News
Cleaning Up Aging Schools

A New Jersey local affiliate resolves building problems through a labor-management health and safety committee.

It's no surprise that New Jerseyans, who have long shared their oxygen with major chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, pay extra attention to health and safety matters. The state has passed strong laws guaranteeing safe and healthy public facilities, a worker/community "right to know" about hazardous workplace substances, and the nation's only indoor air quality standards for public schools.

Now educators in East Orange have another powerful tool to clean up airless, crumbling, leaky, and moldy school buildings-their very own colleagues, specifically front-line educators Clarence Osborne, Janet Tisdale, Brian Stokes, and Pat Landon.

These NEA members belong to the district's highly effective Health, Safety, and Security Committee (HSSC), an eight-member body-four designated by the East Orange Education Association (EOEA), four by the district-to "discuss and resolve" issues of health, safety, and security in this urban system's 21 aging buildings.

This joint panel, created through the collective bargaining agreement, isn't some toothless "facilities committee." By contract, it must meet five times a year, and its management half-including the district architect and the heads of maintenance and security-is empowered to make binding decisions on the spot.

"Everybody sits down and hears the same issues," says EOEA President Jacqui Greadington, an ex officio member of the committee. "People I would normally have to track down for answers are right there. It's critically important to negotiate language that requires parties who can affect change-not just a powerless custodian-to sit down and negotiate district-wide health and safety policy right at the table."

Nobody dominates this panel-it alternates meeting sites between Association and district offices-and nobody keeps it in the dark. Volunteer EOEA health and safety "watchdogs" at school sites report problems to the committee, and almost monthly, committee members conduct "walkthroughs" of East Orange schools with a checklist to spot immediate hazards such as mold, leaks, and temperature problems.

"We look for obvious and not-so-obvious problems-such as a bookcase that's too high and not anchored to the wall, or a poorly mounted door window that a kid could knock out," notes Greadington. "Then we do follow-up to see that things are fixed."

The committee deals with a "broad umbrella" of concerns, she points out, be it leaky roofs (several were repaired last spring), crisis procedures ("who gets called when something goes down in the district"), or "quality of life" issues such as faulty plumbing or cold buildings.

"Our biggest complaint is inadequate heat," Greadington notes. "We had one teacher who said she had been cold for 30 long years! Because of the work of the HSSC, she's not cold anymore. Often it's a case of a unit not being turned on or properly serviced.

"A lot of people in education get used to being in bad situations so long that they become 'normal.' That has to change," declares Greadington, a member of the NEA Board of Directors. "We want our students and staff to walk into schools feeling healthy and safe. We'll continue this effort room by room, school by school, until we're done."

--Dave Winans

Jacqui Greadington can be reached at eoea@aol.com.

A Toolbox To Shape Up Schools

The 1,200-member East Orange Education Association is just one of several Garden State local affiliates pushing the envelope on cleaner, safer schools, thanks to a four-year-old health and safety program of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA).

It's a comprehensive effort that includes field training for local health and safety activists, written resources (brochures, a website, and a brand-new manual), a statewide conference (scheduled this year for April 12), and technical assistance to UniServ reps from the nonprofit New Jersey Work Environmental Council-which can provide certified industrial hygienists upon request.

NJEA's health and safety initiatives are starting to bear fruit, even in urban districts where many school buildings are older than your oldest relative.

Through the investigative work of industrial hygienists and extensive community/media outreach, NJEA acted on indoor air quality complaints in Passaic's 99-year-old School 10 and won some $5.5 million in upgrades.

And last autumn, NJEA had students moved from Paterson's School 6 for three months, after Paterson Education Association President Peter Tirri reported that extensive renovation work-involving removal of asbestos, among other substances-was taking place during school hours.

"I walked into a kindergarten class in School 6 and saw barrels marked 'Hazardous Waste,'" shudders UniServ rep John Ropars. "The Association got together with parent groups and forced a meeting with the superintendent and the state Economic Development Authority, which funded this project.

"It's amazing how cooperative a district gets when papers, politicians, and parents raise a stink!" Ropars observes.

NJEA's building cleanup toolbox includes compartments for community outreach (when administrators just won't fix a serious problem) and complaints under the state's Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health Program. But right on the top tray is the trustiest tool of them all: the joint health and safety committee.

"Our East Orange local really takes it on by having negotiated contract language that specifies the union's formal ability to negotiate over health and safety issues," stresses UniServ rep Norm Danzig, who along with Ropars trains health and safety committee members across New Jersey. "These are issues that seriously affect kids as well as staff. We need to take them on as union issues-dealing with them as isolated individuals is a losing fight."

