Students and staff are expected to return to two Franklin elementary schools on Monday after another round of environmental testing during spring break showed no contaminants in the air inside the schools, school officials said Friday.
None of the 44 indoor air samples collected at both schools over the past week showed higher-than-recommended levels of contaminants, Superintendent David Clendening said.
“As we move forward, I would continue to tell parents that we will continue to monitor this, and that the indoor air quality is good. We’re ready to go back to school,” Clendening said. “I understand there are still a lot of questions … This is a fixable problem.”
The news comes a week after Franklin schools reported higher-than-recommended levels of contaminants in the ground beneath the schools.
Franklin Community Schools is taking proactive steps to address the contaminants under the slabs the school rest on, Clendening said.
“The issue can be remedied with the preemptive mitigation step of installing a sub-slab depressurization system. Preemptive mitigation activities will take place outside of the regularly scheduled school day. We are also planning another monitoring event before the end of the school year to confirm the indoor air remains safe,” officials said.
Franklin schools relied on a variety of environmental experts and got several opinions from various agencies before deciding to send students and staff back to those schools after spring break. Those agencies include: EnviroForensics, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a news release.
EnviroForensics collected 20 indoor air samples and 10 additional sub-slab samples at Needham Elementary, and 24 indoor air samples and seven additional sub-slab samples at Webb Elementary. EnviroForensics also screened all accessible floor drains and collected air samples from five floor drains at each school.
The indoor samples included eight-hour samples on March 23, followed by 24-hour samples on Sunday and Monday. The results of all 44 indoor air samples showed no detection of volatile organic compounds PCE or TCE, the news release said.
“What we know is that the sub-slab is doing its job,” Clendening said.
On March 20, Franklin schools received results from the follow-up sub-slab vapor sampling performed this winter at Needham and Webb elementary schools.
Samples taken in early March at Webb Elementary showed significantly higher traces of TCE in the ground below the school, with the highest reading underneath a classroom on the northwest side of the building.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s recommended level for TCE is 70 micrograms per cubic meter. Three out of seven samples taken below Webb showed significantly higher levels of TCE — 849, 242 and 225 micrograms per cubic meter.
Two out of 10 samples taken below Needham showed levels ranging from 96 to 100 micrograms per cubic meter.
Last week, EnviroForensics officials said it was unclear whether the indoor air had been impacted. They tested the air inside both schools last week, in addition to more underground testing, Clendening said.
Students and staff at both schools had an e-Learning day on March 21, the last day before spring break. No other schools are believed to be at risk and are not being tested at this time, officials said.
The latest sub-slab sampling results were similar to the results of the winter samplings, but were lower overall.
Still, two of the seven sub-slab samples at Webb came back above IDEM screening levels, and one air sample collected from a floor drain within Webb detected a low level of PCE at a concentration significantly below IDEM screening levels.
This time, all 10 sub-slab samples at Needham came back below IDEM screening levels.
“The 44 non-detected indoor air sample results give assurance that the air at Needham and Webb is safe,” the news release said.
When asked if parents will have an option whether to send their kids back to the two schools, Clendening said, “We’re going back to school.”
