Mesothelioma and Asbestos News

Consultant comments on district's asbestos plan

By: Scott Benjamin

10/27/2006

A group of parents have called on the district to clean the ventilation system, saying that Mr. Granville and Vernon Rhode, who was a municipal asbestos management consultant for a brief time, had indicated in 2002 that it was a secondary source of asbestos at HHES.
Frederick Hesse, one of the parents concerned about asbestos issues in the schools, said in a letter to the editor to The Brookfield Journal this week that high levels of asbestos were found "in the vents and ducts" in 2002 (see Page 4).
However, in written answers to the school board's Facilities Subcommittee, Mr. Granville, who has been the school district's consultant since 2000, stated that the ventilation system at the school doesn't have "any bulk asbestos-containing materials" and that he saw no need for the district to change its cleaning regimen.
Dr. Hesse, a physician, has called on parents of children with asthma, respiratory disease, sinus or allergy problems to write to the school board to have the district clean the vent Mr. Granville has spoken with news reporters since then on issues related to asbestos management in the district's regimen at the school.
All four public schools were closed during the final weeks of the 2001-02 academic year after asbestos contamination was discovered.
Although there are no state or federal standards for asbestos detection, the school district had private contractors clean the schools over that summer so that they could reopen on time for the next academic year.
The parents group has been critical of the school board's decision in June 2004 to discontinue a periodic air-testing program, in which random classrooms were monitored roughly every seven weeks during the academic year.
School officials have said that the program was discontinued due to the low amount of detections over the two-year period and because of budget constraints.
Superintendent John Goetz had initially proposed in the 2004-05 budget that the funding for the program be reduced from $75,000 to $37,500.
Mr. Granville also stated to the Facilities Subcommittee that although there are flex connectors, which connect two pieces of duct work, remaining in HHES following the removal of asbestos materials this summer, the monitoring program that he conducted this summer indicated that they are below the detection limit.
The consultant also stated to the subcommittee that he doesn't have any concerns about asbestos in the floor tiles in the lower level and in the gymnasium.
Kerry Swift, another of the parents who have expressed concerns about the school district's asbestos management program, said in a recent phone interview that asbestos was found in the testing that Mr. Granville conducted following the removal of asbestos-related materials this summer at HHES.
Mr. Goetz said this week that of all the tests only one indicated an asbestos level and that the level in that room was well below the detection limit that an ad-hoc committee had established in 2002.
Mrs. Swift said that Mr. Goetz did not provided a detailed response to her most recent request for information, stating that he has done that after consulting with the school board's attorney. She noted that Mr. Granville has spoken with news reporters since then on issues related to asbestos management in the district.
Mr. Goetz said that Mrs. Swift was seeking additional statements from Mr. Granville, not existing documents.
He said that the state Freedom of Information law is designed to make existing documents available, not to generate new documents.
He said that he consulted with the school district's attorney to verify his interpretation of the law.
Mrs. Swift also has said that parents have not been allowed to meet with Mr. Granville, who also works as a consultant for about 15 other school districts. She has noted that he hasn't been at any of the school board meetings since January of last year.
"His role is as a consultant to our school district and [to] provide documents, which the board and its subcommittees use and that are available to the public," Mr. Goetz said.
First Selectman Jerry Murphy said that he is pleased that the school board has followed through on Mr. Granville's recommendations over the recent years.
"They've actually been ahead of the game," he said in a phone interview last week.
Mr. Murphy said that he attended a site inspection in the multipurpose room at HHES in the spring 2005 and Mr. Granville said that the floor tiles wouldn't have to be removed for "three or four years."
"We removed those materials this summer and the town is committed to removing all of the asbestos-related materials from the schools," he said.
"These people are not experts on asbestos, Mark Granville is the expert and the school board has carried through on his recommendations," Mr. Murphy said, making reference to the parents' group.
Mr. Goetz said that in less than two years all asbestos-related materials would be out of the schools under a phased plan that began in 2004.
"We will probably become one of the first, if not the first school district in that state to accomplish that," he said.
Mr. Granville has said that typically school districts do not remove asbestos-related materials unless they are working on a school renovation project.