THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 22, 1994 TAG: 9412220514
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
After a year of fruitless negotiations, the School Board has sued two firms that designed three schools where students and staff say they have become ill because of poor ventilation.
The lawsuits seek a total of $1 million in damages, plus ``substantial'' fees for consultants, experts and lawyers.
In a statement Wednesday, the school system threatened to sue firms that designed five other ``sick'' schools if settlements cannot be reached.
The lawsuits were filed last week in Circuit Court against two architectural and engineering firms: Hargrove, Brockwell & Associates of Virginia Beach, which designed Red Mill and Ocean Lakes elementary schools, and Forrest Coile Associates of Newport News, which designed Salem High School.
These schools are among eight in Virginia Beach with ventilation, heating and air-conditioning problems. The others are Salem Middle School and Glenwood, Birdneck, Strawbridge and Rosemont elementary schools.
The problem in all schools is lack of circulation and fresh air, which lets moisture accumulate and mold grow. Permanently shut windows, popular in building designs in the late 1970s and '80s, contribute to the problem.
The school system will fix Glenwood and Birdneck first and the other schools later, but there is no timetable or cost estimate.
Meanwhile, the school system will install dehumidifiers, air cleaners and operable windows. The School Board also will let students and staff transfer from these schools upon request.
To fix the problem permanently, engineers must redesign, modify or replace the buildings' heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems.
The lawsuits accuse the architects and engineers of breaching their contracts.
On Wednesday, both firms said they were surprised by the lawsuits. Each had been trying to negotiate a settlement with the School Board.
Forrest Coile had offered one engineer full-time for a year, plus support staff, to help fix Salem High, said company President R. Anderson Moberg.
``We could never agree on the scope of work to be done,'' Moberg said.
``We wanted a beginning and end to our work. They wanted it to be more open-ended. . . We made every effort to resolve the problem, but the terms became unreasonable.''
At Hargrove, Brockwell & Associates, vice president Dan Brockwell said the designs for Red Mill and Ocean Lakes were similar to designs for other Beach public schools.
``We retained one of the best-known and respected mechanical firms in the area to design those buildings,'' Brockwell said.
Moberg said the firms are victims of a nationwide problem. Many modern buildings are air-tight for fuel efficiency, but the problems of such designs are now becoming apparent, he said.
``We basically followed the codes of the time,'' Moberg said.
School officials would not discuss the lawsuits. They issued a two-page statement Wednesday that includes a warning to other design firms.
``Discussions will continue with the firms responsible for the other five schools,'' the statement said, ``but suits will also be filed on behalf of those schools if a satisfactory resolution is not reached promptly.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
STAFF
``SICK'' SCHOOLS
SOURCES: Virginia Beach School Board; Circuit Court documents
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB