GIRARD School health testing widens

The new tests, by a private company, and those done last week by the Ohio Department of Health will be compared.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- More tests were conducted Thursday to determine why Girard Intermediate School pupils and teachers are experiencing eye and skin irritation.
School officials have been working since October to determine the causes of the irritation and headaches in the building, which opened last fall.
"Yes, I'm frustrated," Superintendent Anthony D'Ambrosio said Thursday as the tests and sampling were being conducted by Clayton Group Services, an Akron environmental consultant.
The company was recommended by the Ohio Department of Health, which did tests last week.
More samples: D'Ambrosio said Clayton took air samples, along with others from the ventilation ducts and carpeting. Because cultures must be grown from some samples, he explained, findings may not be available for about two weeks.
The results from Clayton's tests and those by the state health department will be compared.
"Let them put their heads together," the superintendent said.
The air-duct system was cleaned and about 40 heating units throughout the building were disinfected earlier this year.
Changes by day: On some days, D'Ambrosio said, five to seven pupils and teachers felt discomfort, and 12 to 14 felt it other days. He explained that the problems are experienced by different people on different days. For example, five pupils may be affected one day, and a different seven the next.
Some rooms have an odor one day, and no odor the next day, he added.
Last October, a minimal number of pupils complained of itchy eyes or skin rash, but the number has increased because more are aware of the situation, the superintendent said.
James Dobson, assistant city health commissioner, said the state health department took air samples and surveyed the symptoms.
The state, Dobson explained, found elevated carbon dioxide levels in the building. It's the state's thinking, he said, that the air isn't being exchanged at the proper rate.
Parent group critical: Cathy Ross, president of Girard Concerned Citizens, a parent group, said she thinks that more can be done.
Ross, the mother of two with one in the intermediate school, is critical of the school administration because parents were not notified of the problem until March 23.
"Parents were scared because they hadn't been informed," Ross said, noting that the administration didn't bring in the medical field until the city health department got involved.