School year begins with Bellows Falls Union High School surrounded by wedding tents

Jun 20, 2023

WESTMINSTER — Pardon a stranger for mistaking the Bellows Falls Union High School campus for a giant wedding venue.

A series of 11 big white event tents have been erected outside the high school, to replace classrooms and office space inside the school, which is contaminated with the toxic chemicals called PCBs.

Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Superintendent Andrew Haas said Tuesday that the high school would be ready when school begins for the new year on Wednesday — albeit with a new look and new locations for students.

The first wave of mitigation measures, he said, include the tents, and hopefully in a matter of days, an army of about 100 carbon-filter air purifiers that are expected to bring down the levels of PCBs in the academic areas of the school.

The school has also been given permission from state officials to bring in three modular classrooms, which will be used either for classrooms or office space.

Haas said that school officials have been assured by both their environmental consultant and state officials that in other schools the filters had helped bring the PCB levels below the 100 nanograms per cubic meter, which is one of two action levels.

Haas said the biggest tent, which is located on the right hand side as you approach the high school, will be used for physical education classes, and two nearby, smaller tents will be set up for locker room space for boys and girls.

The other tents will be used for temporary classrooms, as the school is working hard to keep to a five-day-a-week regular schedule, but limit students and faculty exposure to less than 26 hours a week in the building itself.

Once the carbon filters are in place for a week, the air can be retested and the school may be able to reclaim most of the school building, he said.

The first group of filters should arrive on Wednesday or Thursday, he said, with others arriving after that. He said he hoped the second round of testing would occur during the week of Sept. 18.

The filters will not be set up in the gymnasium and the adjoining auditorium, both of which have the highest levels in the school and are sealed off from being used, Haas said.

The tents are being rented from Green Mountain Tents at a cost of $90,000 for two months, he said, along with tables, chairs and propane heaters.

He said there are also tents set up outside the high school's cafeteria, as students are expected to eat outside, also as a strategy to keep them out of the building as much as possible.

On Monday night, BFUHS Principal Kelly O'Ryan and her new administrative team of Assistant Principal Alyssa Hamilton and Dean of Students Mark Gebo even tuned in to the meeting remotely, also as a strategy to keep their time in the high school down.

Haas said O'Ryan and her team would be meeting with students during "Terrier Time" in smaller groups, rather than have a traditional schoolwide meeting. The auditorium is off-limits because of high readings of PCBs.

"The administration is working extremely hard to meet expectations and the effort shows," said Jason Terry of Rockingham, chairman of the BFUHS School Board. "I have the same high expectations on the results we produce around education also. The building and grounds should be in as new condition and maintained. We need balance in everything we do."

Terry had high praise for the work O'Ryan, who started work as principal last month, has been doing, and he praised her again Monday night during a BFUHS board meeting.

Haas said O'Ryan has set up a "war room" at the high school, lined with white boards and lists, as she organizes the response to the PCB problem, which only became known about two weeks ago.

Haas said that the state approval of the tents, filters, modular classrooms, and tuition for students who opt to go virtual means the local school district won't have to absorb the costs. There are about 320 students at the high school, which serves the towns of Rockingham, Westminster, Grafton and Athens.

Contact Susan Smallheer at [email protected].