Toquam teachers, parents fuming over mold at school
STAMFORD — Teachers and parents at Toquam Magnet Elementary School are not happy with the answers they have received about the spread of mold inside the school.
School officials have said the building suffers from water intrusion issues, which are still present, meaning mold will continue to be a problem, and the environment at the school is safe for teachers and children.
Last month a large contingent of Toquam teachers showed up to a Board of Education meeting to describe the symptoms they have from working near mold. They said they deal with ailments such as sinus infections, runny nose, sore throat, congestion, and headaches. Many said that their symptoms would go away when they leave the school and return when they step foot inside again.
Jason Pizzarello said he hasn’t sent his children to the school since the Toquam teachers spoke out.
“We are … just reeling from what feels like, to me, betrayal from the leadership, the administration, and this school,” he said.
One of Pizzarello’s biggest criticisms is over the district's communication — or lack thereof — with parents.
Superintendent Tamu Lucero often tells people to visit the Stamford Asset Management Group website to find information on the mold crisis in the schools, but many, including Pizzarello, have voiced frustration over how the information is presented, usually in difficult-to-decipher spreadsheets and work orders.
“We haven’t known about this issue, because we weren’t given the respect or the courtesy of having all of the information to make that decision for ourselves,” Pizzarello said. “Sending us to work orders on a district website is not a solution and it is not a way to communicate to us.”
And, Pizzarello said, if parents do go on the district website, the information is all in English, an obvious issue for Spanish-speaking families. At Toquam, more than half of the student population is Hispanic.
In an effort to better communicate with parents and to assuage worries, the district hosted two meetings Tuesday night, one for educators and another for parents.
Currently, when a teacher reports a possible mold-related sickness, they are moved to another part of the school. That includes two computer labs which are being used as swing space, Principal Sibyl Brooks told parents.
“We’re trying to figure out what is in the best interest of the children,” Brooks said.
“What’s in the best interest of the children is probably not being in the building,” retorted Katherine Velez, who has first grade students at Toquam.
Kevin McCarthy, a school hygienist who is part of the Stamford Asset Management Group that is overseeing mold cleanup, said Toquam has a number of issues that led to mold growth.
That includes a leaky roof that was replaced in 2018, and about 50 areas that were found with mold, he said.
“If you don’t control the water, it leads to mold growth,” he said.
McCarthy said the exterior brick has failed to keep water out, and the school’s ventilation system is not longer up to code.
Late last week, the school released a one-sheet description of work required at Toquam and the other schools slated for demolition. At Toquam, the cost of completing the roughly 16 mold-related items is between $11.7 million and $23.4 million.
Once it was time for public comment, one man in the audience asked McCarthy, pointedly, “Would you send your kids here?”
“I wholeheartedly would,” McCarthy replied.
McCarthy added that reaction to mold is dependent on the person. And there are no federal standards for airborne concentrations of mold. He said any teachers experiencing adverse affects should discuss symptoms with their personal doctor.
Lucero reiterated that the school is safe.
“I’m an educator at heart,” the superintendent said. “There is no way I would have you here if I thought it was not safe.”
The future of the Toquam school building is currently being debated by city officials, who are considering demolishing a number of structures in part due to the problems that caused mold infestation.
A controversial plan was proposed to replace five aging public schools — Toquam, Roxbury, and Hart elementary schools, Cloonan Middle School and Westhill High School — by signing them over to a private developer that would reconstruct the buildings then maintain them, leasing them back to the city for 45 to 90 years. Lucero presented three options for replacing and redesigning, all involving the same schools.
The school plan riled the Board of Representatives, which rejected two requests totaling $1 million, the most recent on Monday when they voted against a request to hire a consultant to evaluate bids from prospective private partners, essentially killing the school building privatization plan.
“Now that really slows down the process of the five schools that we are assessing right now,” Lucero said.
She said the Board of Education will be discussing next steps for replacing the schools at their operations meeting next Tuesday.
Nicola Tarzia, a Board of Education member who heads the board’s operations committee, told Toquam parents that their school is on the top of the list of concerns.
“Just like Westover was a priority, now Toquam is going to be a priority,” he said, referring to the elementary school that was closed in 2018 because of mold complications.