Outrage flares over failed school alarms, septic backup

By John Howell
Posted 3/28/17

By JOHN HOWELL Where's there's smoke, there's fire. Fortunately, there wasn't any smoke at Norwood and Holliman Schools last week, but there was a lot of heat and fiery rebukes over how the school administration downplayed the failure of the fire alarm

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Outrage flares over failed school alarms, septic backup

Posted

Where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Fortunately, there wasn’t any smoke at Norwood and Holliman Schools last week, but there was a lot of heat and fiery rebukes over how the school administration downplayed the failure of the fire alarm system at Norwood School and the partial failure of the Holliman system.

And while parents and teachers fumed over the administration’s failure to notify them of the faulty systems, it was revealed the Veterans Memorial Junior High septic system had backed up into an art room. A picture of the flooded room was emailed to Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur, triggering an inundation of emails and another round of accusations the administration is not keeping teachers and parents informed of potentially hazardous school conditions. The room was first flooded with about a half inch of wastewater about two weeks ago.

Neither of the issues, indicative of the city’s aging schools, appear to have a quick fix, although steps have been taken to ensure the operation of all three schools and the safety of their students, faculty and staff.

In the absence of electronic alarms, which were said to be 35 years old, a fire watch was initiated at the two schools. A firefighter was assigned to the buildings during those times that students are in the schools. The alarms will be replaced by up-to-date systems over a two-step process that involves getting them operational for the remainder of the academic year and then replacing them over the summer.

As for the septic system backup at Vets, the administration has increased its pump out of the septic system to every five days. A “jet cleaning” of the lines Monday revealed a blockage that was cleared. Long range, the administration said, the school will need to be linked to the sewer system. That project will require construction of a pumping station since the school is so far away from the sewer line that it cannot be gravity fed.

But it was the administration’s failure to notify Norwood teachers and parents of the inoperative alarm, a condition that existed for more than a month, that most rankled people. Superintendent Philip Thornton agreed parents should have been notified and took responsibility for not ensuring that happened. Schools notified the fire department when the system failed a quarterly operational test on Feb. 24. Fire Marshal Peter Marietti put the school on a fire watch, which consisted of the janitorial staff checking for fire. That was increased on Friday to include a firefighter who the schools retained on straight time for the detail.

“Why was it being underplayed, why wasn’t it being brought out sooner,” asked teacher Mary Mason Friday morning, who said she felt uncomfortable and scared when she learned the alarm had been dysfunctional for weeks and the teachers knew nothing.

Norwood parent Amy Gorman was likewise troubled the nonfunctioning alarm system remained a secret to parents and teachers for 30 days.

“They should have told the parents. It’s scary for all of us,” she said.

She put the blame on Thornton, adding that she plans to start a petition to have the School Committee remove him from his post. Gorman credits Norwood parent and PTA officer Stephanie Shelton with following up on a report that the system was down, verifying it and getting out the word to parents.

A meeting was held Thursday afternoon at the school administration building that included Councilmen Jeremy Rix and Ladouceur.

“It’s outrageous that we would have this safety issue where you have the systems that are down from February 24 and going forward and here we are late March, a month later, we have had one full month where there are teachers and students in that building, and the teachers are not informed that these systems are down,” Rix said following the meeting

“Teachers at Holliman were notified shortly after but the teachers at Norwood were not. There’s clearly a failure in communication with the school department and this is not a minor issue. Teachers, parents, they are very much justifiably outraged by this,” Rix said.

The district is working with the global science-based safety company, Jensen Hughes that has offices in Warwick, to replace the two school alarm systems. Thornton said the plan is to install an “addressable” system that will identify the location of the device and the nature of the incident that triggered the alarm.

“It allows for the fire department to go exactly to that spot,” Thornton said.

Steve Gothberg, director of school buildings and grounds, said Friday the systems at Norwood, Holliman and other schools (he didn’t have a count of how many other schools are on similarly aged systems) have been kept operational by cannibalizing older systems. Replacement parts could no longer be found when Norwood went down.

Ladouceur was applauded that the School Committee failed to bring up the issue when they came before the council for the release of $4 million in school bonds to be used for school repairs. He was also surprised to learn that Vets wasn’t tied into sewers, an action he thought should have happened years ago. He finds it hypocritical that the Sewer Authority has pushed for a connect capable fee to get homeowners and businesses to link to the system when the city’s own school department fails to do so.

Having been burned once for not immediately notifying parents of a school situation, Vets parents and guardians were notified of the condition Friday afternoon.

Vets Principal David Tober wrote parents that protocols for cleaning the wastewater were followed with proper disinfectants that the pump outs have been increased and all lavatories in the school are operational.

