‘I want a game plan’
Parents push new committee to fix school buildings
STAMFORD — Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the big story in Stamford schools was how the district was going to pay for the demolition and reconstruction of five buildings.
School officials had identified five schools — Toquam Magnet Elementary School, Hart Elementary School, Roxbury Elementary School, Cloonan Middle School and Westhill High School — to be demolished and rebuilt.
To do that amount of work in a timely and affordable manner, the city hatched a
plan to turn ownership and maintenance of the buildings over to private developers. But the Board of Representatives voted the plan down.
Officials were headed back to the drawing board to come up with a new plan, when suddenly a whole new challenge appeared and thoughts of new schools took a backseat to more pressing matters.
Seven months later, as schools have reopened and the city cautiously steps back toward normalcy, a new committee has been formed to assess school buildings and create a plan to fix deficiencies.
“Had it not been for COVID, I think we would have been farther down the path,” Board President Andy George said this week.
The scope of what the committee will produce is not yet clear. But needs are large.
Superintendent Tamu Lucero has said, based on previous school construction projects, it could cost the city $500 million to rebuild the five schools on its dime, and the process could take 25 years if the rebuilding were not done concurrently.
Many parents say there is no time to wait to fix what’s wrong with city school buildings. They want action now.
Westhill High School mom Liz Levy is one of them. She is behind a change.org petition calling for better ventilation and air quality inside Stamford schools that has so far received about 450 signatures. Levy met with Lucero on Thursday and said she wants to see a plan put together soon.
For her, any plan that does not include removing children from the Westhill building won’t be sufficient.
“I want a real viable game plan that shows research, that has consulted experts and consulted the actual school communities,” she said.
Westhill is one of many schools in the district where mold has been discovered. The building also suffers from ventilation issues, in part due to a 1960s-era cooling system.
Westhill was placed on warning by the state’s Committee on Public Secondary Schools in late 2018 due to $150 million in deferred maintenance. It was also recommended for a mold and moisture assessment back in 2009.
“What bothers me is the health and safety and the consideration for our children,” Levy said.
The new 25-member group assessing school buildings, dubbed the Long-Term School Facilities Committee, includes Lucero; Mayor David Martin; City Engineer Lou Casolo; and Board of Education members George, Nicola Tarzia, Mike Altamura, Jennienne Burke and Fritz Chery; as well as members of the Board of Representatives, Board of Finance, Planning Board and wider community.
The chair of the committee is Cindy Grafstein, who also serves on the Stamford Asset Management Group, which oversees school facilities. The first meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 12 at 6 p.m.
Grace Green, a parent and a member of the committee, said she moved to her home in Stamford in large part to send her two children to Toquam Elementary, which she can walk to.
But with little activity so far related to the plan to replace the building, she is weighing other options.
Her son, the oldest of her two children, goes to Catholic preschool in the area and is eligible to go to kindergarten next year.
“If they don’t fix the mold, I’m keeping him at Catholic school,” Green said.
Toquam has had multiple issues related to mold. In February, teachers from the school took over the public comment portion of a Board of Education meeting to voice their concerns, including that many claimed medical conditions were caused or worsened by the mold in the building.
“It left a really bad taste in our mouths,” said Kate LaVigne, a parent of a second-grade student at the school.
The stories from the teachers were eye-opening, she said.
The following month, the district gave a presentation to parents, which LaVigne attended. Officials said the building was safe for students and staff.
A couple of days later, however, black mold was discovered in LaVigne’s daughter’s first-grade classroom and the students and teacher were moved to the media center, she said.
“Don’t tell me this is a safe environment for my child to be in and then you’re scrambling to move this classroom into the media center,” she said. “That’s nonsense.”
LaVigne said that although parents were upset about the mold, they felt as though their voices were being heard.
“Then March happened, and now everything has come to a screeching halt,” LaVigne said.
She was also in the meeting with Levy and Lucero on Thursday, and she wants the school district to take action soon.
“The schools needs to be demolished and the kids moved to a temporary space,” she said.
LaVigne is hoping the school district can do something for Toquam like it did for Westover Magnet Elementary School. That school was closed for two years starting in 2018. Students were relocated to available space in an office complex while Westover was gutted. (After a $24 million renovation, Westover reopened this fall. Condensation has remained a problem in the buildings, however, and mold has appeared on some ceiling tiles.)
“I want a clear plan,” LaVigne said. “It is unacceptable to have our children and teachers be exposed to mold.”
The city in the last few years has conducted extensive mold remediation at city schools, though some buildings still have water infiltration problems which can lead to new outbreaks.
The only thing clear at this point seems to be that, whatever plan the new committee formulates, it’s likely to be costly.
Board of Education member Jackie Heftman said finding funding for the replacement of the schools will be key.
“The financial situation of the city is something that is going to play into this,” she said. “We’ve got to look for funding sources to help us.”