MERRIMAC — The Board of Health is urging the Pentucket Regional School administration and town officials to finish the mold cleanup at the Donaghue School during the upcoming winter vacation.
If the work is not finished by the time students are due to return to the classroom following their winter break on Jan. 3, Board of Health members said they want to keep the school closed until the cleanup is complete.
At its meeting Thursday night, the board voted unanimously to approve an order requiring all contaminated carpeting to be removed, the floors cleaned and air quality testing completed before the school is allowed to reopen.
A letter was to be sent to the Pentucket School Committee and Superintendent Paul Livingston alerting them to the vote.
Donaghue School is scheduled to be closed starting Friday through Jan. 2 for the winter break. Under the Board of Health's vote, the school would remain closed until the work is done.
That decision is not expected to sit well with the Pentucket administration. Board of Health Chairwoman Eileen Hurley said Livingston has indicated the health board cannot close the school and has said he would fight and litigate any attempt that would force him to keep the school closed because of the mold issue.
Livingston and facilities manager Gregory Hadden did not return telephone calls for comment yesterday. However, a letter to parents of Donaghue students updating them on the cleanup was sent out yesterday by Livingston and Principal Robert Harrison indicating that the areas the school department is responsible for cleaning should be finished by the time school resumes on Jan. 3.
Hurley, who said the Board of Health does not want to forcibly close the school, said members are continuing to research their authority over the building.
Board of Health member Mark Sofia raised concerns over why members were letting the school department make the decision when they are the local health organization and mold is a health issue, not an educational one.
While there have been questions surrounding the cleanup costs and whether the school department or town is responsible, Sofia said the funding issues shouldn't involve the Board of Health.
"It's not the concern of the Board of Health who pays for it," he said, but that the health issues are resolved. He tempered those remarks, however, saying that while the Board of Health needed to give an ultimatum, it also needed to provide some options.
Parent Valerie Paquette, who attended the meeting, said the school is not keeping the mold problems contained. She said work was started in Room 17 last weekend but had not yet been finished. While students were being kept out of the room, the door was open when she visited,
Sofia also said that Room 26, where his daughter had class, "is still wet," adding, "It sloshes when you step on the rug" in certain areas.
Both the town and school department have accepted responsibility for cleaning certain areas of the building. The town is expecting to complete almost all, if not all, of its work during the winter break. But the school department's cleanup plan had the work continuing on weekends until late January. According to Sofia, Hadden said the schools could not get more manpower to finish the job before then.
However, in their letter yesterday to parents updating the progress on the 10 rooms and two hallways the school department is responsible for cleaning, Livingston and Harrison said they hope to have the work finished by Jan. 3. Work in rooms 7 and 17 have already been completed, and Room 22 is being tiled.
"We still hope to complete removing carpets and tiling rooms 20, 19 and 26 and the hallways in the fifth- and sixth-grade areas before school resumes on Jan. 3," the letter said. "This will complete the project in the fifth- and-sixth-grade areas."
At a meeting with Servpro Thursday, Sofia said company officials explained they may be able to get all of the rooms the town is responsible for cleaning finished during the winter break. However, Servpro representatives had concerns that if they clean their rooms perfectly, cross-contamination from other rooms that have yet to be cleaned will ruin the work.
"It's all got to be done at once, or it's not going to work," Sofia said.
Yesterday, Merrimac Finance Director Carol McLeod said the town had worked out a plan with Servpro and a flooring company to remove the carpeting over winter vacation. Servpro will begin removing carpeting at the end of school on Thursday and continue the job on Friday, Dec. 24, and Sunday, Dec. 26. The flooring company will begin work on Monday, Dec. 27.
With the exception of one hallway, which may have tile problems, McLeod said all work is expected to be completed before the end of vacation. The hallway would be finished the following weekend after classes resume. However, McLeod said she had not been informed of the Board of Health's decision to keep the school closed until the work is fully done.
In its vote, the Board of Health did provide some leeway, saying the test results did not need to be received and new flooring did not need to be installed before the school reopened.
While the board discussed possible issues with asbestos as well as ways to finish the floors, health board member Carol Traynor, who is also a selectman, explained they did not have to decide those issues. She added there is no known problems with asbestos tile.
Traynor said the Board of Health will have completed its work if the school is made healthy.
"You want the rugs out, you want the mold out, you want it clean, period," she said.
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