am concerned about our district’s governance in the current situation,” Rosati added.
Board members and administrators did not respond to Rosati’s request for “comments, insight and solutions” during the meeting.
However, board president Bill Connors did address the issue in a phone interview.
“We represent the community on the board of education, and we work with the teachers union because we have an awful lot in common,” he said. “We are working in the interest of the children, and I see them as a real partner.”
Though Connors sees the goals of the board and the union as aligned, he said there have been times when the two have not agreed. In 1997, for instance, the district narrowly avoided a strike over a provision in the teachers’ contract requiring them to contribute to their health insurance. The issue was resolved in time for the new school year.
Connors, who announced at the June 24 meeting that he is stepping down as board president, also clarified a statement Rosati made about the union president being on the district payroll. Her salary, Connors said, is reimbursed by the TVTA.
Pedisich declined to comment on the parent letters, but said she appreciates the community feedback.
Remote Learning and School Reopening Task Force
During the board’s June 29 meeting, the discussion centered on remote instruction and the reopening of schools in September.
Rosati was critical of the district’s handling of remote learning during the pandemic, calling it “chaotic.” She made comparisons to what she saw as more successful implementations of synchronous instruction in the nearby Half Hollow Hills District and the free summer bridge program offered by Smithtown to students in grades kindergarten through eighth.She also posed questions about how the district will move forward with instruction and reopening in the fall.
“We recognize that there were aspects of our program that did not go as smoothly as we had wanted, or may not have been as effective,” Pedisich said of the implementation of distance learning in March, during the meeting.
She added that the district has more insight now.
“We are looking at what worked well and what did not work well,” she said.
Jeff Kerman. Photo from candidate
The district is preparing a survey that will go out to parents and staff in the coming days, Pedisich said. Though officials have received many comments from parents, she said they are difficult to quantify. A survey “can grab information we need and synthesize it quickly,” she added.
The superintendent also said that the district is waiting for guidance from the state, but that its school reopening task force is considering three models — one in which everyone returns, a hybrid model of some in-person classes and some remote, or an entirely remote model.
The district is also preparing for the possibility that the year could begin in-person but revert to entirely remote instruction as it did in March. For this reason, she said, the district will provide kindergarten through sixth grade students with Chromebooks that they will be able to use at home.
The reopening task force is made up of subcommittees for transportation, instruction, scheduling, childcare, athletics, mental health, health needs, facility needs and professional development and technology. Task force members include staff, administrators, parents and board members. Pedisich said parents were selected by the PTA council, while staff and administrators were chosen by their union leadership.
The instructional subcommittee, which has been further divided into elementary and secondary subgroups, is looking at guidelines for minimum standards of instruction and synchronous learning across the district. Pedisich said that the elementary level and secondary levels will probably look different. She foresees more structure for the more independent secondary students and more flexibility for younger children who might need assistance from parents.
She said that teachers are continuing to train over the summer to use Google Meets and Hangouts — conferencing software similar to Zoom — that are part of the Google platform the district already uses.
“We as educators feel that it’s so critical for us to be back in September,” Pedisich said, adding that teachers who will be working with new groups of students need to be able to assess their students’ learning styles and needs.
“That’s why we’re looking at following all of the recommendations from the CDC and the DOH, so that we can come back at least for a period of time so that we can get to know our students,” she said.
In other news, the board approved the contracts for the superintendent and the assistant superintendents.
From left, National Grid’s Belinda Pagdanganan who is also a Suffolk County Community College Trustee and a member of the Board of Directors of the Suffolk Community College Foundation; Sylvia Diaz, Sylvia A. Diaz, PhD, LMSW, the Foundation’s executive director and Keith Rooney, National Grid’s Director of Customer and Community Management for Downstate, New York. Photo from SCCC
National Grid has made a generous $10,000 gift to Suffolk County Community College’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund. The fund provides critical financial assistance to students at Suffolk County Community College whose lives have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and has supported more than 550 students to date.
“National Grid came to the aid of our students when it was most needed” said Suffolk County Community College Interim President Louis Petrizzo. “On behalf of our students, and all of us at Suffolk, we extend our sincere and heartfelt thanks.”
