THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Your Nov. 26 editorial taking to task Virginia Beach school administrators and the School Board for being spendthrift with the land-acquisition fund was on target. Now I look forward to The Virginian-Pilot again addressing the continual failure of the School Board to remedy the chronic and severe air-quality problems at Salem High School.
Virginia Beach school officials have failed to deal effectively with complaints of musty smells and excessive condensation at Salem. Mold grows on the inside of a few windows, the interior walls and the floor. If dehumidifiers are shut off during the night, condensation forms on students' and teachers' desks by morning. On especially humid days, condensation forms on the ceiling in the manner similar to that found in caves.
Dehumidifiers installed to dry out the water-logged building make such a racket that teachers turn them off so their students can hear them.
Since many would consider the problems listed above as relatively small, even in a supposedly well-designed, climate-controlled school, maybe officials could be excused for saying that other things have priority.
Failure to address the issue adequately might also be understandable if there were no funds to fix the school, but there must have been additional money somewhere if the board can raid the land-acquisition fund for an unbudgeted $1 million for improvements at Princess Anne High School.
The problems at Salem go beyond simple comfort and questionable spending priorities. The teachers at Salem deal with a quantifiable health issue. The deficiencies in the buildings at Salem High lead to physical illness that interfere with everyone's ability to accomplish the school's mission. Teachers and students have reported physical symptoms ranging from blurred vision, headaches, respiratory ailments and more.
If the board can find the money for unexpected expenditures for Princess Anne, then surely is could have done something similar years ago to correct Salem's serious defects. And one begins to wonder if, and how much, school money has been misspent over the years.
JIM STARLING
Virginia Beach, Nov. 28, 1995 by CNB