Stuyvesant High School Parents' Association
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Environmental Health and Safety Committee Status Report

October 26, 2001
Letter from PA in resonse to BOE's November 5 letter

November 6, 2001

Mr. David Klasfeld
Deputy Chancellor
Board of Education of City of N.Y.
110 Livingston Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201

Dear Mr. Klasfeld:

Thank you for attending our Executive Board meeting yesterday evening and for bringing us a written response to our letter of October 11, 2001, which transmitted to you Mr. Bader's October 10th letter to our Parents' Association.

I would like to review several of the items in your response as, unfortunately, there are still several issues that have not been addressed.

Certification:
To-date, we have not received certification by State and Federal air monitoring agencies confirming that the building is safe to resume classes in. In her October 5th letter to parents, Dr. Terry Marx had represented that such certification had been obtained. At our meeting of October 30th, Joe Nappi had told us that he would get back to us on this item.

Request to Modify Air Monitoring and Indoors Sampling:
We understand from Howard Bader that these items have been agreed upon with Mr. Orlan. However, Mr. Bader has only received a draft protocol. Please provide him with the final protocol as soon as possible.

HVAC System Operation and Filtration:
We are aware that pleated filters are being used for the main air-handling units. However, based on the levels of particulate matter inside the school, they are not deemed to be adequate by Mr. Bader.

Regarding the 300 unit ventilators, at our meeting of October 30th, we were informed by Mr. Orlan that the ordering of pleated filters for such units "fell through the cracks" and was never put through. On October 30th, two unit ventilators (one on the South side and one on the North side of the school) were fitted with new 4-ply ring filters recommended by Mr. Bader on a test basis. It was agreed that they would be tested and evaluated for one week.

On November 2nd, at the completion of the test period, Mr. Bader informed us and Mr. Orlan that the 4-ply filters have demonstrated some improvement (approximately 20%) in reducing indoor airborne particulate levels when compared to existing filters used throughout the school. The mechanical performance of the unit ventilators does not appear to be negatively impacted by the new filters. This marginal improvement indicates there may be significant air by-pass around the filters in the unit ventilators.

Mr. Bader requested of Mr. Orlan that, as an interim measure, the BOE install 4-ply ring filters in all unit ventilators in the school as soon as possible. Based on Mr. Bader's discussions with the manufacturer, we understand that 300 such filters can be obtained within a week.

As Mr. Bader explained to you last evening, based on the particulate levels we are still getting even with the 4-ply filters, these filters clearly are not a satisfactory permanent solution. We wish to confirm our agreement of last evening that the BOE will immediately bring in an Engineering Consultant to evaluate a modification or upgrade of the HVAC system to enable utilization of HEPA filtration in order to reduce or eliminate the intrusion of outdoor contaminants into the school.

Mr. Bader is available to work with the engineers to try to accomplish this goal, and he has several ideas to explore with them. The Executive Board has asked me to convey to you its request that this HVAC evaluation be completed within one week.

Further, on the HVAC system, as I had brought to your attention in my letter to you of October 19th, the HVAC air distribution duct system was never cleaned or tested after September 11, and prior to reoccupancy. Please provide a testing strategy to address this concern. At a minimum, the testing should include surface contaminant testing currently requested in other areas of the building.

Bridge Cleaning:
We are gratified to hear that the bridge will now be cleaned on a daily basis. Please let us know when this schedule will commence.

CDC Epidemiologist:
As agreed, please provide us as soon as possible with the name and telephone number of the epidemiologist assigned to Stuyvesant so that Dr. Sheldon Stachel can contact him.

Contingency Plan:
As discussed with you at our PA Executive Board meeting, we jointly need to come up with an acceptable contingency plan in case environmental monitoring indicates that the school is uninhabitable for any period of time. Again, this needs to be accomplished on an urgent basis.

Finally, we would like to invite you and Mr. Orlan to attend our next PA General Meeting on November 13th, at 7:00pm, and address the parents. Please let me know. If you will be coming so we can include you in our program.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Marilena Christodoulou
PA President

cc: Mr. Howard Bader