Costs Mount for Estabrook PCB Work, Officials Mull Long-Term Solutions

At Tuesday night's School Committee meeting, officials gave the latest update on the Estabrook Elementary School polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) situation, including the cost breakdown for remediation work to date, and also mulled scenarios including building a new school as a long-term solution to the problem.

Currently, $423,395 has been spent on remediation, air sampling, consulting, equipment and maintenance, while another $424,500 in costs are pending, for a total of $847,895 spent to date, according to a cost analysis provided by school officials.

Funding sources so far include an emergency transfer of $150,000 from a town reserve fund, approved by town officials in August; $53,370 from capital funds and $38,100 from the school department. A $606,425 gap remains.

Superintendent Paul Ash said typically it would be inappropriate for a superintendent to authorize that much spending, however the seriousness of the PCB situation at Estabrook warranted immediate action, and he has been in close contact with town officials as the costs have added up.

The School Committee with the town boards will need to find a way to come up with the funds, Ash said, whether through a special or regular Town Meeting, or elsewhere.

"The way of approaching this problem was, this is serious, we need to move," Ash said. "We have an obligation to send our children to a safe school… nevertheless, the money isn't in the school budget."

Ash said he'd like conversations about the funding to happen sooner rather than later, and noted that the costs so far do not include the unknown costs of finding a long-term solution to ensure the school is safe.

The School Committee talked about the feasibility of moving Estabrook forward in the master plan for school repair or replacement projects. The town currently has a statement of interest (SOI) filed with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to fund a renovation project for the high school, and Monday night, the Board of Selectmen approved SOIs for renovation projects and Bridge and Bowman elementary schools.

School Committee members discussed submitting an SOI to build a new Estabrook school, if necessary. Currently, the school has been deemed by Ash and an advisory committee to be safe in the short-term. However, a long-term solution could include replacing the school.

Ash said it makes sense to submit an SOI for Estabrook this fall, though he did not know if that would bump the high school project back a year. however design on those projects has gone forward otherwise, and been approved, outside the MSBA process.

The Estabrook PCB situation could mean the school's SOI would be considered for approval more rapidly by MSBA, because of the safety issue, however waiting for MSBA approval can take time, Ash said. The district is still waiting for an answer on its SOI on the high school, submitted last fall.

Ash said it will be a School Committee, then Board of Selectmen decision to submit an SOI for Estabrook, and if a new school is built, he noted that widening of Robinson Road will be necessary, as determined previously by an ad hoc facilities committee. If the PCB level is safe for inhabitance, the building could be occupied while another is built on the back side of the property.

School Committee member Mary Ann Stewart said completion of a school is still years away – roughly 2014 if MSBA funds are sought, or potentially 2012 if the town goes ahead with design on its own.

Members appeared to agree that Estabrook replacement is needed, and should be sought.

"My sense of this is that we need another school," Chairman Rodney Cole said. "I don't know how we get around that."

His comment was met with applause from the audience, made up of about 75 people, many of whom are parents of Estabrook students. Those parents questioned Ash, the committee, Director of Public Facilities Pat Goddard and Environmental Health & Engineering consultant David MacIntosh on questions about how the Estabrook remediation process is going, and what is to come.

Echoing the questions asked at a public meeting Sept. 1, parents again wondered whether the school is safe for their children.

Last Friday, Ash met with an advisory committee, made up of parents, teachers and administrators, and after five hours of deliberation said they felt the school was safe for short-term occupancy based on current air test results – showing PCB levels had dropped after remediation and ventilation work at the school Labor Day weekend – plus a site-specific risk assessment.

More test results are expected this Thursday, Sept. 16, and depending on those, further remediation, including potentially replacing ceiling tiles in the kindergarten wing or the entire school, could be needed. Doing so could happen over a weekend or vacation to minimize disruption to classes and students, Ash said.

The ceiling tiles were found through materials testing to have likely absorbed PCBs from the air over time and to be contributors to higher PCB levels in the air. Ventilation, including getting unit ventilators in the room up to 88 to 100 percent working capacity, has been found by workers to help the flow of fresh air into classrooms and therefore lower PCB air levels.

"What the numbers show from the third round of testing is that all the numbers have dropped," Ash said. "But we still have work to do."

More information and documents relating to the PCB levels at Estabrook is available at the Lexington Public Schools' health and safety website.