tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153073732010-03-06T09:34:08.916-08:00Updates on the status of the air quality at Arbor Heights from teacher Mark Ahlness. Comments are welcome!Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-83051913349761890222010-03-06T09:34:00.001-08:002010-03-06T09:34:08.968-08:00

This blog is now located at http://arborheightsair.blogspot.com/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/air/blog/atom.xml.

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1138419893152442802006-01-27T19:41:00.000-08:002006-01-27T19:44:53.166-08:00

Below is a link to the final report of the Task Force on Air Quality at Arbor Heights Elementary School. It was presented to the community on January 19, 2006 at the school:Task Force Final Report (pdf)

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1138330519305705232006-01-26T18:44:00.000-08:002006-01-26T18:55:19.510-08:00

At our PTSA meeting on January 19, 2006, the Task Force dealing with air quality issues at Arbor Heights gave its final report. Richard Staudt presented the report. Dr. David Anderson was also present. Both spoke and answered a few questions.It was disappointing to hear there is more water under rooms 16 and 17 again, but there are measures under way to identify the water source and to fine tune

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1137595544586018752006-01-18T06:41:00.000-08:002006-01-18T06:45:44.606-08:00

This was just sent out to the email list of those interested in the air quality issues at Arbor Heights:All,Work done to remediate the environmental problems at Arbor Heights is now complete, and we'd like to have a meeting with the concerned people of the Arbor Heights community to report on what has been done to address the environmental issues at our school, what will be done to ensure that

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1133652374505303852005-12-03T15:21:00.000-08:002005-12-03T15:27:03.170-08:00

The Final Report from Dr. Anderson is now online here. It is in pdf format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the file.Final Report

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1133631285523777322005-12-03T09:30:00.000-08:002005-12-03T09:35:27.796-08:00

The Task Force Community Meeting scheduled for December 1 was cancelled because of snow. This was to have included the final reports from Dr. Anderson and the Task Force, along with an opportunity for questions from the school community.

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1133401055762570642005-11-30T17:36:00.000-08:002005-11-30T17:37:35.790-08:00

There will be a meeting and final report from the the Task Force dealing with the water and mold problems at Arbor Heights on Thursday, December 1, at 7:00 PM in the school cafeteria. Arbor Heights School families, staff, and interested community members are welcome to attend.

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1128186267079860062005-10-01T09:36:00.000-07:002005-10-01T10:04:29.706-07:00

Some more about the Task Force meeting a couple of days ago.... I thought the group did a nice job figuring things out, making decisions, setting dates, determining responsibilities, etc.The drying out under rooms 16 and 17 is now done, and 15 and 18 are being dried out now - should take about a week more to complete. Fans are noisy, but teachers are willing to put up with it. Work will start

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1128059504298216532005-09-29T22:46:00.000-07:002005-09-29T22:51:44.303-07:00

It has been a while since the Task Force has met to talk about the issues of clean air at our school. We had a two hour meeting this afternoon, and it was a good one. There are still unresolved issues, but all parties seem to be working in sync right now. I'll post some highlights this weekend.

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1126243790967311362005-09-08T21:46:00.000-07:002005-09-08T22:29:52.146-07:00

School has indeed opened. We're still on bottled water, but the air is great. Now for some air conditioning :) Actually, on these warm fall days, I think the fans in the new univent heaters actually do help keep the temp down some (although it was 84 in the cool corner of my room this afternoon). It will be really nice when they put in dual pane glass and replace some window areas with walls

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1126072551413478542005-09-06T22:35:00.000-07:002005-09-06T22:55:51.416-07:00

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and Arbor Heights will open on time. There were some tense moments this summer when our very opening was in doubt. It is a tribute to several folks who worked extremely hard the past two months to overcome decades of neglect.There is still a classroom where dehumidifiers are drying out the crawlspace. There is no class using that classroom, thank goodness.Our

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1125710352003096072005-09-02T18:15:00.001-07:002005-09-02T18:56:51.680-07:00

international blogging for disaster relief dayI posted this to my personal blog earlier today. I guess this means I'll make two donations :) - Mark (I will)A couple of thoughts on Katrina and how to help. I came to school today hoping and trusting that something would come to me. I was up until a few minutes unsure of how I could lend a hand. Then an email came in from the Recording Academy (the

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1125626860423776252005-09-01T18:43:00.000-07:002005-09-01T19:07:40.443-07:00

So many people have worked so hard the last couple of months to fix problems at our school that have been there for probably many years. So much progress has been made, the air is so much cleaner, and our environment is worlds better than it was. It has felt very good to see those changes happen and be a small part of it.Today our staff was off-site at another school for a workshop. Dunlap is a

