Asbestos cleaning continues

By: Scott Benjamin
All four public schools were closed during the final weeks of the 2001-02 academic year because of asbestos contamination. After they were thoroughly cleaned by contractors that summer, the district embarked on a two-year program, in which dust samples were taken during the summer and air testing was done roughly every six weeks in random classrooms during the academic year. "We have taken more aggressive action over the last two years than any district in the state of Connecticut," Mr. Goetz said in an interview this week.

Parent Kathy Rossland-Hulce, who since the spring 2000 has led a grassroots movement regarding asbestos monitoring, said she was concerned that the testing over the summer indicated that two classrooms at Center Elementary School (CES) were well above the detection limit. Mr. Goetz said that following those results in July all of the rooms were cleaned and the follow-up air testing, which was conducted Aug. 25, indicated that all of the rooms were below the detection limit. Due to budget constraints, the school board decided in late June to eliminate the periodic testing during the academic year. That action was part of a $1.1 million reduction that the board had to make in its recommended spending package after the municipal budget was decreased this spring before it was approved in a third referendum.

Mr. Goetz had initially recommended last winter that the district reduce its periodic monitoring by half. However, the superintendent said the district is following the recommendations of its asbestos management consultant, Mark Granville of Brooks Laboratories in Norwalk, and will continue a regular cycle of cleaning, including aggressive maintenance of radiators where asbestos can collect. He said that Mr. Granville has said Brookfield has a more extensive program than any school district in Connecticut. He added that two years ago the district provided specific training for all custodians and purchased several state-of-the-art vacuum cleaners.

Mrs. Rossland-Hulce expressed concern that some of the sources of asbestos have not been determined in rooms that have been above the detection limit over the last two years. Mr. Goetz said that Mr. Granville has told him that "asbestos is found in our environment, and the source in the classrooms could be any of a number of things. "It could have been brought in by people," he added.

Mrs. Rossland-Hulce said she thought that Mr. Goetz should have responded more promptly to her e-mail messages through the summer regarding the asbestos testing that was being conducted in the schools.
"We had a lot to focus on this summer," the superintendent said. "If some of the response weren't prompt enough, I will work to correct that in the future.
"We have addressed the situation and information from the testing has been promptly posted on our Web site," he added. "I also would say that Mrs. Hulce has helped move the district in the direction of being more aggressive in how it addresses asbestos monitoring, and she deserves some credit for that.

"Brookfield really has become a bellwether district that others look to because other districts haven't been through this," Mr. Goetz said.
In an e-mail to Mr. Goetz, Mr. Granville and the school board members, Mrs. Rossland-Hulce said that the state Department of Public Health (DPH) "is doing some groundbreaking work now regarding the testing for asbestos contamination, particularly relative to asbestos in dust testing."
She indicated that Brookfield could benefit from the DPH's research