West Hants Middle School closed until December

BY CHRISTY MARSTERS

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

The information session consumed two hours and was marked by tears, outrage, conclusions, fears, praise and anxiety.

Over 100 concerned West Hants Middle School parents piled into Avon View High School the night of June 16 wanting answers to many health concerns brought forth by students and teachers at WHMS.

AVRSB Superintendent Margo Tait said no test suggested the school was not safe or should be closed. Maritime Testing Limited, a private engineering and environmental consulting firm hired by the AVRSB, conducted most of these tests.

However, the board decided to close West Hants Middle School until construction was completed at the school to address a high level of health concern put forward by the school community and to facilitate remaining renovation. AVRSB has closed West Hants Middle School until next December at least.

It was a challenge to find a space for 600 students to continue learning next year, Tait said, but Avon View High School has agreed to split shift the upcoming school season with WHMS students. “It’s not ideal, but this was our only option,” Tait said, “and we did not take this decision lightly or quickly. However, we’ll work to make the next school year as normal and comfortable for the students as possible, but there’ll be some changes.”

The tentative plan is to have Grade 10-12 students attend Avon View High School in the morning (from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) and have Grade 7-9 WHMS students attend the same school in the afternoon (from approximately 1–5:30 p.m.).

Plans for bus routes and extracurricular programs were still to be ironed out, but it was noted bus shifts would affect elementary feeder schools and all after-school activities were to be balanced between the students of Avon View High School and West Hants Middle School.

Hostile crowd

Concerns for West Hants Middle School’s indoor environment began in January. Since then numerous air quality tests have been done as investigations continue.

Today, monitoring is ongoing with 178 health complaints from staff and WHMS students being noted to-date including symptoms such as headaches, rashes, sore throats, nosebleeds and other allergenic irritations.

AVRSB officials were hard-pressed to address the barrage of questions from a hostile crowd during the June 16 meeting. Parents sought clarity for rumours of harmful paint fumes, backed-up sewage, asbestos, lead, mold, gas leaks and high C02 levels at WHMS. Some wondered if the school was too polluted to inhabit children.

Toxicologist Peter Mullen, who was commissioned by the board to conduct a thorough investigation and additional testing on WHMS, said higher than normal (at the 2,000-3,000 ppm) levels of carbon dioxide or C02 was found in some classrooms. “However, for those of you who may have forgotten, we breathe it (C02) out,” Mullen said. “It’s not anything of great concern. I do speak from a toxicological standpoint, but it is not a concern. Carbon dioxide is the fizz in your beer or Pepsi. “It was my opinion the worst had already happened (in February when a lot of dust was sited and removed over March Break) and an environment of school operation is possible for WHMS,” Mullen added. “Some of these health issues (of staff and students) are very non-specific. There may be a large psychogenic component here.”

Officials also noted there were some mold spores in dust samples collected, but there was nothing detected out of the ordinary for a school environment.

Meeting commences

AVRSB Chair Lavinia Parrish Zwicker ended the parent information meeting Tuesday by thanking parents for coming out with passions and concerns. “A responsibility of the AVRSB is to govern our schools by working together for students. However, our main concern is that our students and staff work in healthy and safe environments. “We want what you want,” Parrish Zwicker said to the parents. “As a school board, we hold our schools accountable because (students) are the future of this province.”

Officials of AVRSB also stayed late, after the meeting, to answer additional questions.