Elwood Superintendent Ken Bossert. File photo by Elana Glowatz
Earlier on in the still-ongoing pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) spoke of his intentions to remake the lagging parts of society. In early May, the governor announced a new committee to “reimagine” education in New York state. He tapped the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to serve as just one of several “experts and stakeholders” for the initiative and named numerous people throughout the state to serve on the committee.
But since that was announced May 8, little has been heard from the committee. Among its 19 members, two are from Long Island, including Martin Palermo, a chemistry teacher at William Floyd High School who was designated a Master Teacher by New York State in 2016, and Jackie Duodu-Burbridge, of Copiague, who was described as a parent in a state release, but also ran unsuccessfully on the Working Families Party ticket for the Suffolk County 15th District seat vacated by former Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville).
Palermo, who is currently working on a doctorate of chemical education at Stony Brook University, was unable to respond to requests for comment by press time about what kinds of discussions were going on in the committee. Duodu-Burbridge could not be reached for comment.
How involved is the Gates foundation? It’s hard to tell, but the organization did tell the Washington Post in a statement it is recommending experts and contributing its own insights into how technology can enhance learning.
For some school district officials, these calls instead brought forth shivers of memories from a little less than a decade ago, with the advent of standardized testing and Common Core where teachers’ evaluations depended on how well their students scored. The Gates foundation played a major part in crafting that initiative.
Some district officials worried it would be an attempt to make distance learning more standard going forward, even when the pandemic has died down. Cuomo since clarified the position that distance or online learning could “never replace in-person learning with a teacher,” yet school officials have remained skeptical for a number of reasons, with many still feeling the governor is emphasizing replacing in-person learning.
Ken Bossert, the superintendent of the Elwood school district, a former head of the Port Jefferson School District and past president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association, said he did not believe there is any need to reimagine education.
“A lot of educators heard that and winced a little bit because there is this false perception that what we were doing pre-pandemic wasn’t in the best interest of students,” he said. “I don’t think school districts need to be reimagined, I think they need to be revised — I think there is always room for improvement.”
Comsewogue school district has a long history of actively decrying Common Core and New York State’s attempts at standardized testing. Former Superintendent Joe Rella, who passed earlier this year, was a major opponent of the 2012 implementation of Common Core, writing a letter to New York State against its implementation in 2013. He was at the forefront of a rally hosted later that year which gathered support from thousands of residents.
The district later implemented problem-based learning initiatives as a response to those earlier state standardizations, and has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools.
Comsewogue Superintendent Jennifer Quinn said the district is still waiting to see what comes out of the committee, especially since there has been little news since it was created.
“Each district has different populations, I don’t know if it will be one size fits all,” Quinn said. “I would like to see support for helping us with lower class sizes. All these social-distancing technologies, it’s very expensive. If we were going to come back to school, it’s very difficult to keep young kids apart.”
She added that the focus the committee has on online, technology-based learning and shared classrooms over the internet presents itself a huge, new problem. The pandemic has only exacerbated inequalities among some communities and districts on Long Island. Some districts have access to computers or Chromebook laptops they simply hand out to students. Others don’t have anything like that. Not to mention there is a wide disparity between households that have multiple devices that can access the internet and those that have few or none.
School districts are already internally trying to find ways to promote more technology in and out of the classroom, especially since the question of how schools will come back in the fall is still to be decided. Mount Sinai school board president, Robert Sweeney, has been on the board for the past nine years. He said the district has in the past dealt with issues over Common Core with creating its own agencies, books and instructions in-house when the state wasn’t offering much in the way of aid for teachers on the new material.
The district will be using a successful allocation under the Smart Schools Bond Act to bolster their internal networks, potentially increasing the school’s online options.
“How much technology can we get into the hands of our students, what can we do with classroom-based technology, what can we do with technology to our students at home?” Sweeney said. “Let’s take it out of these difficult times and put it into the new normal.”
Bossert was recently named to the New York State Education Department’s Regional Reopening Schools Task Force. He said a subcommittee of that group is specifically looking at tackling that lack of access to technology.
But in the end, he said such a reimagining committee should not be handled by the governor’s office.
“The governor should empower the state Education Department to work with the 700 school districts of the state,” Bossert said. “I’m not sure it should be a function of the governor’s office.”
The class of 2018 moves tassels to recognize the transition from high school senior to graduate at the Ward Melville High School Commencement June 24. Photo by Andrea Paldy
The 2019-2020 academic year has been one filled with changes, and graduation plans have been no different.
