Task Force Report Online

Below is a link to the final report of the Task Force on Air Quality at Arbor Heights Elementary School. It was presented to the community on January 19, 2006 at the school:

Task Force Final Report (pdf)

Task Force Final Report - Jan. 19th Meeting

At our PTSA meeting on January 19, 2006, the Task Force dealing with air quality issues at Arbor Heights gave its final report. Richard Staudt presented the report. Dr. David Anderson was also present. Both spoke and answered a few questions.

It was disappointing to hear there is more water under rooms 16 and 17 again, but there are measures under way to identify the water source and to fine tune the moisture sensors under those rooms (the water was not detected by the sensors, but was found by Dr. Anderson on the day of the meeting).

I hope to have the task force report available here shortly. - Mark

Task Force Update, 1-17-06

This was just sent out to the email list of those interested in the air quality issues at Arbor Heights:

All,

Work done to remediate the environmental problems at Arbor Heights is now complete, and we'd like to have a meeting with the concerned people of the Arbor Heights community to report on what has been done to address the environmental issues at our school, what will be done to ensure that the school stays safe, and answer your questions. Many of you know we tried to have this meeting in December. Unfortunately, it coincided with the one day this winter we've had snow here in Seattle; all Seattle school after-school activities were cancelled, so in the interest of safety, we cancelled our meeting as well.

We have rescheduled the meeting for our PTSA meeting this Thursday, January 19th at 7:00 PM. Task force members, as well as district folks, Dr. Anderson, and (I believe) one of our physicians with mold expertise will be on hand to present the work that was done and answer questions.

Thanks for your interest and support during this effort. I hope to see many of you there.

--E. Joe Sharp
Parent Representative Arbor Heights Environmental Task Force

Final Report from Dr. Anderson

The Final Report from Dr. Anderson is now online here. It is in pdf format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the file.

Final Report

Task Force Meeting Cancelled

The Task Force Community Meeting scheduled for December 1 was cancelled because of snow. This was to have included the final reports from Dr. Anderson and the Task Force, along with an opportunity for questions from the school community.

Dec. 1 Task Force Meeting, 7 PM

There will be a meeting and final report from the the Task Force dealing with the water and mold problems at Arbor Heights on Thursday, December 1, at 7:00 PM in the school cafeteria. Arbor Heights School families, staff, and interested community members are welcome to attend.

More on 9/29 meeting

Some more about the Task Force meeting a couple of days ago.... I thought the group did a nice job figuring things out, making decisions, setting dates, determining responsibilities, etc.

The drying out under rooms 16 and 17 is now done, and 15 and 18 are being dried out now - should take about a week more to complete. Fans are noisy, but teachers are willing to put up with it. Work will start soon on mold removal - which will be noisier, but after 4 PM. I'm going to check with those teachers to be sure this works for them. So, nobody has had to relocate their classroom, which is a blessing, for sure.

Those waiting for blood test results will get them asap. We decided to do a Q&A session for school staff with Dr. Anderson within the next couple of weeks. I'll help arrange a date for that. And then we discussed having a similar meeting with school parents. Looks like the end of Oct. or early Nov. - when everything is totally finished and the final report from Dr. A. is ready. The district will send out a letter to families via US Mail, with info on the meeting and a brief description of the mold problem and what was done to correct it.

So, good things are in the works, there is light visible at the end of the tunnel. We discussed other stuff, too - ongoing monitoring of soil under the school, billing for those seeking medical evaluations, etc.

It was a hard working group meeting lasting 2 hours. The Task Force has been through a lot and has accomplished quite a bit. Too early for pats on the back, but I think most everybody left feeling good about where we are heading.

Task Force Meeting, 9-29-05

It has been a while since the Task Force has met to talk about the issues of clean air at our school. We had a two hour meeting this afternoon, and it was a good one. There are still unresolved issues, but all parties seem to be working in sync right now. I'll post some highlights this weekend.