School board sounds safety alarm
THE AIR QUALITY of schools run by the Commission scolaire de Montréal is so worrisome, a coalition has been formed to try to shock the province into action. Janet Bagnall reports that as the CSDM sounds the alarm over mould, the province says it’s up to
Parents, teachers, administrative and maintenance staff at the province’s largest French school board have set up a coalition they hope will act as an “electroshock” to prod the province into cleaning up the air, walls and roofs of dilapidated and potentially dangerous school buildings.
At a news conference Wednesday the newly formed coalition, the Coalition pour des écoles saines à la CSDM, demanded that Quebec spend at least $100 million a year for the next 10 years to bring school buildings up to acceptable standards of health and hygiene.
This demand seems unlikely to meet with success. Education Minister Marie Malavoy reacted Wednesday by saying the air-quality problems are “long-standing” and that it was up to the school board to prioritize corrective spending while remaining within its budget.
Only five per cent of the buildings run by the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) are considered to be in good shape, states a 2012 study commissioned by the board. As many as 30 of the board’s 214 schools require intervention, some urgently. To date, six schools have been closed to carry out extensive decontamination, mainly of mould. The board has promised that all schools will be inspected.
Students and staff from the six schools have had to be placed in other schools. In one case, at least 10 staff members were reported to have fallen sick while they moved through a series of schools, three in total, as the board tried to find a safe environment. Their third move was to Louis-Riel school in the east-end neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. It has not proved to be a safe haven.
A public-health notice obtained by Radio-Canada, states the air ventilation system at Louis-Riel had not been cleaned in 40 years. In the notice, Montreal’s publichealth department said staff members had symptoms associated with breathing in “dust and contaminants associated with chronic water leakage.” Yves Parenteau, press attaché for the teachers union, the Alliance des professeures et professeurs de Montréal, said cleanup of possibly toxic dust from Louis-Riel’s air ventilation system has been going on while classes are in session and at night.
Manon Ricard, president of the central parents’ committee and mother of five children, spoke on behalf of parents at Wednesday’s news conference. She said that, years ago, it was considered almost funny to see buckets placed under water leaks in school ceilings.
But, she said: “this is 2013 and we know about the importance of the quality of the air we breathe. We know that when water infiltrates walls and ceilings that mould is growing unseen.”
Mould spores in the air can lead, Ricard said, to problems such as an inability to concentrate and irritation to eyes, nose and throat.
“Is there a link between mould in a school and students’ ability to succeed?” Ricard asked. “What is the point of curriculum reform and the implication of parents if the air in the school is so bad that children’s health is compromised?”
Alain Marois, president of the Alliance des professeures et professeurs de Montréal, speaking on behalf of the five unions representing CSDM employees, said the government must act before the situation gets completely out of control. The CSDM’s schools are among the oldest and most dilapidated in the province, he said, and little work has been done over the years maintaining them.
“The board is overwhelmed,” he said. “There is not enough money available to deal with the problem.”
The new coalition for safe CSDM schools also demanded a permanent oversight role in reconstruction and decontamination work. Ricard said parents are not told about the presence of mould in schools, nor are they kept abreast of decontamination work. This has to change, she said, insisting parents have the right to know if the school environment is harmful to their children’s health.
Malavoy appeared to downplay the seriousness of the situation in a French-language television interview Wednesday
“Montreal’s schools are, on average, 65 years old,” she said. “Therefore, there are a certain number of problems that haven’t been corrected over the last years.
“Yes, we think it’s important. We gave a helping hand to rebuild (École) Saint-Gérard, on a one-time basis. We told the school board: ‘We will add money ($10 million), we will enlarge this school, but at the same time, we ask that in the budgets we give you prioritize the cases where there are serious problems with air quality.’
“So we have our part to play and the Commission scolaire de Montréal has its part. Over the long-term, it will certainly be necessary to find ways to invest once again to improve the situation in the schools on a yearly basis.”
The CSDM isn’t the only board with problems. The English Montreal School Board’s John F. Kennedy High School was closed last year after asbestos was found in the building. No date has been set to reopen it.