A Plan to Move Forward Safely

With prompt action, students can be back in late January, hopefully sooner. Focusing on the BHS Reinvisioning project is like doing a kitchen remodeling while your house burns down. We must put out the fire now, get students back to learning in person, then reset and rexamine the overall project. The items below were reviewed by building contractors and environmental scientists and found to be feasible in a short period of time:

1. The State of Vermont must use thresholds that are within a reasonable range of other regulatory bodies.

2. Burlington School District knows that PCBs are in caulkings on windows. They are leaching down at times into the window mounts.

3. Caulkings can be remediated. For a contractor, this is not a major project.

4. The frames of the windows might have to be replaced. This was done recently at South Burlington High School.

5. School cleaned, some light fixtures replaced if needed.

6. $500k to $2 million needed, money used from BHS Renvisioning Fund. State reimbursement request later (the legislature moves slowly).

7. Students back in school for 2nd semester.

"Based on information from the five New York City schools, it appears that mitigation efforts can be successful in substantially reducing indoor air concentrations and exposures to PCBs."

Source: EPA Report on PCBs in Schools - go to page viii