INSIDE: Mold concerns grow among Stamford parents.
STAMFORD — It was the same mold story for dozens of parents who attended a packed meeting of the mold task force on Wednesday night.
Teachers cited notes from doctors warning them not to return to work because of the risk mold poses to their health. Staff members complained about brown ceiling tiles getting painted over and not properly repaired.
A parent mentioned black ceiling tiles in a Stillmeadow Elementary School classroom and another complained of getting watery eyes when walking by the portable classrooms at Newfield Elementary School.
Other parents’ eyes watered with tears when recalling the symptoms their children experienced over the years and now realize it could have been reactions to mold.
“I know tensions are high,” said Mike Handler, Stamford’s chief financial officer and member of a mold task force the city has established to address the problem.
“I know people are upset. If over the years you’ve been complaining and saying things are not OK and you’ve been told you are OK or that they’re fixed and the things you’re seeing are a figment of your imagination…the task force is here to tell you they’re not a figment of your imagination. We’re aware there are serious problems in our schools and we accept the challenge as a task force to bring you real solutions.”
Assurances from Handler and Deputy Superintendent of Schools Tamu Lucero about the safety of certain rooms and buildings did not satisfy the packed room of parents who have children at Westover Magnet Elementary School, Westhill High School, Stillmeadow and Newfield.
“You’re dealing with people who have heard it all,” one parent said. “While people want to believe in our public school system and want to believe in some of the new administrators that are downtown and want to believe in you, it’s hard when year after year things have not gotten done. I understand what you’re saying, the past is the past. We all want to believe that, but at the end of the day, when Stamford Public Schools has lost the trust of its teachers, its parents, its community...it’s not that issues are not going to come up. It’s how it’s handled.”
Westover parents had additional concerns about the safety and security of their children following the city’s decision to move students to an Elmcroft Road property, which used to house Pitney Bowes headquarters in the South End. Westover students will move there on Tuesday while their school is cleaned of mold and repaired.
Handler said students will share the building, owned by Building and Land Technology, with about 100 employees. He said they will share a lobby and entrance until a separate doorway is built for the students.
Police will guide the 700 students to the building’s third floor, which will be converted into classrooms.
However, many parents were not satisfied with the plan. They were particularly upset that their children would be marked absent if they did not feel comfortable sending them to the new facility.
Newfield parents were concerned about black mold growing in their children’s school, the portable classrooms being shut down and students having class in the auditorium, which has high mold counts.