3 Greenwich Schools Temporarily Move To Remote Learning

Greenwich CT

23 February, 2021

7:25 PM

Description

GREENWICH, CT — As the district continues to assess the damage caused by flooding at North Mianus School on Feb. 13, three Greenwich public schools have temporarily moved to remote learning so the aging buildings can be inspected. In a letter sent to families Thursday, Superintendent Toni Jones said Old Greenwich School, Riverside Elementary School and Julian Curtiss School will be fully remote for "a short period of time" beginning Friday and, most likely, for the remainder of the month. (To sign up for Greenwich breaking news alerts and more, click here.) "We fully understand the inconvenience that remote learning may cause some families," the letter reads, "and we are not making this decision lightly. Out of an abundance of caution, a building inspection and some safety testing is being performed on our schools as a result of the flooding at North Mianus." Jones noted the three school buildings are of "relatively similar age and construction" to North Mianus, so an engineering firm will be running safety tests on each one to ensure there are no potential issues. Once testing concludes, the district will share their findings and confirm when students and staff can return to the buildings. According to Jones, a fire sprinkler line at North Mianus was broken when a ceiling at the school collapsed on Feb. 13. As a result, the district's facilities team, the town building department and the Greenwich Fire Department, along with an independent engineering firm, have been working together to investigate the incident. Jone said officials determined last week that further assessment of the ceiling at North Mianus was needed and additional testing was planned to take place over the weekend. "The room where the ceiling fell was initially inspected on [Feb. 16]," Jones said. "To date, it has not been determined with certainty whether the plaster ceiling fell on the sprinkler pipe causing the flood, or if the sprinkler pipe failed causing the attached plaster ceiling to pull away from the floor joists above. Additionally, the plaster ceiling and pipes sit above the hung ceiling. An inspection of the underside of the roof determined there were no leaks, and no work of any significance has been done recently in that area of the building." Hours after the letter was sent to families, Jones and Dan Watson, the district's director of school facilities, fielded questions and concerns from the Board of Education during their virtual meeting Thursday evening. Jones further elaborated that the decision to shift to remote learning at Old Greenwich, Riverside and Julian Curtis was based on advice from engineers examining North Mianus. "Those three buildings are older buildings with similar construction," Jones said during the meeting, "so they are going full remote so that the inspections can be carried out...so it's really four buildings now that are going to at least be impacted until the investigations are finished." Watson noted the district's original belief that a burst pipe at North Mianus having caused the ceiling to collapse was "probably inaccurate." "The thinking now," Watson said during the meeting, "is that the ceiling, because of the age of the ceiling and because of the different components that have been attached to that ceiling structure over the years, may have caused an overweight issue to it." He also noted the district still does not have "100 percent confirmation" that this is the issue and further testing was planned to take place over the weekend, including a "pull test" on nails that hold up the roof of the ceiling structure in other parts of the building. "So it's going to be a little while before we get test results," Watson said, "and we are going to be testing other schools that have similar construction, again those being JC, Old Greenwich and Riverside, so we're going to be in there all next week. I don't have a definitive date when we're going to have any answers, but we're on top of it." Kathleen Stowe, the board's vice-chair, said she appreciated that the switch to remote learning at the three other schools was out of an abundance for students and staff but asked Watson if it was possible the investigation into those three schools could be done quickly so the buildings would not need to be shut down for a while. Watson said he could not provide a timeline yet. Board member Meghan Olsson expressed concern for parents at the three schools who work during the day, as they may need to scramble to figure out childcare following the shift to remote learning. "I'm just trying to think outside the box because this affects so many families," Olsson said, "and we're talking about young, young learners when we talk about remote [learning]." Jones said the district was "looking at all options" and she hoped to create a plan for parents in need of a hardship site. Last week, board chair Peter Bernstein said the situation at North Mianus was "unfortunate" and noted a similar incident had occurred at Cos Cob School in 2018. "We know from the situation a few years ago at Cos Cob [School] how difficult this kind of thing can be on the school community," Bernstein said last week, "and we really want to get these kids back in the building as soon as possible." District spokesperson Sasha Houlihan said Tuesday afternoon no additional updates or information regarding North Mianus or the three additional schools have been shared since Thursday's board meeting. A video of Thursday's meeting can be viewed in full on the Board of Education website.