The following message is from Principal Sophia N. Newell and Assistant Principal Meghan D'Alessandro.
Dear TOAST families,
I am writing to provide you with information about an unanticipated asbestos abatement project we undertook at our school last week due to contractor errors with the renovation of the first-floor bathroom adjacent to our music room.
After the end of our school day Wednesday, March 2, an employee with a contracting company working on the renovation accidentally drilled multiple holes through the wall from the bathroom into the music room. The drilling was not intended to go all the way through the wall into the music room.
This unintended drilling disturbed plaster that contained vermiculite, which may include asbestos. Due to this, we conducted a state-mandated asbestos abatement project in that space.
The music room was sealed off immediately on the evening of March 2. No one from our school community was exposed after this accidental drilling happened, and no one in our school community was allowed to enter the music room from Thursday, March 3, through Sunday, March 6. During that time, Ambient Environmental Inc., an independent firm that specializes in asbestos abatement, cleaned and tested the area. Following this work, a required visual inspection and mandatory air monitoring tests confirmed the area was safe to reopen.
The cleaning and testing procedures Ambient Environmental followed were in accordance with New York State Industrial Code Rule 56. The state’s threshold for asbestos monitoring is 0.01 fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc). State environmental regulatory agencies consider anything below that threshold to be safe. The testing in our music room found all samples in the range of 0.002 f/cc and 0.004 f/cc – all well below the state’s safety threshold. After these air monitoring results were confirmed, we returned to regular use of our music room on Monday, March 7.
We apologize for the inconvenience that this contractor error caused. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call us at school (518) 475-6875.
