Fungus displaces Newtown students

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Fungus displaces Newtown students

4 portable classrooms closed by infestation

Danbury News Times - Danbury,CT

By Tuz

THE NEWS-TIMES

http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1024399

NEWTOWN -- Students at Newtown High School are attending their

English classes and study halls in any nook or cranny that can be

found to accommodate them in the school.

The four portable classrooms that were brought on campus this school

year to ease overcrowding are infested with fungus spots on the

plywood floors and classroom walls, forcing the school to close them

down.

Bill , owner of M Space Holdings, the company that supplies the

portables, said Tuesday it should take three weeks to correct the

problem.

" Water has been seeping down from outside of the paneling, "

said, and the board that covers the seam from the paneling to the

skirting.

" We came out on three separate occasions and tore up plywood

flooring and replaced it, " he said. Fungal testing is ongoing along

with the work, said.

The crew, which started work on the portables Wednesday, will keep

at it seven days a week to get the repairs done as fast as possible,

he said.

With 405 English students and 100 students from study halls

displaced, the high school's principal, Arlene Gottesman, is anxious

to see the repairs completed.

" We have classes scheduled in every classroom, in a computer lab and

in a teacher's workroom, " Gottesman said. " Every nook and cranny in

the school is being used. We hope this is short term. "

Five English teachers are carrying their classroom supplies around

the high school in boxes, meeting with students wherever space can

be found.

The portables were not new units, having previously been used by the

Hamden school system, said. He noted that other portable units

used in Hamden at the same time are not experiencing the water

leakage or subsequent fungus problem. couldn't say at what

point new portable units might be brought in to replace the faulty

ones at Newtown High School.

" We think that this approach will solve the problem, " he said.

Superintendent Evan Pitkoff said Wednesday that bringing in new

portable units is not a time efficient solution.

" It would take a couple of months to get the new portables in and

set up, " Pitkoff said. " They're trying for the most efficient

approach. "

Pitkoff said the school system brought in its own air quality

testing company to determine if there was fungus in the air of the

portables. And M Space brought in an air quality testing company

also. The results were the same: there are " fungal spores " in the

air in the portables.

The Boards of Education and Finance are discussing how extensive an

expansion project should be done at the high school. As of Tuesday

the Board of Education was asking for an 85,800-square-foot addition

and renovations at a cost of $45.1 million. That request is down

from an earlier request for 92,000 square feet at a cost of $47.9

million due to a recalculation in projected student enrollment

figures in the next 10 years. A third of the cost would be

reimbursed by the state, Pitkoff said.

The high school has 1,700 students in a facility built to

accommodate a student population of 1,600 and is on warning status

with The New England Association of Schools & Colleges for losing

its accreditation if the overcrowding problem is not improved.

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