Students Return to New Rochelle's Webster Elementary School This Week

By Jeanine Genauer

Webster Elementary School students are expected to return to their school on Tuesday, January 5 after being temporarily housed at Holy Family School due to a ceiling collapse in room 204 this past August. Fortunately, at the time of the collapse, no persons were in the vicinity. The school has passed a thorough structural inspection and received a certificate of occupancy on December 21, 2015. Air quality tests all came back indicating the school is safe and free of any contaminants. The Fire Marshall’s inspection was done on December 30 and his final walk-through was scheduled for today, January 4, 2016.

“I cannot wait to see the bright smiles on the faces of our children as they enter Webster School on January 5, 2016. It will be their first day of school all over again,” expressed Principal Melissa Passarelli.

Webster PTA Treasurer Neeta Arbietter said, “The teachers did a great job making Holy Family a comfortable school for the children, but my son is very excited to be going back to Webster.”

The City School District of New Rochelle (CSDNR) took swift action this summer within days of the collapse. CSDNR immediately contacted the architectural team of CSArch who in turn contacted GPI, an engineering and construction services firm. It was determined that the building, constructed in 1930, ceiling system was unsafe and that replacement of both the second floor and first floor ceilings was required.

The district, with only four weeks before the opening of school, rented the unoccupied nearby Holy Family School and brought it up to the current New York State Education Department’s health and safety standards. A project timeline was developed for the work needed at Webster, and was adhered to, allowing students and teachers to return as quickly as possible.

“We cannot thank the Webster principal, teachers, staff, students and parents enough for providing overwhelming support to the district during this period of being displaced, as well as the City of New Rochelle’s service units,” said Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne. “We are aware that the timing of the incident was in the district’s favor and possible harm to individuals was avoided. We want to assure the community that the district is acting swiftly to ensure all our buildings are safe.”

New Rochelle is a mix of an historic community with stately homes, school buildings and apartments to modern dwellings. When Superintendent Dr. Osborne arrived in New Rochelle a little over a year ago, he was advised that one of the challenges he would need to address included the aging school facilities. In his first budget as Superintendent, the district allocated $250,000 to hire expert architects and engineers to do a thorough analysis of the buildings. This resulted in a document known as the Five Year Building Condition Survey (BCS), which the Board is expected to approve in January and will guide the district in developing a five-year capital improvement plan.

As a result of the preliminary BCS report, the CSDNR determined the necessity to immediately propose a bond resolution to the voters to address critical school facilities needs for essential infrastructure projects.

The bond work would build upon projects already completed or in progress under the $9 million self-funding Energy Performance Contract and those funded by over $1 million in this school year’s operating budget. All the work in the bond project was deemed critical to the health and safety of the students and staff. The October 27, 2015 bond resolution authorizing the issuance of $49,529,094 that would have no impact on the city’s taxpayers was narrowly defeated on December 15, 2015.

“We were highly disappointed with the failure of the bond passage by only 37 votes. No tax increase would have occurred due to retiring debt. We will need to present the bond referendum to voters again so that we can address the structural problems in our aging schools,” expressed Dr. Osborne.

For more information on the City School District of New Rochelle visit www.nred.org.