Last week the Highland School Board and Administration held a special meeting to discuss additional details and the abatement procedures needed at the Middle School as a result of a recent fire. The fire call came in at 2:42 a.m. on March 20. Currently, the cause is being listed as accidental and a final report from the fire investigative team will follow in the near future.

 

Superintendent Joel Freer expects 12 weeks will be the maximum time needed to fix the damage and to get the school back up and running.

 

“We will be pushing very hard to get it done quicker than that but not 12 weeks of remote,” he said, adding that remote learning may take place through April 5th and then have the Middle School students share the high school building, stating on April 8th.

 

In a Declaration of the Emergency Work, which the school board unanimously approved, it was noted that the fire started in the kitchen area of the Middle School that resulted in smoke damage to further interior portions of the building.

 

“It will require extensive remediation and reconstruction, including but not limited to removal and replacement of ceiling tiles and insulation in a number of corridors and classrooms and emergency abatement of asbestos containing materials,” the document stated.

 

The district will be receiving proposals to fix the damage from several companies, which the district expects will initially run about $100,000, “inclusive of incidental fees, architectural/engineering design and review and other soft costs” The board noted that the work that is needed “falls under the district’s policy and procedures for emergency purchases to complete such remediation and reconstruction work, which is exempt from the competitive bidding requirements as per General Municipal Law section 103.” Additional funds may be needed to complete the work, but would be covered by NYSIR [New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal], the district’s insurance carrier.

 

Superintendent Freer said ServePro was working “feverishly to clean all of the areas that were exposed, so we were on remote learning for the first three days to allow that work to go unimpeded.” He said as the work progressed, it was realized that a full asbestos abatement had to be done and the students would not be back in the building, as was hoped, upon their return from spring break on April 2. Freer said this is what sparked last week’s special school board meeting and the approval of an Emergency Declaration, “to make sure that we’re doing everything we can within the safety guidelines that are set forth by the New York State Education Department for the health and safety of our students and our staff.”

 

Freer said asbestos is in old tiles that are above “the sub ceiling that we see... they all have to be removed. When they tested the glue that was in those areas, it all came back as hot with asbestos and you can’t touch those tiles until the asbestos abatement is completed.”

 

Freer said a number of student band lockers have been cleared out as well as materials collected that teachers needed from their rooms. He said they have been exploring other locations for the 360 Middle School students and 75 staff members, “so they can be back in a face-to-face learning environment as soon as possible.” A number of options in Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Marlborough and New Paltz were considered but to no avail. It appears the district, on April 8, will move the Middle School students into the High School building, relocate some of the High School classes from the back of the building to the front; turning the G-Wing into a 6th grade wing; reconfigure the high school gym and Library using soundproof partition walls in a way to create learning spaces; using the auditorium’s upper deck as a meeting area for physical education classes but holding those classes outside, weather permitting.

 

“We are working those plans out as an option and we have not yet figured out whether that’s 100% going to work,” he said. “We will get out material to families as soon as we know for sure that this is what we’re going to do.”

 

Freer became emotional when acknowledging the trauma that the fire caused and has asked that unauthorized photographs not be posted on social media, “because I know what it’s doing to me and we don’t want our students to feel that.”

 

Highland Fire Chief Peter Miller further described the abatement work that will be needed inside the school. He said the fire started in the left portion of the kitchen in what is called the can and snack room area.

 

“There was heavy, hot fire there that got out into the kitchen area that caused a lot of smoke damage and some heat damage there,” he said. “Upon entering the building there was no smoke in the immediate foyer [but] entering the hallway there was smoke going to the cafeteria and smoke was rolling down to about 6 feet off the floor. Opening the door to the kitchen, it was really rolling smoke, so we went in and knocked it down very quickly using a very small amount of water. At that point in time the building had smoke in different levels and in different areas. It was a very thick, acrid smoke, almost like breathing an electric motor that was burning through a diesel engine, a heavy smell that’s in the ceiling tiles. So all the ceiling tiles in all the hallways are coming down.”

 

Miller noted that other rooms have 12x12 tiles above them and also hallways that have the original tiles from when the building was constructed in the late 1930s. The drop ceiling and the tiles will all be removed.

 

“There are 16 areas that are classroom related that are also involved in that and five of those areas are classrooms and office spaces that are on the 2nd floor of the old gym, which are now science rooms that have the original gym ceiling above the drop ceilings,” he said. “On the ground floor of what we call the BOCES classrooms and offices related to Guidance, all are being abated.”

Miller said NYSIR is fronting the district money for the expenses, with the $100,000 being the first contingent. If more is needed the insurance agency will add to that so the district does not have to use its own cash flow to cover any additional work. He expects that the district’s expenses will be minimal.

 

School Board President Alan Barone thanked Miller and the Administration for going ‘above and beyond’ to help minimize the impacts of the fire.

 

“Hopefully everybody realizes what a tragedy this was; it’s not just a minor fire for what it did to the entire building, it was unbelievable,” he said.

 

Freer said he will keep families apprised on the education of their children and the pace of the remediation work.