NISKAYUNA — The Niskayuna Central School District is undertaking an asbestos abatement project at Iroquois Middle School over spring break.
The removal work, which began Friday, will encompass three first-floor classrooms, a storage space and a custodial storage area.
According to the district, the affected areas will be sealed off and isolated from the rest of the building while the work proceeds.
The removal of the hazardous material is part of the district’s ongoing capital project work, which includes asbestos and lead removal efforts.
An extensive asbestos removal project on the both floors of the school was originally scheduled for summer 2023, with the district moving up the timeline for the first-floor work due to concerns about the feasibility of the original project timeline.
During the Niskayuna Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night, parent Christine Radez expressed her concerns about the safety of the abatement project.
“I’m here to remind you, as a parent, that something more important than any contractor’s timeline is the health and safety of our students,” Radez said. “There are alternatives that can be made to keep students safe. I also just want to make sure that we understand that when everybody walked into this building [Iroquois], though I was told this would be done by the end of April break, if you read the sign when you leave the building tonight, it says they can do that asbestos work through May 9, well past the time when students will be back in the building.”
Superintendent Carl Mummenthey said on Wednesday that the work will be conducted safely, with a third-party industrial hygienist set to be on-site throughout the abatement, monitoring the work. After the abatement is completed, the site will undergo a final inspection before the school reopens on April 17.
“I think schools and other public buildings have been removing asbestos and other contaminants from schools for decades,” Mummenthey said. “The teams that will be doing this work are highly trained and the work is highly regulated and observed by third-party monitors. We’ve built-in contingency days in the event that we need to go in and do any remedial work in an area in order to ensure the safety of that area’s occupants. So I have a very high degree of confidence in this team’s ability to complete that work while we’re not occupied over break to make sure those spaces are ready for students and staff.”
On Dec. 11, district parents were informed that none of the construction work being conducted at Iroquois involved the removal of hazardous materials such as asbestos.
An update was subsequently provided on Dec. 18 when Iroquois Middle School Principal Thomas Fyvie sent an email to parents informing them that material containing asbestos was discovered while contractors were performing caulk removal work outside the school’s exterior window casings.
The message noted that the work was expected to be completed in three days. On Jan. 2, Fyvie provided another update, noting that the “initial Asbestos Abatement project was completed over December break and the new exterior doors/temporary staircases have been installed. All the Abatement work was completed under strict NYS guidelines, under close supervision by our Turner Construction associates and was reviewed closely with a third-party inspector that our district has hired in order to maintain the safety of staff, students, and visitors before/during/after any such work.”
The principal added that the contractors had discovered additional asbestos on the exterior cinder blocks of the school’s stair towers. The district subsequently updated residents in March that the asbestos removal work would take place over the district’s spring break, with the labor starting Friday and expected to be completed before children return from break.
Contact Ted Remsnyder at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @TedRemsnyder.
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