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District completes guide for construction safety

Parents pleased with progress but want the guidelines to go further

By Katherine Petersen

Cupertino Union School District trustees are scheduled to vote on a health and safety guide for construction at the Nov. 18 meeting.

McAuliffe Elementary School parents who spoke at a public hearing Oct. 14 said they would like to see more work done on the document before a vote is taken.

The district wrote the document in response to complaints from McAuliffe parents during construction at their school last year.

Students, parents and teachers fell ill from odors in the classrooms, caused by roofing and painting, they said.

The health and safety guide covered many of the complaints from last year, such as the type of paint and carpet glue used in construction projects, said Jerd Ferraiuolo, CUSD's director of facility modernization.

So far, board member Roberta Pabst applauds the report.

"I hope we can make everyone happy," she said. "I think the district has been very responsive."

Debbie Bakker, a McAuliffe parent, said the document disappointed her.

The report included full-page sections on carpeting and painting, but contained only three sentences on roofing procedures, she said.

Ferraiuolo said there is little information available on roofing, for which many of the materials are toxic, but the report calls for the procedure to be done during the summer and during vacations when possible, and for it to be a safe distance away from occupied classrooms if the schedule demands work during the school year.

Pabst said she didn't know enough about roofing to determine if the section should be expanded, but she agreed that all measures should be taken to prevent a room being overcome with fumes again.

"That was an accident," she said. "I don't want to put any child in any danger. I can understand the concerns from that standpoint."

Bakker said the district has made minor changes to the document but did not tackle the big health concerns in a way that would satisfy the parent community.

The report did not come out and say that materials will be selected first and foremost with the children's safety in mind, she said.

Ferraiuolo contended that the introduction to the report states that the entire report is geared toward protecting the safety of the district's students.

"They haven't been as clear on what the goals are that they're trying to achieve," Bakker said. "If the goals are fuzzy, there's no way for people to know how to achieve them."

The intent, according to Ferraiuolo, is to create the safest environment possible for teachers and students during construction.

Susan Stanaway, another McAuliffe parent, is pleased that the district has taken some steps in the right direction, but said the document doesn't have all the criteria she would like to see in it. She would like to see letters go home from the district office to parents, asking them to consult their physicians to see if problems could arise from attending school at a construction site.

"People with respiratory illnesses and compromised immune system are at risk for more complications when living and working in a construction site," she said.

Stanaway sent a copy of the document to the California Department of Health for review, and it received a positive response.

"I thought it was a good document," said Leon Alevantis, an indoor air pollution research specialist for the California Department of Health. "They have obviously made an effort to deal with issues of construction and indoor air quality."

Alevantis only commented on sections of the 21-page document that related specifically to indoor air quality and offered minor suggestions for improvement, such as word changes and concept clarification. Those changes have already been adopted, Ferraiuolo said.

"We're hoping other school districts will follow their example and develop their own guidelines or adopt this existing document," Alevantis said.

The district invited each of its 23 school site councils to read and critique the document. Ferraiuolo said he received responses from McAuliffe and Stocklmeir.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 29, 1997.
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