Assistant Superintendent Mattey Answers Questions About Proposed Building Plans

We had many questions about the proposal from district architects BBS for district wide building renovations. We sent an email to Scarsdale Assistant Superintendent Stuart Mattey and here is his reponse:

(Q) School Board President Lee Maude brought up the issue of air quality at Greenacres and we were told that the district does air quality checks and they were acceptable. Can you please forward me the last three years of reports?

(A) The District responds to any concerns that a District staff member may have in regards to air quality in their buildings. Last year we checked multiple rooms at Greenacres. We will be putting these reports up on the website in the near future.

(Q) I believe that BBS said that the new portions of Greenacres would be air conditioned. Can you provide more details on how the air quality issues in the remaining rooms would be handled – what would be done to the classrooms ... and the gym?

(A) Greenacres, unlike Edgewood and Fox Meadow, actually has room ventilation at the current time through the use of unit ventilators. As these UVs are getting older the current proposal would have them removed and replaced with new.

(Q) The former engineers indicated that in order to be brought up to code the fans would be too loud and make it difficult to hear the teachers. Please explain how this would be addressed.

(A) Unit ventilators are commonly installed into classrooms and do not propose a significant noise issue. We currently have unit ventilators in numerous rooms across the District.

(Q) Will the water and sanitary pipes be replaced? As you know there have been pipe failures and lead has been found in the drinking water.

(A) Piping would be replaced if their condition warrants their replacement. Regarding water quality - At all buildings, water studies were performed last Spring on all water fountains and sinks that could commonly be used as a drinking source. There were no instances of lead in the water above EPA thresholds at Greenacres. There were 12 however in other district locations of which 2 were drinking fountains.

Further testing was performed in the fall on all other non-traditional sources of drinking water (mostly sink faucets). Of those sinks tested at GA, six failed. There were 63 other sinks across the District that also were above threshold.

All of these sinks and fountains have had lead water filters installed and have been retested. All of these locations are now below identified threshold levels. In addition, all lead filters across the District are replaced every 6 months per manufacturer recommendation. The water reports referenced above can be found on the District website here. 

(Q) In the basement of Greenacres, BBS indicated that commercial dehumidifiers would be needed to remediate the moisture. Is that a long term or short term solution?

(A) As mentioned at the meeting, the use of commercial dehumidifiers in buildings is not unusual and would be part of a long term solution.

(Q) We understand that the Greenacres faculty gave a presentation on their thoughts on Greenacres last year. Can you forward that to me to review?

(A) I am not aware of any presentation.

(Q) Residents have asked for a financial projection of the costs for a new school vs. a renovation of the Greenacres school including financing, and projections on eventually replacing the boiler, roof, windows and wiring. Will this be provided?

(A) There has been no discussion of that at this time.

(Q) Have the architects provided any renderings of examples of the learning commons/cafeterias they are proposing? If so, please share.

(A) We are in the early stages of a design process that will have many iterations leading up to the bond vote. As these ideas develop and move to the next step more details will also be developed