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Oak Ridge Elementary may reopen soon

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Comments (6)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

(Updated Thursday, December 3 - 5:34 am)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — Oak Ridge Elementary students and teachers might return to their school before February.

Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green closed the school in June to address indoor air quality concerns.

But officials told the Board of Education on Tuesday night that all the work scheduled at the school is nearly complete and move-in could occur sometime in January or February.

Oak Ridge Elementary employees and students have complained of illnesses that included headaches, nose bleeds and chronic respiratory problems since the building reopened in 2005 after undergoing major renovations and additions.

Board members welcomed the news but raised questions about what evidence there was that the school needed to be closed.

No group that has inspected the school, including the county health department, has definitively linked anything found at the school to the illnesses reported there.

“To my understanding, there wasn’t a health risk there that they could quantify,” board member Paul Daniels said.

Daniels kept after the answer from staff, but school board attorney Jill Wilson intervened several times, saying that the staff were not in a position to answer that question.

School board member Darlene Garrett, whose district includes Oak Ridge, had similar questions that were met with similar answers.

During the summer, school officials brought in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the private consulting firm Turner Building Science and Design to inspect the school. Both groups found mold and dampness while inspecting the school.

NIOSH considers dampness a public health problem that requires remediation.

The Turner group made numerous recommendations to address issues with the school, including placing vapor barriers in the crawl space, repairing structural issues that would allow water to seep into the building, and a complete cleaning and breakdown of the heating and air conditioning system.

Daniels also asked how future indoor air quality issues would be dealt with.

“We need to be in a position to look at this thing objectively,” Daniels said.

Leo Bobadilla, chief operations officer, said processes were in place now that would involve the entire school community to address air quality concerns before they reached a point like they did at Oak Ridge.

This fall, students and teachers have been split up at four locations for classes while work at the school continued.

The district extended a contract with Oak Ridge Military Academy to lease classroom space.

The lease runs out Jan. 10. The extension will cost $24,400 per month and is good through Feb. 10.

Oak Ridge Elementary classes also are being held at three other Guilford schools.

Work to remediate air quality concerns at the school, including before this year, has cost the county about $1.5 million, and that figure could climb once all work is completed.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Margaret Baxter (News & Record)

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kirran

December 2, 2009 - 10:33 am EST

Just a comment. It seems to be the question of support of what happened should have been asked back when the school first closed, not now that it has been fixed for the most part. And why ask the same question 8 or more times when the answer was not yet, or we have not received the final report. Hindsight is not the answer, the better question would be what are we doing to prevent this from happening in the future.

Relieved parent

December 2, 2009 - 11:46 am EST

I am so relieved that this saga is finally ending. This ridiculous situation has put a hardship on so many families, especially for the ones with two parents who work outside the home. How could anyone say that our Plan B locations are healthier than a beautiful spacious new clean building….children having to get on a school bus at 6:30 in the morning, children on buses 2 hours plus a day, a playground adjacent to highway 68, children sharing a bathroom with ORMA cadets, children in basement rooms with no windows, children crammed into small trailers, no computer classes , no libraries, staff scattered everywhere. It is nuts. And how was one crazy mom, Linda May, and one physician allowed to orchestrate such hysteria to cause this nightmare? We all should have stood up for our school sooner. So much money has been wasted on this nonsense….$1.5 million could have been better spent in Guilford County.

bemused

December 2, 2009 - 1:32 pm EST

The staff is not in a position to answer what evidence there was that the school needed to be closed? Then who is in a position to answer this question? I am baffled on so many levels concerning the school closure.
1) Why was the school closed without any hard evidence to back up the decision?
2) Why did the school need to be closed for "recommended" work when the work could have been done over the course of a summer or two.
3) Why was the work on most of these "recommendations" started 4 months after they were proposed?
Don't get me wrong, I am happy for all of the kids, staff and families that get to return to their school and a normal life. It just irritates me that a rash decision was made, enormous sums of money were spent and an entire community was inconvenienced and NO ONE wants to take responsibility or be put in a position to answer straight forward questions on the rationale behind the decisions. I really hope the Oak Ridge community recovers quickly from this fiasco.

donewithORE

December 2, 2009 - 2:24 pm EST

relieved parent and bemused - hurray! I agree this whole thing has been absolutely the worst! I am sure its not over because all those complacent people who thought this situation was "just great" and wonderful will moan that enough wasn't done and that we shouldn't move back in. Whose money do you think this is that is kicking around for such nonsense! And whether all of you want to believe it or not it has affected your children...and it will continue for sometime because they will still have to be part of this fiasco and listen to the various opinions floating around. Yes, we all like to think that the kids are not affected, but they are. Shame on GCS for allowing this to drag out so long. If it weren't for a few parents finally speaking up and saying ENOUGH, those poor kids would still be sitting in the basement at ORMA..because some people actually thought that it was "ok". Nuts.

oscardad44

December 3, 2009 - 1:19 pm EST

Let it Go! Amazing how they have a fit for their school to be fixed and closed now they rushing to get their little darlings backs and reopen the school

Perhaps all of the other GCS students who enjoy going to a neighborhood school and not having to inconvience schedules, gas and traveling half around the county to go to school

The BOE should feel like fools for allowing this group to even push them into closing the school now these nuts are pushing BOE to reopen cause they are tired of traveling all over GSO so are are the other 72,000 students and parents of GCS

Relieved parent

December 3, 2009 - 10:17 pm EST

It was only a few parents who wanted the school closed. The majority of the parents are intelligent rational people who realized this situation was exagerrated. Again, ONE Psychotic mom, a fraud selling mold test kits for $50 each (Linda May), and a physician who has a toxic mold fetish sent these people into hysteria. A handful of people threatened to sue and things got way out of hand. GCS has done the very best that they could under the circumstances. As the Health Dept said very little mold was ever found there. I am sure other schools in Guilford County have more mold than ORE.