STRATFORD Over the past six years, hundreds of troubled students at the Birdseye Municipal Complex have been forced to sit in classrooms so cold they wear sweat shirts one minute, and T-shirts the next when it gets hot and humid. But even that isn't enough to make the classrooms comfortable, or to drown out what students have described as "the blaring sound" of heating and air-conditioning units above their heads that make it difficult to hear what their teachers are saying. The units, installed as part of a $7.
2 million renovation at the former school in 2001, are either far too large or were installed improperly, engineers, architects and consultants say. With slippery ceramic floors and ceiling tiles made soggy by water from the heating, ventilation and air conditioning units, 50 ALPHA program students and their teachers each year have been forced to learn in "intolerable conditions," said Town Council Minority Leader Alvin O'Neal, D-2. "Ever since Birdseye School underwent the renovation to become a municipal complex, this has been a major problem, but incredibly, nobody has found a solution yet," O'Neal recently told the Building Needs Committee.
"Nobody has ever dealt with this or been held accountable, and it was all being swept under the rug until I brought it to people's attention last month," O'Neal said. O'Neal, a
The Alternative Learning Program Honoring Achievement is for troubled students, students in trouble and those who concentrate better in a small classroom setting, officials said. "For years the town, architect and engineers have been coming out and trying to find a solution," Theriault said. "But nothing seems to work.
" Theriault said placing a de-humidifier in one of the classrooms solved one problem, but made another one worse. "It made it a little less humid, but combined with the heating-air unit, the noise from the dehumidifier was deafening," he said. Students have also been forced to shuffle chairs and desks around the rooms because of the constant noise and threat of falling ceiling tiles, Theriault said.
He said the humidity, mold and mildew has been so bad, teacher lesson plans on slate blackboards evaporate by the next day. The companies involved in the installation and manufacture of the units, Silver Petrucelli Associates, of Hamden, and by Trane Commercial systems, are blaming each other for the problems. "We have been out there trying to find a solution, but these systems were designed for classrooms with 30 students and there are only five in a class," Bill Silver told the Building Needs Committee last week.
Theriault disputes that, saying there are 12 to 15 students in most classes. In a May 7 letter to Public Works Director John Carroll, Ford insists the problems are being caused because architects drew up designs for units too big for classrooms with even as many as 25 students. "My opinion is that the classroom HVAC system is oversized," Ford states in the letter.
"Problems associated with over-sizing HVAC equipment include short cycling, excessive wear and tear on the equipment, increased energy costs, and excessive humidity." Also, in a letter last July 12 from SHAcoustic of Milford, to Robert Swager, the school district's manager of plant and operations, president Stephen Haas said the units were creating noise levels "three to five times louder than acceptable levels." "We believe that no practical solution will enable the existing HVAC system to meet [acceptable noise levels] in these classrooms," Haas states.
During a news conference last week to answer questions about potentially harmful discharge of propylene glycol, a form of antifreeze, from a new $5.7 million HVAC system at Flood Middle School the past six months, Mayor James R. Miron said he learned of the problems at Birdseye a month ago.
"Since I found out about this I have been working with the parties involved to find a solution," Miron said.
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