Dave’s Photo Blog

Meg Moloney and Hilary Rappaport’s addresses to the Arlington school committee in last week’s meeting have led to the release of a lot of information about the condition of the school. Some of this information had been available previously. However, in light of the questions raised at the meeting, the equity task force, principal, fire department and concerned parents have distributed the most recent information about many of the issues highlighted by the school committee. Read on for a summary of all of it, good and bad.

Fire Prevention

I have seen several assurances that there are fire safety measures, both detection and response, in place at the Thompson School. Fire Chief Robert Jefferson has addressed the issue both through concerned parents and Sheri Donovan, the principal. He has said very clearly that he considers the building to be safe, although conceding that a new building would be even safer. There are some things that are naturally helpful, particularly the buildings’ composition: it is brick and concrete and that is obviously less combustible than wood. There is a fire safety plan in place and there are regular fire drills. There are also automatic lights in the event of a fire to illuminate the inside of the building. There are 12 to 14 fire detectors, but they appear to be heat sensors as opposed to smoke detectors. This may be significant in that there was a fire in the building last year and it was not detected by these units – a person discovered it.

The Gymnasium and Cafeteria Roof

The condition of the roof is not uniform – there is the original roof and a new roof, although new is a relative term. The original roof covers the gymnasium and cafeteria. The new roof covers the rest of the building, and was installed ten years ago with an estimated lifespan of twenty years. There is little good news here, other than that Arlington’s Supervisor of Maintenance, Mark Miano, has an annual program of inspection for the roof. As a result of last year’s inspection, some repairs were done to the gymnasium roof over the summer of 2008.

Despite the summer repairs, the original roof was examined in a report by Gale Associates, Inc. In that report, they judged the roof to be structurally failed.

According to a study performed in January by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the new roof has a significant drainage problem. Rainfall pools on the roof, causing accelerated wear and tear on the roof materials. Although I have not seen a copy of the report, I understand that it recommends that fixes be made somewhat urgently to avoid a significant decrease in the remaining ten years of the roof’s lifespan. This could cause problems if a project to rebuild or renovate continues to drag on. For example, if these fixes are not made and the roof ‘s lifespan declines precipitously, it may not be serviceable before ground is broken on a rebuild or renovation. Although the risk to student and faculty health is surely lower in this case than the gymnasium, it could affect whether or not the building can still be occupied. I am not an expert in this, I am just stating the obvious. The gymnasium and cafeteria involve long, very high spans whereas the rest of the building does not. The main concern around the new roof is likely to be localized deterioration that cause leaking and related problems.

Asbestos

The floor tiles in the Thompson contain asbestos. Sheri Donovan has been concerned about them and worked with the maintenance department to ensure all the tiles that are damaged or friable are replaced. Asbestos was used widely and doesn’t necessarily represent a threat if its condition is such that the asbestos fibers are not released. When they are and become airborne, they are a health hazard as they tend to get trapped in the bottom of the lungs and can cause serious, even fatal, illness. There were apparently some tiles that were replaced over the February vacation so that there would not be any children in the facility when it was done. There is an asbestos plan for the school, its recommendations have all been addressed and Arlington Supervisor of Maintenance is said to be an expert on the issue. It appears that the school is inspected every three years for asbestos problems. So the good news is that the right people are concerned and acting on the problem. The bad news is that we will likely continue to have to find and fix faulty tiles, sometimes through abatement, until all of them are removed or replaced.