Tuesday updates on high school remediation, item retrieval; events rescheduled

As Regents testing began on Tuesday, the district continued to make progress toward remediating our high school building, returning personal items to students and staff, and rescheduling important events. 

We anticipate the second round of cleaning the building to stretch to the end of Friday. It will include: 

• Recleaning all areas that were identified as above average in soot and char concentration.
• Cleaning several additional rooms on the second floor not originally identified as being impacted by the spread of smoke.
• Replacing all ceiling tiles in the first and second floor hallways and some carpet tiles. Due the porous nature of the ceiling and carpet tiles, they may have absorbed soot and char and may be unable to be cleaned. 

After the cleaning is completed, air scrubbers will continue to run for several days without anyone inside the building in advance of taking new air samples and samples off of surfaces. This is a remediation plan agreed upon by not only our cleaning partner, Advanced Disaster Recovery, but also an industrial hygienist and district administration. 

Returning items from high school
While we have been engaging in this remediation, we have also made progress evaluating which personal items left in the building can be retrieved. As each item has had to be individually evaluated and inventoried for a larger insurance report, this has been a lengthy process.
However, today we were able to begin returning music instruments to students – those able received individual communication – and by Thursday we will begin communicating directly to individuals regarding the retrieval of other items. 

Regents testing 
We were pleased by how smoothly the first day of Regents testing went for our students at St. Christopher’s School and once again thank them for use of their facility. For those taking the Algebra II Regents on Wednesday, remember: 

• St. Christopher’s is located at 30 Benner Road in Red Hook
• Bus service will be provided for students to St. Christopher’s. Students taking a morning exam this week will be escorted back to LAMS afterward to wait for the afternoon bus or be picked up. Students can also be dropped off and picked up from St. Christopher’s, and students planning to drive themselves can park at the testing site.
• A nurse will be on hand at St. Christopher’s and both breakfast and lunch will be available to students.

Events rescheduled 
Two important events have been rescheduled: 

• Linden Avenue Middle School’s Eighth Grade Moving Up Ceremony, which was scheduled for June 25 at the high school’s Performing Arts Center, will be held at the middle school instead, at 5 p.m. The ceremony will be held on the middle school’s front lawn in the style of the high school commencement if weather allows; otherwise, it will be held in the cafeteria.
• The district Jazz Festival, rescheduled from last week, will also be held on LAMS’ front lawn at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17. We encourage the community to bring their lawn chairs and relax in the grass while listening to music from the Mill Road Jazz Club, LAMS Jazz Band, high school Vocal Jazz Ensemble and high school Instrumental Jazz Ensemble.

We have met with student leadership and are deep into planning other major end of the year events for the high school to come together and celebrate. More communication on those plans is still to come.