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1125459808197248962005-08-30T20:33:00.000-07:002005-08-30T20:43:28.203-07:00

The construction work on the playground is now done, but work is still going on inside Arbor Heights. Workers are putting finishing touches here and there, fine tuning the new univents and plumbing (I think), last minute cleaning, teachers still moving furniture. There are still people going under classrooms to check things out. Luckily, the two classrooms impacted the most will not be used this

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1125247310611225282005-08-28T09:24:00.000-07:002005-08-28T09:41:50.616-07:00

Hopefully, having the building open until 8 PM Mon-Wed and Fri will help out those of us who are days behind on classroom setup because of the cleaning schedule being moved back due to air improvement measures. Fred was extremely gracious in granting my request. I will continue to explore ways to help make the return of us "back hall" teachers less stressful.

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1125024958358115132005-08-25T19:55:00.000-07:002005-08-25T19:58:58.630-07:00

It has been an up and down day. It started with a doubtful opinion about whether the current excavation around the outside of the classrooms will make any difference to the water in the crawlspace. This was just plain demoralizing. I found out at the end of the day that water is indeed going down because of the pumping out process, and that drying is happening right now.The work going on the

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1124918495279797772005-08-24T14:20:00.000-07:002005-08-24T14:43:02.190-07:00

Today I stopped by school again to see what's going on. Nothing much else to do, because I can't get in to my classroom, because room cleaning has been moved back to accomodate the air improvements. It is so frustrating not to be able to get things rolling in my own room. So I spent some time getting the computer lab set up - although all the student accounts are still not working properly -

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1124747059042555162005-08-22T14:09:00.000-07:002005-08-22T16:54:01.930-07:00

I just returned from a short visit to school today - ran into several teachers already getting ready. As we all know, the four days we get before school starts are not even close to enough prep time. I started installing Inspiration on some of my classroom computers.But I really wanted to see how progress was coming on the air quality fixes. Here's what the new univents (heaters) and the air

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1124454386943712052005-08-19T05:10:00.000-07:002005-08-19T05:26:26.946-07:00

Two articles in Seattle papers this morning:From the PI:School judged safe despite some mold - sounds like Dr. Anderson was interviewed. Pretty good coverage of a very complex issue, some facts not quite right ("District workers have installed large air vents in each classroom and exhaust fans below", for example), but most on the money. Interesting to read about the L&I complaint end result - I

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1124368234970533272005-08-18T05:26:00.000-07:002005-08-18T05:30:34.976-07:00

The following message is from Joe Sharp, Arbor Heights parent. Below that is the announcement from Dr. Anderson with more specificsHello Everybody,It's been awhile since we sent out an update, because it seems the situation with the school and the work being done to fix the mold and other environmental problems at Arbor Heights has been in a state of flux for some time. But now we have some

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1124284107890380622005-08-17T05:57:00.000-07:002005-08-17T06:17:41.613-07:00

Some of the air flow tests in the classrooms are back, and the results look good for providing fresh, clean air for our classrooms. More testing will continue today, but the early results are indeed encouraging. There is still a huge amount of work to be done, but it appears folks now know what work needs to be done - and that it is do-able... encouraging news, at last...

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1123914628799695932005-08-12T23:19:00.000-07:002005-08-12T23:30:28.803-07:00

We had a task force meeting today at Arbor Heights. There were a LOT of folks in attendance. First up was the report from the company which has been testing the soil around the affected classrooms. They determined the cause of water under classrooms was not due to ground water - but is most likely due to leaks in the roof drainage system. They presented a diagnostic and repair scenario.There has

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1123717376620141462005-08-10T16:35:00.000-07:002005-08-11T22:30:37.640-07:00

Well, I just set this blog up, so that people can ask questions, make comments, etc. in a more public way. We'll see how it goes.I did visit Arbor Heights this afternoon, and there is a LOT of activity going on - from the univent heaters being put in, the classroom sinks (with filters) are now set, hallway water fountains now have new supply pipes, there were people working in many classrooms (

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15307373.post-1123716793590293182005-08-10T16:32:00.000-07:002005-08-10T16:34:45.490-07:00

August 8: from Mark Ahlness, teacher at Arbor Heights and member of the Task Force: This is an unofficial update from the Task Force, which met on August 3rd. I thought I'd put some information here for those who'd like to know what's happening - on a more immediate basis. Sometimes the big machine moves EVER so slowly....Anyway, we met with Dr. Anderson (mold toxicologist) for the first time

Mark Ahlnessnoreply@blogger.com0