--D.W., with contributions from
NJEA staffer Dawn Hiltner

For more on the New Jersey Education Association's health and safety program, contact John Ropars at jropars@njea.org or Norm Danzig at ndanzig@njea.org.

[Kudos To...]

. . . the Sharon (Massachusetts) Joint Health and Safety Committee, which has received an excellence award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools program.

The six-member committee, created through bargaining between the Sharon Teachers Association and district, has been busy indeed. Among other gains it has removed hazardous chemicals from schools, improved ventilation systems, replaced water-damaged tiles, extended downspouts to address water problems, removed loose floor tiles containing asbestos, and purchased several HEPA filter vacuum cleaners.

The committee's effective IAQ Management Program relies on extensive data collection, problem area mapping, and teacher checklists and questionnaires. A project such as Tools for Schools "has got to be grassroots," says middle school science teacher Tricia Terrell, the Joint Health and Safety Committee co-chair. "It's got to be local educators looking at what they can do in the classroom." (Tricia Terrell can be reached at tricia_terrell@sharon.k12.ma.us.)

. . . California elementary teacher Gloria Mitchell, who, through the Fresno Teachers Association/CTA, has been campaigning against mold in schools. Mitchell advises educators to make an issue out of mold contamination-even if administrators tell them not to worry. "If it happens to you, get your Association involved. Don't let it go," she says. "Get an IAQ Tools for Schools kit [through www.neahin.org/programs/environmental/ iaq.htm], so that you know what to look for and see the warning signs." As a delegate to the 2002 NEA Representative Assembly, Mitchell won unanimous passage of a new business item calling on NEA to review and publicize research on the "environmental impact of mold and toxic mold on children and staff in all school facilities." Check out the next issue of NEA Today for an article on the impact of mold exposure.

. . . Shell Oil refinery and chemical plant workers in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), who waged a historic five-month strike 30 years ago to win specific health and safety language in their contract. Among other goals, those workers sought a joint union-management health and safety committee in every plant, with the right to jointly "inspect, investigate, and review" health and safety conditions.

That was unpalatable stuff for Shell managers back in 1973. They labeled it an "attempt at featherbedding" and declared: "We are legally responsible for the health and safety of Shell employees in the workplace. This responsibility cannot be shared."

In the face of tough company resistance, OCAW-today part of the Paperworkers, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE)-waged a nationwide Shell boycott and forged alliances with the scientific, academic, environmental, and labor communities. Shell and the OCAW reached a compromise, ending the strike on June 1, 1973. That bargaining agreement broke ground for health and safety language many unions and employers take for granted today.

[Your Dues Did It]
UniServ Reps Become Air Quality Experts

It's a tolerant school district that allows a crowd of out-of-state, battle-hardened UniServ staffers to tour one of its schools-during class time-with a federal official, building blueprints, an indoor air quality checklist, and a carbon dioxide detector.

That's just what New Mexico's Rio Rancho district did on February 4 when it hosted 14 UniServ reps from 10 states at Mountain View Middle School. These staffers were in town to attend an NEA Health Information Network/UniServ Cluster training session, which included a full-day class on indoor air quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program.

Mountain View is one of some 10,000 K-12 schools across the country that are implementing this program. At the school, the UniServ reps met Vice Principal Trent Heffner and NEA-Rio Rancho President James Pacini, before being briefed for a building "walkthrough" by EPA Region 6 representative Michael Miller.

Then, blueprints and checklists in hand, the Association staffers followed Miller as he conducted a typical indoor air quality check. "We looked at the school exterior and interior-classrooms, bathrooms, science labs, art rooms, cafeteria, and kitchen," reports NEA Health Information Network staffer Jennie Young, who coordinated the tour. "We checked for ventilation, the presence of pests, and signs of moisture-focusing especially on drain traps and stained ceiling tiles and carpeting."

The UniServ folks "loved it," Young notes. "They looked around like detectives and pointed out things we hadn't thought about. Many walked away wanting to call their superintendents as soon as possible about the Tools for Schools program."

Following the walkthrough, Miller debriefed these newly minted air quality experts on what they'd seen at Mountain View. The UniServ reps "listed problems and prioritized them," says Young. "They gave the vice principal and head custodian a lot of new ideas."

All in all, the school-a fairly new facility-shaped up pretty well. Ah, yes, it does have a dust problem, and could use entry mat systems at the doors. But now that it's been inspected by 14 UniServ reps, Mountain View Middle School will shine brighter than ever.

For more on NEA-HIN's Indoor Air Quality in Schools Program, go to www.neahin.org/programs/environmental/iaq.htm.