Mea Culpa From Blind Brook Architect

Armand Quadrini, principal and co-director of KSQ Northeast, took full responsibility for his firm's failure to communicate to school administrators back in June, that issues not affecting the safety of Blind Brook school building, had triggered an "Unsatisfactory" evaluation from the New York State Education Department. 

Quadrini said the survey responses were filed on June 16 and that the firm received digital notification about the negative assessments, but KSQ failed to provide that information to Blind Brook administrators until communicating with district administrators after a news report about deteriorating school buildings was published in the Journal News.

Superintendent William Stark said that he and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Ross first learned of the ratings by reading the Sunday paper and were shocked to find Ridge Street Elementary and the Blind Brook Middle and High School were included with 456 school buildings across Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties found lacking.

A November 13 report in the Journal News called "Too Big to Fix," acknowledged that the "unsatisfactory" rating "did not necessarily mean that a school building is unsafe, but that at least one major system, such as heating, has exceeded its life span and needs to be replaced or have costly, ongoing maintenance." According to the report, nearly one in three buildings in the region were assessed negatively.

Geriatric systems are the cause of the problems at both of Blind Brook's school buildings. A faulty valve– that regulates hot and cold water temperature– past its prime at the high school and issues caused by an outdated ventilation system in the office portion of the Ridge Street School building appear to be the only factors in the negative evaluation.

Stark said the water valve has been ordered at a cost of approximately $5,900. Dr. Ross added the ventilation issues in the Ridge Street were under evaluation. 

Stark previously said that all the school district buildings were safe for students and faculty.

Quadrini said the responses to the survey were based on the district's five-year assessment. Since then, according to Dr. Ross, a subsequent review based on annual visual inspections has yielded a "satisfactory' endorsement for the two facilities.

Colleague Douglas Chu, who has worked with Blind Brook School District for several years, also attended the meeting. Chu said that though he realized the negative assessments were triggered by the responses KSQ provided to the state, there was nothing the architecture form could do about the "Unsatisfactory" rating. The system would not have allowed changes to responses regarding legitimate strutural and mechanical issues. 

KSQ Achitects also represents the Byram Hills school district. Only one of nine structures–a bus garage– in that district was deemed unsatisfactory based on survey responses.

Blind Brook resident Dean Santon expressed concern that a news report characterizing the school buildings as 'unsatisfactory' could impact the desirability of the area to potential home buyers. Superintendent Stark said he would look into rebutting the Journal News report.