Students at the shuttered Clark Elementary School in Hartford will not return to the building this year while crews work to eradicate PCBs contaminating the facility, officials said during a meeting Thursday evening.
Elementary school students and staff were relocated last month after air quality tests revealed low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, which have been classified as human carcinogens.
In a letter to parents, Supt. Beth Shiavino-Narvaez said environmental consultants "have detected various sources that caused higher than usual levels of PCBs in the air," adding that the multiple sources have made matters difficult.
"They found PCBs in testing in caulk, in some of the spray-on fireproofing, in paint," she said during the meeting Thursday. "Because they found it in multiple areas, it makes the renovation more complicated and time consuming."
Students in pre-Kindergarten through third grade are currently studying at the Museum Academy at the Fred D. Wish School, fourth- through eighth-graders are in class at the Journalism and Media Academy and two other classrooms have been moved to the Simpson Waverly School.
"Our consultants are recommending a remediation plan that will undertake a renovation effort of approximately one year," she wrote. "Although we are still waiting to hear exactly what this means, we do know that in this particular case, the process will run beyond the end of this school year and likely into the next academic year."
They will remain at their temporary locations for the remainder of the 2014-2015 school year, and officials said it's possible the building will still be under construction in September.
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"We thought this would be short term. We keep pushing the contractors to get this done, but they advised us, 'Take your time, do it right,' and we are committed to doing it right," Shiavino-Narvaez explained.
School officials announced decision not to allow children back in to the building for the remainder of the academic year at a meeting with parents held at the Wish School on Barbour Street.
"I feel like I have been acting in an abundance of caution," Shiavino-Narvaez said. "It is my obligation to make sure I minimize the risk of exposure for my staff and students."
Parent said that although they understand and appreciate the effort to make the building safe again, the news has been difficult to swallow.
"It actually brought tears to my eyes because it's not just my child, it's all of the children at Clark," said Hartford resident Lakeisha McFarland, who has two children at the Clark School. "It's upsetting because... we don't know how long the PCBs have been in the school."
Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra said in a statement Thursday that Shiavino-Narvaez "has made proactive and speedy decisions" to make sure children are safe.
"Our student’s health and educational well-being is the only priority," he said. "I want to thank the young students and their families for their patience and cooperation as we work towards a long-term solution."
