At the most recent board of education meeting, following Owner's Representative Charles Palagonia's monthly update about the ongoing construction projects in the schools, a parent of a Stewart School student questioned the safety of the buildings in light of a ceiling falling in her child's classroom that day.

The parent explained that she didn't say anything about her two children who attend Stewart having to eat in their classrooms and didn't say anything when her daughter came home last year saying that she couldn't see across the hall because of all the dust. "Today I kind of had it when my daughter said the ceiling fell in her classroom and they had to leave the classroom," said the parent. She went on to ask what assurances there are that the air her children breathe in the school is safe.

The parent also noted that last year her daughter's classroom was near a bathroom and while she was supposed to be preparing for the fourth grade ELA exam, she had to listen to drilling. "I am very unhappy and very disgusted," she said. The concerned parent went on to say that she went to the Stewart construction site and walked around and found that the area was "a pig sty." She added, "We're supposed to be providing the children not only with curriculum but a safe environment to learn. As far as I'm concerned that's not happening."

Palagonia explained that there is an air monitoring service which provides the district with a letter assuring that the air quality is safe whenever they do work in the area of the schools. Superintendent of Schools Stephen Leitman added that there is no asbestos in that area and nothing else that would be considered "hot." He also noted that this is the first time since construction has started in the schools that anything has fallen in a classroom. "The room was cleared, they took the whole ceiling down and checked the area and understand what the problem was and they have closed that up and put the ceiling back up in that room," said Leitman.

"I'm still not happy that my child is sitting in a room with a ceiling falling," responded the concerned parent.

Leitman stated that he was not happy with the situation either. "This was something that was very serious today," he added.

The parent also noted that the children currently do not have Internet access, they are eating lunch in their classrooms and have not library. She added, "I think it is asking an awful lot...The bottom line is that the children are affected and that should be the major concern - their education and their environment and from what I've seen thus far they are the ones who are suffering and they are the ones being affected."

School Board President Linda Leone responded to this statement, saying that as a parent and a school board member this is of great concern to her and to everyone in the schools. "The school buildings in Garden City needed a serious amount of work in terms of renovation. There is no way the renovations could be done only during the time when the children weren't in school," said Leone. She added that they are trying to do the best they can in spite of the construction delays but even still cannot guarantee that nothing like this will ever happen again. She did note that the construction situation is coming to an end, with an expected completion date in the end of November. She also objected to the parent's idea that there is no learning going on in the schools and complimented the staff on the remarkable job they are doing despite the difficult circumstances. "We will continue with the oversight, but I don't know what else we can do to anticipate the problems," said Leone. School Board Vice President Nancy Fredericks also commended the staff and publicly thanked the teachers at Stratford and Stewart Schools for keeping the children safe.

In his presentation to the board, Palagonia went through the progress at each of the schools, focusing on Stratford and Stewart which are presently under construction. One major holdup at Stewart right now, explained Palagonia is that they have not gotten in enough limestone to complete the outside envelope of the project and because there are so many construction projects going on around the state they have not been able to get all the limestone that they need at once.

Both Stewart and Stratford Schools currently have six working bathrooms, though at Stratford the company that is supplying the partitions has gone out of business so they are waiting for the new business to get set up to get the final partitions. There are now temporary partitions in place so the bathrooms can be utilized.

At Stewart, the auditorium has been painted and the carpet has been installed. The aquateria, which has been converted to a cafeteria is just about complete, the boilers are about 80 percent complete, the ceilings are in place in the corridors and a good portion of the library/learning center is completed.

The project at Stratford is progressing well, with the cafeteria all sheetrocked, and the four classrooms created out of the former library completed. The boilers are about 85 percent complete and the teachers' parking lot should be paved this week. In addition, approximately 85 percent of the new windows are in place and the two classrooms being created from the former cafeteria are completed.

For the K-1 schools, the district went out to bid but the bids all came in too high and were rejected so that project is on hold. They are planning to go out to bid on the middle school shortly. The district has just received the State Education Department's comments on the high school plans and have to update the plans based on that before going out to bid on that portion of the project.