A structural engineer will check the roofs of all city schools this weekend, according to Superintendent of Schools Michael Frechette. The engineer was contracted after reports of potential stress on roofs at Moody and Bielfield schools Friday, prompting an evacuation.
The district will also be clearing roofs of snow, a challenging task. In all, the square footage of roof space on Middletown schools nears 1,000,000 square feet.
Who inspected the schools on Wednesday and Thursday prior to allowing students to enter the buildings on Friday? Was it the building principal, the custodian, the fire department, an official inspector??? This is an important question that needs to be answered/investigated b/c our children were allowed to enter these buildings on Friday morning when so many schools/buildings around CT were experiencing structural problems. On Wednesday at 4:30pm, the EYE featured comments from BOE Chairman Ted R., that the schools were inspected/evaluated and no problems were found. However, who was in charge of making sure these inspections truly did happen? Who completed the inspections? Were they done by building inspectors and individuals with civil engineering backgrounds? Does anyone in city find it somewhat strange that Vernon Public Schools found 7 schools with roof/structural concerns but according to the BOE Chairman, Middletown schools were fine?? Hopefully, the parents will be receiving information about the status of the snow removal from school roofs and the safety of the buildings. It would be ideal to receive this information from the BOE officials/administrators PRIOR to Monday morning. Can someone at the EYE see if we, the parents/community, can have some open & reliable communication about the roof from BOE? It seems that communication is often late in coming OR has "missing pieces" to it (such as the missing info about the Moody & Bielefield evacations on the BOE website this past Friday)Thank you!
ReplyDeleteCustodians, principals and fire department are not engineers and shouldn't be relied on to make a decision if the building is safe. Other posters have commented on how everything has gone smoothly at their schools on Friday. It seems that if the schools take precautionary measures, they are criticized and if they don't they are criticized and in a no win situation. It seems some just like to feed the hysteria.
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