Renaissance school parents furious over asbestos discovery

Montclair, New Jersey â€" More than two hundred students and employees were evacuated from Renaissance Middle School on Friday May 16 after asbestos was discovered in the plaster of a newly-installed set of fire doors. Students are ecstatic this week at having a couple of extra days off school, but parents aren’t so happy after discovering that airborne asbestos levels at the school are up to six times higher than permissible. Although a recent asbestos inspection found in some plaster, it was judged to be not dangerous at that time. However, on Thursday May 15, it was discovered that the asbestos-containing plaster may have been disturbed during the after-hours installation of a set of fire doors. At that point local asbestos consultant Detail Associates was called in to test the school’s air and clean up any problematic asbestos-containing materials. According to the letter sent home with students “Of the four samples collected, one, taken from the third floor hallway showed a level of airborne asbestos fibers that exceeded the acceptable range.” “As soon as we were notified of the increased levels of fibers on Friday morning, we sealed off the affected area and moved the children to parts of the building that were cleared by our consultant or to off-site locations. Detail Associates will thoroughly inspect the building this evening and develop a cleaning protocol, which will take place tomorrow. The building will be cleaned and tested until all samples indicate appropriate levels of fibers.” At a meeting yesterday, however, parents learned that levels of asbestos contamination were up to six times higher than acceptable safe levels, and that the Board of Education has had no environmental safety procedures in place for Renaissance School buildings since the school began ten years ago. Frank Alvarez, the Montclair School Board Superintendent, told parents that it was safe to send their children back to school, but some parents have said they’re not comfortable doing so. Concerned parents aren’t just worried about the most recent incident. Several other construction projects have been carried out this year, and some parents are worried about the possibility of other asbestos exposure incidents or health and safety issues that might have arisen. In a letter from the Renaissance Health and Wellness Committee and PTA to Frank Alvarez, concerned parents said “The lack of foresight, commonsense, and poor judgment about the safety and health of the Renaissance students (and faculty/staff) during construction and the inadequate response to queries poses serious questions about the confidence we can have in the officials charged with our children’s wellbeing during the school day.” We insist that the students (and suggest that faculty, staff and parents) do not reenter the Munn Street facility until after we are in receipt of the federally mandated safety clearance report on air quality, demonstrating a N/D (none detected level), performed by Detail Associates, an independent, certified asbestos remediator.” A statement issued by the Montclair Board of Education says that more than fifty samples taken by two independent firms indicate that the building is now safe for students and staff to enter. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)