U-46 puts trailers to the test
Mobile classrooms are now being tested for safety concerns, the Elgin Area School District U-46 school board revealed Monday.
The decision came after a Bartlett mother approached the board earlier this month, suggesting the district's 96 temporary classrooms could be a source of noxious fumes, causing serious health effects.
Beverly Jaszczurowski, whose son is a Nature Ridge kindergartner, cited a Centers for Disease Control study released Feb. 14.
The study found higher-than-typical indoor levels of formaldehyde in travel trailers and mobile homes provided to displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.
"Long-term exposure to levels in this range can be linked to an increased risk of cancer, and as levels rise above this range, there can also be a risk of respiratory illness," the study said.
Jaszczurowski suggested students attending class in mobiles for upward of six hours a day could suffer similar health effects as those in Katrina trailers.
"There are serious long-term effects of kids breathing in formaldehyde. … It's not healthy for anyone. It's just not safe," she told the board.
After her presentation, Jaszczurowski received a letter from U-46 attorney Patrick Broncato.
"It ignored the exact issues I had spoken about," Jaszczurowski said. "It was basically a polite brush-off."
Jaszczurowski wrote the board again March 10, asking the district again to conduct testing on its trailers.
Monday, Jaszczurowski said she received a call from Broncato that testing had been done on Nature Ridge's four mobile classrooms.
"I was pretty surprised," she said.
Jeff King, the district's executive director of operations, told the board that results from the Nature Ridge tests should be completed by next week.
"Typically, when we do classroom tests, we look for carbon dioxide and mold. Formaldehyde is something new," King said.
The board will wait to hear the results of those tests before deciding whether to test all of the district's mobile units, board President Ken Kaczynski said.
With a projected enrollment next year of 850 students, Nature Ridge is expected to get three more mobile classrooms for the 2008-09 school year.
A capital planning study, to be completed next year, hopes to minimize the use of mobile classroom units throughout the district by 2009.
Though the board voted Monday to bid on more mobile units for next school year, if they are found to be dangerous, that bid could be reversed, board member Maria Bidelman said.
"If they end up doing the right thing, that's great," Jaszczurowski said.
Trailer tallies
24 of the 53 schools in U-46 use mobile classrooms. Below are the number of trailers at the 24 schools and the number of classrooms in those trailers. How does your school stack up?
Trailers Classes
Bartlett High 3 6
Canton Middle 5 7
Century Oaks 1 2
Channing 2 4
Coleman 2 3
Garfield 1 8
Harriet Gifford 1 1
Heritage 2 4
Highland 3 3
Hillcrest 1 2
Huff 3 3
Larkin High 4 7
Laurel Hill 2 4
Lords Park 3 4
Lincoln 1 2
Lowrie 3 3
McKinley 1 1
Nature Ridge 2 4
Oakhill 2 2
Ontarioville 5 6
Parkwood 1 2
Sheridan 2 2
Streamwood High 12 14
Washington 2 2
Total 64 96
Source: Elgin Area School Dist. U-46