[CPEO-BIF] Leased schools in New York City

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

As City Leases Industrial Sites for Schools, Concern About Safety Builds


by Melissa Checker

Gotham Gazette (NY)
August 17, 2011

After 20 years, the city has determined that the site of the Bronx  
New School in Bedford Park is contaminated and so has shut the building.
The heat is on the Department of Education this summer, after  
environmental tests at a Bronx elementary school revealed yet another  
case of contamination.

Just five weeks before the start of the new school year, parents at  
PS 51X, known as the Bronx New School, received surprising news from  
the Department of Education. In a letter dated Aug. 5, the department  
announced that it was closing the current building and moving the  
school to an undisclosed location. Air quality tests had revealed  
unsafe levels of trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent.  
Although the New York state Department of Health stated that there  
were "no immediate medical concerns for students and staff," the city  
determined that adequate remediation could not be completed before  
the school starts in September.

The city leased the Bedford Park property, a former industrial site,  
in 1991. For two decades, it has operated as a school; but some  
parents now say that their children have complained of chronic  
headaches.

PS51X now joins a growing list of schools across the city that may be  
toxic. Under current law, the city can lease property and open a  
school on it without notifying community members, or making public  
any concerns about environmental hazards in the area. With  
approximately 96 schools throughout the city on leased properties and  
more in the pipeline, this could affect tens of thousands of children.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Environment/20110817/7/3586

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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