Principal Fried to Chávez Parents and Staff

January 16, 2002

Dear Chávez Families and Staff,

It's not only good for me to be back at our school it's great, limited as though it may be, to have at times the buzz of a school about. The Before and After School program is using the building and on Monday we had a staff meeting here. It was the first time since late November that we were together and we were together here at Chávez. This is the latest news from our school:

Reminder: There is early dismissal this Friday, 1/18. Students will be picked up at their host schools at 12:00 and they will arrive at Chávez at 12:15. There is no school on Monday, 11/18 in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday.
The reason for the early dismissal is to allow teachers to work on report cards. The amount of time and thought that our teachers put into report cards is truly remarkable. As I've previously stated teachers are at a disadvantage in that they are not able to have access to all the records they might otherwise use. Still, I believe the report card will give you a good idea of your child's progress relative to state and district standards at this time.
If there has been one good outcome as a result of our situation it is that it has given our LMC Director, Teri Gregory, an opportunity to work on the library's book collection. This is an extremely labor intensive process and it will result in an even better collection.

Building Update:
We continue in our investigation of the causes of mold growth. In this process, on Friday afternoon two more areas in the building were found that contained mold, one area near the LMC, another in a storage area. These areas were remediated over the weekend. Sharon Bessa, our consultant affirmed on Friday that this did not affect the areas we were using and we could continue using the gym, commons and office areas.

Friday we also removed some face brick to examine flashing details. We discovered some minor issues that will need to be repaired to prevent leaking. Onyx has removed the plastic containments from the first and second floors. What remains is only a personnel barrier. Duct Cleaning on the classroom air -handling unit began yesterday. When this is complete, Sharon will then take additional air samples in any classrooms that did not have any remediation done.

We continue to work on a time line for reconstruction. We cannot give you any specific dates at this time, however, the reconstruction process will begin only after the causation of the mold growth has been determined and we are absolutely convinced of the elimination of those causes. We remain committed to not placing any students or staff in unsafe environments.

Sincerely,
Howard Fried
Principal

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