Removal of bus depot among recommendations at Northport Middle

Textbooks used to cover a hole in the ceiling near the library. A bus depot and two 4,000-gallon fuel tanks adjacent to classrooms. A chemical spill in the warehouse beneath the K-wing. 

These were some of the historical and current findings at Northport Middle School noted in a nearly 7,000-page environmental investigation report released last week. 

Removal of the bus depot and using a proper seal for the ceiling gap were among the report's recommendations, which the Northport-East Northport Board of Education is expected to take a vote on at its meeting July 9.

The report, created by environmental firm P.W. Grosser Consulting (PWGC), addressed a multitude of concerns raised over the years by parents and community members. Many of them participated in a virtual three-hour community forum Thursday.

Northport Middle was closed in January after the environmental firm detected elevated levels of benzene in septic tanks and mercury in cesspools. 

For years, parents of students who experienced health issues while at the school urged the district to test the air and grounds for toxic chemicals at the Middleville Road building. 

In November, the parents behind a Facebook page called Close Northport Middle School organized a "sickout," urging parents districtwide to keep their students at home for a day as a way to pressure the district to do testing at the school. Months later, the group is pleased with the report's recommendations. 

"We’re looking at this environmental investigation and the meeting as a victory for the entire Northport East-Northport school district, students, residents and staff of the building," Tara Mackey said Friday. Mackey is one of the parents behind the Close Northport Middle School page. Her daughter attended the middle school in 2017, the year a chemical spill was detected in a warehouse that housed chemicals under the K-wing. 

According to documents in the report, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was notified on Oct. 4, 2017, of a spill in the warehouse "due to poor housekeeping." There were subsequent complaints of odors and people getting sick in the building, the report stated. The state environmental conservation department deemed the case closed on Nov. 30, 2017, "indicating that the NYSDEC believed remediation was sufficient and no further action was necessary," the report states. 

PWGC recommended that the district make sure the K-wing warehouse ceiling into the K-wing classrooms "are properly sealed with an appropriate fire barrier or fire-stop sealant," among other suggestions to implement in that area of the school.

"Looking forward, we can only hope there will be strong policies and regulations of every building within the Northport-East Northport school district just so something like this doesn’t happen again," Mackey said. 

The district already has removed the two 4,000-gallon fuel tanks, as well as the pumping stations, Robert Howard, the district's assistant superintendent for business, said at the forum. The district also has plans to sign a lease agreement to park the buses at an off-site location from Aug. 1 through June 30, 2021, Howard said.

Some parents said they felt positive about sending their students back to the school this fall, should the district reopen under state guidance regarding the coronavirus pandemic. 

"I feel that everybody in the community can move forward now that these concerns and issues that had been raised have all been investigated thoroughly," Julie Hendricks-Atkins, a parent of an incoming eighth-grader, said Friday.

Kelly Schwartz, a parent of an incoming seventh-grader, said getting shuffled to another building in the middle of his sixth-grade year was difficult for her son. The school closed after the environmental firm detected elevated levels of mercury in cesspools outside the building, as well as high levels of benzene in two septic tanks.

Students were moved to other buildings in the district from mid-January through mid-March, when all schools were closed because of the pandemic.

“I felt a physical relief that I can send my kid back to school without any hesitation," Schwartz said Friday. "I trust the science and I trust the report.”