Glen Cove's pre-K program moves to Gribbin Elementary from Deasy

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As of this week, the Glen Cove School District’s prekindergarten program has a new home. The program’s two classrooms were relocated to Gribbin Elementary School from Deasy Elementary after moisture was found on classroom walls and ceilings, raising concerns about potential mold growth.

Superintendent Dr. Maria Rianna said that once the district became aware of the problem, it hired J.C. Broderick & Associates, an environmental testing and consulting company, to investigate. Moisture was found in the school’s basement on Oct. 14, where the art room and Discovery Cove — an indoor play space — as well as the pre-K classrooms are located. The area was closed off, and the classes transitioned to a virtual format before the move.

Ed McGuire and Tara Ricker, of J.C. Broderick, offered details and answered questions at the Oct. 20 Board of Education meeting. “The basic protocol was to investigate the moisture and identify if the conditions in the space were leading to any indoor mold growth,” McGuire said, noting that firm’s work was continuing. “We do a visual inspection of every building material that we have access to and can get to, then we use specialized testing equipment to look for and confirm the moisture. The findings indicate that we did identify moisture in some of the building materials. We did not observe any visible mold growth . . . but all of this evidence suggests that we do need to look further into the places we cannot see.”

Those areas, he said, include behind the walls and in the ceilings, where elevated levels of moisture were detected. Getting to them will require “destructive techniques,” McGuire said, including cutting into the walls.

“It is our recommendation that the spaces remain isolated until the investigation, and any recommendations from that investigation, could be completed,” he added.

“Due to the age of the walls, we will be completely gutting those walls to ensure all areas are clean,” Rianna said, noting that there was evidence that some areas had simply been patched over in the past. “We’re not going to put Band-Aids on the repairs that need to get done. We want this to be done in an effective manner, and will update the community on the progress throughout.”

Rianna said that some teachers at Deasy requested that additional areas of the school be tested in the interest of safety, which McGuire noted was under way. Commercial air scrubbers with high-efficiency particulate air filtration units and other devices were installed in the affected rooms on Oct. 17.

Board President Lia Leone asked about the safety of the students and staff who are still in the building. “How can you be certain that kids and staff in the rest of the building are safe at this time,” Leone asked, “and that it’s OK for them to be going into the school?”

“First and foremost is that schools have a process for identifying issues within a building,” McGuire replied. “We were called in to investigate problems identified in specific areas. Our investigation thus far of the basement area has not identified that this condition has spread outside this area. The moisture seems localized to the exterior walls and in the building materials. The additional investigation will get us into those walls to see if there is an impact at a greater extent, but at this point we have not found any evidence to suggest it is outside these areas that we’ve inspected.”

McGuire added that additional isolation barriers might be put in place during demolition work, and addressed the health implications of exposure to mold. With most contaminants, he explained, there is an established “exposure value” to determine what can and can’t make people sick. With mold, he said, there is no such level, because mold is considered an allergen. “Your susceptibility, from person to person, varies,” he said.

Mold does not cause any disease, McGuire said, but can exacerbate conditions such as asthma and respiratory problems. “In a building evaluation, there’s no level for us to compare to,” he said. “It is focused on, is it present, are the conditions present?”

Rianna thanked Francine Santoro, Gribbin Elementary’s principal, for making room in the building to host the pre-K classes, as well as others who helped in the process. “This has really been a working team effort to ensure that this is a smooth transition to the other building,” Rianna said, adding, “I don’t foresee moving the pre-K back [to Deasy].”

Rita Bianco, a Gribbin parent, expressed concern about the move, which means a loss of two specials classrooms at Gribbin. “Was it the best decision to move to Gribbin?” she asked.

Rianna responded that many things factored into the decision, including classroom space, the ages of other students in the building and the location of bathrooms. She said there was no room at the other elementary schools, and since some pre-K students continue on to Gribbin for kindergarten, the move will facilitate a smoother transition.

“We looked at usable space, and as it is a home base for some students,” Rianna said of Gribbin, “we felt it was the best decision for a smooth transition.”