Published: October 01, 2008 01:38 am            

NEWFANE: Early Childhood Center to be closed for second day for renovations

NEWFANE — The Newfane Early Childhood Center on Godfrey Road is closed for a second straight day, but kindergarten will be in session on Thursday.

All pre-kindergarten and Head Start classes will be out of school for the remainder of the week. NECC assistant principal Sharon Smith said she hoped both would be back in session on Monday.

The NECC was closed Tuesday when the district discovered paint chips had fallen from the ceiling. None of the chips that fell tested positive for lead, but a paint chip taken from a beam in the ceiling did. Superintendent Gary Pogorzelski ordered the school closed for emergency renovations, so the problem could be addressed now instead of putting it off.

“This is a very proactive measure I’m doing here with the board,” he said. “Because I want to really safeguard these kids for future chips that may fall.”

The closing affects about 200 children in the Head Start program, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and the Niagara Speech and Hearing Center. Two kindergarten classes have been moved to Newfane Elementary School until the renovations are complete. The entire process should be done in two weeks, according to Kevin O’Connor of Watts Architecture and Engineering PC. O’Connor was brought in by the district to offer assistance on how to stabilize the building.

“Then we’re going to work on a long-term solution,” Pogorzelski said.

Parents of NECC students with updated contact information were called by staff members to alert them about the closing. Smith praised her staff, and Board of Education President Patrick Kilcullen acknowledged the amount of trouble the closing may have caused.

“It was a difficult decision, recognizing it could cause a lot of disruption,” Kilcullen said. “But we felt, given the information we had, the most prudent thing was to close the schools and develop a plan so we can take care of this problem.”

O’Connor said any problem with lead is usually from kids picking up paint chips and putting them in their mouths. The beams are out of the kids’ reach, but a potential problem is when the chips fall from the beams. The lead may not be in the paint, but rather in the coating on the beams, O’Connor said.

The paint will be scraped down to stop the flaking process and re-coated. Renovation work will take place in one wing of the school and the cafeteria. The wing will be sectioned off and contained from the rest of the building until work is completed. Before opening back up, the wing and cafeteria will undergo a “white glove” surface test to make sure it is safe for kids to return.

The school kitchen was tested and came up perfect, without a trace of lead, Pogorzelski said. Students will eat in their classrooms until the work is complete in the NECC.

The school board met Monday night and held a public meeting Tuesday night to update the public. At the Tuesday meeting, the board approved a contract with Epic Contracting for up to $100,000 to work on the NECC. Pogorzelski said there was money left over from the current capital project, and the emergency renovation is about 90 percent state aidable. But in order for Newfane to receive aid for an emergency renovation, the district must submit a long-range plan on how to correct the problem for good. That includes finding out why the paint was missed in inspections.

All busing schedules and student services will remain the same, once classes resume.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.

        

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