In a letter to Ward Melville High School seniors and families earlier in June, Principal William Bernhard and 12th-grade Assistant Principal Erin Connolly announced that the school was developing a plan to host an in-person graduation Sunday, July 19. The decision came a month after plans were already made to hold five separate ceremonies during the week of June 22, which would have involved seniors being split into groups of five alphabetically and families being required to stay in their cars as one senior at a time got out of each vehicle to accept their diploma.
According to the June letter, the decision to cancel the drive-through graduation this week and revert back to an in-person ceremony was made after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) earlier in the month signed an executive order giving permission to host in-person graduation ceremonies beginning June 26 with a maximum of 150 people that meet the social-distancing guidelines.
The order propelled the high school to develop a new graduation plan for 2020 with the hopes that future changes will allow an in-person graduation for the class of more than 500 even though they are proceeding cautiously.
“If the current parameters are not relaxed by this new graduation date, the district will continue with the in-vehicle format on Monday, July 20, through Friday, July 24,” the letter reads. “Social-distancing guidelines, including masks and reduced numbers in attendance, must still be in place for any live event.”
The school plans for each graduate to be restricted to two guests, and when students pick up their caps and gowns, there will be a packet with a colored parking pass in order to enter the grounds on graduation day.
Jennifer Catalano, whose daughter Rachael is graduating this year, was pleased to hear the news.
“I’m happy that the school district has gone above and beyond to make graduation as traditional as possible,” she said. “My daughter is happy she will be able to turn her tassel and partake in the traditional cap toss.”
Senior Jake Shangold was also glad to hear of the possibility of an in-person ceremony.
“I know as a senior it would be nice to have the whole class together to share one last moment,” he said. “I know Principal Bernhard and Superintendent Pedisich are doing all they can to make sure seniors are being celebrated.”
Salutatorian Matthew Fiorella, who will be reading a speech at the ceremony along with valedictorian William Sun, is looking forward to a “relatively normal graduation.”
“I was happy that we were still able to have a graduation ceremony when the drive-through plan was created, but being able to have a true in-person graduation is exciting,” he said.
The Smithtown School District received nearly four times as many votes for this year's school budget compared to last years. File photo
By Odeya Rosenband
School districts across Suffolk County have seen a sizable increase in voter turnout for their 2020-21 budget elections, in comparison with previous years.
2019 Budget Vote Tallies
SWR: 1,458
Rocky Point: 916
Miller Place: 783
Mount Sinai:1,381
Port Jeff: 719
Comsewogue: 812
Middle Country: 2,058
Three Village: 2,087
Smithtown: 2,776
2020 Budget Vote Tallies SWR: 2,947 (+1,458)
Rocky Point: 2,913 (+1,997)
Miller Place: 3,016 (+2,233)
Mount Sinai:2,965 (+1,584)
Port Jeff: 1,387 (+668)
Comsewogue: 3,349 (+2,537)
Middle Country: 7,639 (+5,581)
Three Village: 9231 (+7,244)
Smithtown: 11,071 (+8,293)
Notably, as opposed to in-person, all voting was conducted through a mail-in ballot this year due to the threat of COVID-19. This process made voting more readily accessible to all community members, who have largely been under stay-at-home orders as the county remained in Phase 2 at the time of the elections.
Among North Shore school districts covered by TBR News Media, the Hauppauge school district witnessed the most significant change, receiving nearly five times more voters than they did last year. Like every district, Hauppauge’s budget passed but is expecting possible cuts in state aid later in the year. This anticipation is another factor that helps to explain the increased voter turnout, as this upcoming school year’s budget is highly sensitive.
Kenneth Bossert, superintendent of Elwood school district, noted that despite the increase in voters, the ratio of people who supported the budget to those who didn’t remained similar between the two years. “Most budgets that stay under the tax cap pass,” he said. Voter turnout in Elwood increased by 253 percent from last year, with 3,985 total voters.
Not only has voting been made more accessible this year due to the mail-in format, but the fact that more people are at home suggests that people have more time to think about their local districts. With districts trying to formulate accommodations for the next year, keeping in mind the ever-changing nature of health protocols, district heads have routinely called this year’s school budgets more crucial than normal.
