A door at Fair Haven School on Friday.
Teachers were scraping mold off their classroom furniture to get ready for the first day of school in New Haven Monday, as a new wave of HVAC problems besets the system.
The school system’s facilities team worked throughout the weekend responding to “system failures,” according to an internal memo from Chief Operating Officer Thomas Lamb, who described HVAC systems in several schools as “aging to the point where they are difficult to service.”
The problems were particularly acute at Mauro Sheridan School, where teachers were reported to be tackling mold on their own so their students could breathe safely.
But all schools did open as planned Monday, according to the Board of Ed.
School board member Darnell Goldson called it “an especially dangerous time to have these issues, especially with the fear stoked by COVID. If anything else, we should have been prepared to deal with circulation issues, we have hundreds of millions of additional funding. Every meeting we are hiring high salaried administrators, yet it appears that some of the issues are getting worse. I shudder to think how learning is impacted.”
These photos are from a Mauro Sheridan preschool room.
Following is the full text of the email from Lamb describing the problems. Click here, here, here, and here for previous Independent stories about ongoing HVAC problems in the public schools.
From: Lamb, Thomas
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2021 11:05 PM
To: TRACEY, ILINE (DR.)
Subject: Re: Mold
Dr. Tracy,
The district has had some issues with surface mold as we have gotten into the humid air of the summer months as well as struggling with HVAC-related issues. After monitoring the work order system over the past few weeks as well as pushing for walk-through inspections with the facilities team, principals, and assistant superintendents, I have discovered that the past practice has been to put all HVAC systems into a night and weekend setback as part of our energy management program. This practice together with several HVAC issues and several hot and humid days caused the formation of surface mold in many schools. I have been working with the HVAC controls team to modify setback schedules to adjust school ventilation to prevent this from happening in the future as well as ensure that all ventilation systems operating properly. For the last several weeks our HVAC contractors have repaired or replaced numerous exhaust fans that have been not functioning properly. Documentation is attached. These exhaust fans play a critical role in the ventilation of our schools. This summer has seen several heat waves with high humidity and our buildings have been occupied more than usual. The school district’s HVAC systems have been taxed more than usual this summer and because of this, we have seen a significant number of system failures. I am working with the facilities team to evaluate and make recommendations for the replacement of HVAC systems for systems that are at critical risk of full system failure. Currently, we have been addressing issues as they arise. The HVAC systems in several of the district schools are aging to the point where they are difficult to service.
Humid air that is not circulated will present as surface mold especially inside storage bins, closets, cubies, and other confined spaces will cause surface mold to develop. This has been the typically identified issue in some of the schools. The mold that is reported by work order or discovered by building managers is cleaned or remediated as per established state department of public health guidelines found at https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Environmental-Health/Environmental-and-Occupational-Health-Assessment/Mold. The mold that is discovered and is less than 12 square feet in magnitude is cleaned using district disinfecting protocols and should be cleaned by custodial staff. The statement made by the principal that every building in the district has mold is just not accurate. Custodial staff should not be giving out cleaners to teachers. If the custodian needs assistance, requests should be made to the Facilities team for additional personnel to assist.
Facilities were notified by the building manager that there was mold in some of the rooms at Mauro Sheridan on Friday morning 8/27/2021. The building manager and his staff immediately cleaned and disinfected the cubies, pre‑k rooms, music room, and the stairwell, and everywhere the mold was seen. The staff reported they had successfully cleaned with a disinfectant all affected areas by the end of the day Friday 8/27/2021. At Fair Haven, there was a leak in the ceiling in room 233 facilities received a work order on Monday 8/22/2021. Facilities went to Fair Haven on Wednesday 8/24/2021 and called in a contractor to remove the ceiling to investigate the cause of the leak. While at Fair Haven on Wednesday 8/24/2021 there was another room that also had a leak and the contractor open the wall to determine the cause of that leak. The pictures below with the signage are related to the remediation of this space. Facilities were then made aware of some mold in the I.T. room downstairs. A professional company was contacted to come in and remediate the rooms which they did on Friday 8/27/2021 and Saturday 8/28/2021. It was determined both leaks were caused by HVAC units and they are both scheduled to be repaired on Monday 8/30/2021. The areas where walls or ceilings have been opened will need to be treated and dried out completely before they can be closed up.
Moving forward a weekly HVAC/IAQ report for the district will be provided for review.
Thank you,
Thomas Lamb
Chief Operating Officer
New Haven Public Schools
NHPS is famous, or should I say infamous, for neglecting to do regularly scheduled maintenance in its buildings. It is infamous for ignoring little problems until they become big problems. Turning off or reducing the a/c in the school buildings as a cost-saving measure should not have been considered in the first place. Its common sense that when there is little or no ventilation, mold will grow in hot, humid, stagnant air. In the final analysis, how much has been saved when the costs of remediation are realized?
The photos show the mold problem on surfaces that are readily visible; however, can we be sure that there aren't any mold growths in areas that are not readily visible, such as inside the heating and a/c ducts? Can be be sure that there are no mold growths inside the drop ceilings that are commonplace in many of our school buildings? Have inspections occurred in such areas?
Another factor to consider is the way facilities management has evolved in our school systyem over the years. Little by little, various aspects of school faciloities management and maintenance have bee "farmed out" to private, for-profit businesses. Can we expect that when a company considers the bottom line in every decision it makes that those decisons are being made in the best interest of the people who work in those buildings, or is it rerasonable to assume that every dollar saved is a dollar profit for that outside company and a factor in how the decision is made?
Our BOE members need to take more care to assure parents, students, faculty and staff that our school buildings are safe and well-maintained, and that accountability is part of the agreements made with outside contractors. We have heard such assurances many times in the past.