The situation at Norwood had School Committee member Karen Bachus outraged. She assumed Bethany Furtado, chair of the committee, was informed, as was the administration, but not teachers, parents or other committee members.

“They [parents] were very upset that they weren’t informed, the teachers weren’t informed. Nobody. I mean we’ve had two meetings since then. We’ve been in front of the City Council and this has never come up. This is very concerning and I don’t understand why we were not told.”

“It was a custodian. Now we have [the fire department] in there. It’s pretty bad when the council finds out before the School Committee when this is the School Committee’s purview,” she said.

Michael Moan, fire alarm division superintendent, said a firefighter is not required in order for there to be a fire watch and that a fire watch “was always in progress while students were in the school.”

In an email Friday, Mayor Scott Avedisian said, “I was informed that the superintendent, the fire chief, and the fire marshal all met and agreed on a plan that would insure the safety of the students, faculty, and staff until a permanent replacement could be located.”

Comments

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  • MikeBlake

    It's never a good sign when the picture of the fire alarm control box shows it being held shut by duct tape.

    Tuesday, March 28, 2017 Report this

  • RISchadenfreude

    MikeBlake, the duct tape is a great metaphor for the schools and union teachers in general.

    Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    Why not use duct tape to hold the fire alarm system in place?

    The district has been buying duct tape in bulk since Mr. Shapiro stepped down.

    If only they could make some leadership out of duct tape.

    Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Report this

  • richardcorrente

    Dear Taxpayers,

    You've heard me criticize the School Committee many times as a body that "has cost the Warwick Taxpayers over a billion dollars since 2009". I have also strongly called for an independent audit because of their continuous mismanagement of funds. The above is a perfect example. It is only the most recent one of hundreds that came before.

    I have read the School Committee's " Powers and Duties". It says "The School Committee shall determine and control all policies affecting the administration, construction, maintenance and operation of the public schools in accordance with the Warwick City Charter".

    I couldn't find anywhere in the City Charter where it said "Use duct tape on a disconnected fire alarm and allow raw sewerage to drip from the ceiling."

    The School Committee is a horrible embarrassment and a very mismanaged $160,000,000 annual cost-to-the-taxpayers. They caused these problems and their solution is to give them an additional $85,000,000 to fix the issues that a BILLION DOLLARS couldn't. I wouldn't give them another 85 cents of the taxpayers money; not 85 cents!

    East Greenwich has similar budgetary/School Committee problems. To fix their issues, they brought in Gail Corrigan, the financial consultant who handled the Central Falls receivership. I warned everyone when Detriot went bankrupt. I said it again when Central Falls did and I told Warwick taxpayers how close it was to "home". I shouted it out loud when the Coventry Fire Department went bankrupt, stating that "it's next door in Coventry". Now we can see it starting to happen literally NEXT DOOR IN EAST GREENWICH.

    There is only one solution. The School Committee MUST become more accountable to the taxpayers that are paying their salaries. The taxpayers deserve transparency and have gotten the opposite. An audit from an independent outside company would go a long way toward restoring faith in the Warwick School Department. How about it members. Who is going to step up and fix this? The taxpayers and especially the students deserve better.

    Don't they?

    Happy Easter everyone.

    Rick Corrente

    The Taxpayers Mayor

    (who campaigned that he would require accountability from the School Committee BEFORE we turn over $160,000,000 of taxpayers money, because we have no control once we do.) That is still my pledge.

    Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Report this

  • Kammy

    Both my children went to Norwood, Aldrich and Pilgrim. Even back then there was discussion on what to do with the old and outdated systems. Fast forward 10 years and the bill finally came due. This isn't just this current administration or council's issue. It is all those past years as well. Nothing was done before it completely broke down. While I understand parent's outrage at not being informed, in reality, what would you have done differently had you know about this in February? Take your kids out until its fixed? Daily phone calls to administration demanding it be fixed immediately even when it was known there was no immediate fix?

    I don't really have a horse in this race other than I am a citizen of the city and pay taxes. Demanding the resignation of the superintendent seems to be a bit extreme to me. Should you have known equipment was not working properly in your child's school? Sure. What would you have done with that information had you had it earlier? The problem still exists even with the announcement to the public. Why not work with the administration to get it resolved, rather than pointing fingers at those that were the ones that happened to be in office when the whole thing went kuput?

    Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Report this

  • knowthetruth4

    The biggest issue here is why did the Superintendent, and members of the school committee, make a conscious decision to NOT inform the public about this for a month. If they are willing to not disclose this, what else are they not telling us or lying about?

    Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Report this