In terms of the number of new voters, Smithtown Central School District displayed the greatest difference with 8,295 more people voting than just last year. Interim Superintendent Russell Stewart said that, “The support [voters] have given us during this budget season [will] allow us to continue to offer the best education possible to our students.”
The collective increase in voter turnout for the North Shore school districts’ 2020-21 budgets — by more than threefold overall — indicates that mail-in ballots have been more successful than the previous in-person voting.
It is a unique comparison this year to other political votes nationwide, which have also had to contend with limitations from the pandemic. While votes were still being tallied Wednesday, June 24 for the 2020 state and local primaries, turnout is expected to be lower than in similar primaries in 2018. The number of polling places on Long Island have been consolidated, and instead of absentee ballots sent directly to homes, voting forms had to be requested and sent in before deadline the night of June 23.
In 2018, the most contentious primary for the area was for the Democratic Party contender for the U.S. Congressional District 1 seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY1). Two years ago the total number of votes equaled 20,331. While votes were still being tallied by press time, the number of total votes for people who voted in person isnearly 5,000 less than last election, according to data from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Full results will not be known until after July 1 when all mailed-in votes are counted.
As of press time, Perry Gershon is currently leading for the Congressional District 1 seat. Laura Ahearn is also currently leading for the New York State Senate District 1 seat by a few hundred votes over Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station).
Northport Middle School closed after contamination concerns. File photo
Northport Middle School, which has been closed since January, has been deemed safe to reopen, according to an environmental firm’s report released last week.
P.W. Grosser Consulting, a Bohemia-based environmental firm hired by the district, detailed that following its investigation it found no environmental concern that would render the middle school “unsafe to occupy”.
“While several items of concern were identified during the investigation, each is addressable and does not require the school to be closed to implement,” the firm stated in its nearly 7,000-page report.
District officials have planned a virtual forum for Thursday, June 25, at 7 p.m. to further discuss the report’s findings with parents and community members. Previously, in March, Robert Banzer, superintendent of schools, said that the district would consider reopening the school after review of the firm’s finding and remediation work.
Banzer could not be reached for comment before press time.
Among the firm’s findings included poorly set manholes that resulted in sewage odor escaping from the system, detection of carbon monoxide in one wing of the building while buses were exiting in the morning, low levels of benzene found in an art room and levels of arsenic discovered at the school’s track. In addition, PWGC detected a “burnt” smell in room N-103, the cause being a rubbing belt inside a vent.
The firm also found “evidence of rotting organic matter, likely from nearby trees,” that was found on roof drains, according to the report. PWGC recommended having drains sanitized and cleaned, adding that once cleaning had been done it noticed “a reduction or elimination of musty odors within the building.”
The status of the middle school has been a divisive topic in the community. Some want the school to remain closed, while others believe the school shouldn’t have been closed to begin with.
Rich Rowehl, a Northport parent of a seventh-grader in the district, said he is glad the firm’s report is done.
“I’m interested to hear what district officials and the consultants say about the findings at the virtual forum,” he said. “Then we’ll go from there, but it’s good to hear that the school is safe.”
Rowehl said he hopes the forum will be able to address any other concerns parents may still have and discuss ways the district will handle any lingering issues and areas of concerns from the report.
The firm could not find the cause for odors in rooms K-74 and K-75. In its report it stated that it believed that the furniture — benches and wood cabinetry — was the likely source of the odors.
“There are still some questions to be answered, though if the school is deemed safe then there could be a possibility that the students can return in September,” Rowehl said. “I’m hoping the report satisfies the community and that there is a sense of closure at the end of this.”
The district has already moved forward with some of the remediation work. It has relocated buses and bus depots off school grounds to another location in the village and is repairing the surrounding septic systems. There are plans to fix existing roof drains and other ceiling deficiencies as well as addressing the arsenic at the school track.
In a five-month span, P.W. Grosser tested inside of the school and the surrounding grounds, following foul odor complaints from students and staff members. In December 2019, students were relocated to another wing of the school due to the offensive smells. At the start of this year, the environmental firm detected elevated levels of mercury in cesspools outside the building, as well as high levels of benzene in two septic tanks. As a result, middle school students were transferred to other buildings throughout the district in mid-January for the remainder of the school year.
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