The new Jefferson Village School building will not be ready for the scheduled Tues., Sept. 6, opening.
As of 5 p.m. Sept. 2, the school will “hopefully” open on Thurs., Sept. 8, said Jefferson Code Enforcement Officer Stan Waltz. As Code Enforcement Officer, Waltz is responsible for inspecting the building and issuing a permit that would allow students and teachers to enter the building.
Waltz and Jefferson Fire Chief Walter Morris both said in separate interviews that the life safety systems – fire alarms, sprinklers, backup power – are not satisfactory at this time.
The $14 million school has been under construction since early July 2010.
Final authority to approve the building is vested in Waltz. Typically, local fire chiefs inspect new school buildings’ safety systems and advise the code enforcement officer. The State Fire Marshall’s Office must approve plans before construction begins, but does not inspect public schools once they are built, said Assistant State Fire Marshall Rich McCarthy.
However, at the request of local officials, the State Fire Marshall’s Office will inspect buildings and provide an opinion on their safety. McCarthy is scheduled to inspect the building for safety on Sept. 6.
Before becoming the Jefferson Fire Chief, Morris served for many years as a licensed code and fire safety inspector for several towns outside New York City. “The bottom line is, that is a construction site, not a school,” Morris said.
Pete Gallace, Principal at JVS, did not return multiple calls requesting comment from Aug. 31 through Sept. 2.
AOS 93 Supt. Steve Bailey said that until he was informed of the delay on Sept. 2, school officials knew “it was going to come down to the 11th hour” but they believed the building was going to be ready.
Waltz met with school officials Aug. 24 and outlined what needed to be done before he toured the building the following week. Bailey said school officials left that meeting believing that much needed to be done, but that the school would still open on time.
On Aug. 31, Waltz toured the school and found “a lot of little things” unacceptable – including an incomplete kitchen, unfinished lights and switches, and unfinished interior construction such as windowsills – in addition to the fire safety systems still not in place, Waltz said. The kitchen has since been finished and approved, Bailey said.
The night of Waltz’s inspection, the school hosted an ice cream social for parents, teachers and students. About 300 attended, said School Board Chairman Bob Westrich.
“It was obvious that people were still working,” but no one indicated that the building might not be ready, Westrich said.
“It would have been easy” to warn parents that the opening might be delayed at that time, “but there was nothing to indicate we should be worried,” he said. “Everybody just had a good time.”
One issue raised by several school officials, is that they were unaware the sprinklers and generator needed to be online for the school to open. The old JVS building had neither a generator nor a sprinkler system.
Morris said that later the night of the ice cream social, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy patrolling the area noticed that the fire alarm was going off in the building. It did not call out to emergency responders because it had not yet been tied into a broadcast system, he said.
On Sept. 1, Morris inspected the building. That visit resulted in “several pages of notes and concerns,” he said. “None of the fire life safety systems were in operating condition,” Morris said in a telephone interview on Sept. 2.
On Sept. 2, Morris and Waltz met with school officials and representatives of the contractor – Bowman Constructors – to discuss the Sept. 6 opening.
“They started to address some of the concerns” on Sept. 2, Morris said. One of those concerns was that the backup generator, which powers the building when the electricity goes down, has not been tested, Morris said. The generator powers emergency lights, as well as the sprinkler system and other safety systems. The generator was scheduled for its first operation and testing on Sept. 12 – six days after the scheduled first day of school, Morris said.
At this point, the generator testing has been moved up to Sept. 7. School officials told Morris “the electrician is going to work through the weekend and be ready for Wednesday,” Morris said.
The fire alarms were being connected to a broadcast system, and the whole alarm system double-checked, “as we speak” at around 4 p.m. on Sept. 2, Waltz said.
Throughout the day Sept. 2 school officials and building representatives reportedly scrambled to find ways to get the school open on time.
A representative of the builders contacted the State Fire Marshall’s Office to discuss ways to open the building without the backup generator and sprinkler in place. McCarthy confirmed that conversation.
The option that officials discussed was to open the building only during daylight hours, so the emergency lights would be unnecessary, and have a firefighter at the school at all times when its open with a fire truck ready to pump water into the sprinkler system.
Morris informed them that the Jefferson Fire Department is a volunteer organization, and it is not capable of providing a firefighter and truck. Morris also informed them that he wanted to remove himself from the approval of the building at that time, he said.
School officials reportedly began exploring options with other local fire departments to provide a firefighter and truck. They abandoned the search, and that response plan, when Waltz declared that he will not approve opening the building until Thursday, Waltz said.
Morris, whose youngest child graduated from JVS last year, said if he had kids at the school he would have been very concerned about them entering the building Sept. 6.
He described a scene from Sept. 2, which he said illustrated the problem with school officials’ thinking.
The cafeteria in the new building is connected to the gymnasium by a stage – a several-hundred-square-foot opening between the two rooms. On Sept. 2, workers were both sanding the stage and gym, and preparing the cafeteria for students.
“There were in there laying out the knives, forks and spoons that our kids are going to be using, and they’re getting covered in wood dust,” Morris said.
“At this point, it’s up to the Fire Marshall to determine when it’s safe,” Morris said. “God forbid there is a fire, we’ll be there to put it out, like we’re trained to do.”
Lost in all of this are the parents of JVS students, who must now arrange for their children to be out of school for several extra days.
“We’re asking parents to be patient,” Bailey said. “We want to make sure the building is safe when students move in.”
When asked why parents were not informed sooner that the opening might be delayed, Bailey, who has served as AOS 93 superintendent since July, said, “I think parents were aware that the building was on a tight schedule.”
For more than a year up to Aug. 31, on numerous occasions, including three tours of the building during the summer, the last of which was Aug. 20, school and AOS 93 officials have said repeatedly the building would be ready on time.
When asked why no indication of a possible delay was given, Bailey said, “We were keeping a push on to be ready for that deadline.”
