Press Release: Parents Applaud Water Testing, but Expect Results before the End of School Year

Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE)

JC chapter of Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC)

169-A Martin Luther King Drive, Jersey City, NJ 07305

For Immediate Release

May 8, 2008

Parents Applaud Water Testing, but Expect Results before the End of School Year

Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE), the grassroots organization that has been calling since March for a comprehensive program to guarantee safe water and air in all Jersey City school buildings, responded with cautious optimism today to the news that in one month, beginning May 12, drinking water in all Jersey City Public school will be tested. Several parents in PCUE have received letters from Jersey City Public Schools notifying them of the news.

"We are very happy to see that the Board is responding to our demand to immediately test drinking water in all school and notify parents about the schedule when the testing will take place," said Loyda Goldston, a PCUE parent leader with three children in school 34. "Testing the water in all Jersey City schools is an important first step toward our children's safety, but we will be watching closely to see that the testing is completed, that parents are notified of the results by the end of the school year, and any possible problem is corrected before September when schools open," she added.

Another parent, Valentine Gakuba, with a child in school in Lincoln High School stated that "Lot of parents I spoke with in my neighborhood have not received the letter. The BOE has to do a better job to reach out to parents. The letter needs to be translated in Spanish. Although the letter is posted on the district's website, it should be put in the local papers. Moreover, they have not given us any information about whom to contact if we have any questions."

Parents called today's Board of Education announcement a victory for all Jersey City public school parents, children and school staff, but cautioned that there still remains much to be done before schools re-open.

Parents want a comprehensive "Healthy Schools Program"

Since March, PCUE has been calling on Superintendent Epps and the Board of Education to carry out a four point program to address unsafe environmental conditions in Jersey City schools:

1. Following the US Environmental Protection Agency's communication guidelines, Jersey City District should immediately notify parents of its timeline for testing drinking water and let them know when the results will be available. It should also designate a contact person with the necessary authority to communicate with parents regarding lead issues and address their concerns.

2. Create a standing committee of the Board of Education that is exclusively responsible for health and environmental safety of our schools. Three parents should be a part of this committee.

3. Create an Indoor Air quality Team following EPA guidelines at the district level. This team should partly consist of parents.

4. Issue semi-annual health and safety report cards for each school to parents of children in Jersey City beginning in August 2008. The report card should be sent to parents via mail and posted on the District's website.

Parent leaders met with Superintendent Epps on March 11 to present their proposals, and subsequently met with Facilities Committee chairperson Suzanne T. Mack. "Everyone heard us," said Louella McFadden, "but we need action not promises." So PCUE parents took their message to the April 17 meeting of the Board of Education. About 60 parents and children held signs calling for "Safe Water and Air in Our Schools" throughout the meeting. Parent leader Telissa Dowling addressed the Board. She also hand delivered about 700 signatures from parents coming from over 30 schools on petitions in support of the PCUE's 4-point healthy schools proposals.

PCUE is a grassroots organization of parents, grandparents, and concerned members of the community that is a chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee of NJ. PCUE is committed to organize parents in all Jersey City communities to improve education for our children and create schools that are healthy and safe. For more information on PCUE, parents are invited to call 201-918-2918 or visit the blog at http://pcueforhealthyschools.blogspot.com/

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Contact:

Telissa Dowling at 201-724-1408

Loyda Goldston at 973-204-4121

PCUE Celebrates April 28, National Day of Healthy Schools

April 28 is National Day of Healthy Schools. PCUE will join many other cities across the state and the country to educate the public about the urgency of assuring safe water and air conditions in schools and to urge public school officials to improve health and environmental safety of our schools.

PCUE leaders and organizers will set up tables in four Jersey City neighborhoods (Greenville, Heights, Downtown, and Journal Square), distribute information, and provide giveaways to children.

On April 19th, PCUE initiated a postcard campaign to Charles Epps, Schools Superintendent, urging him to safeguard our children's health and well-being in schools. On the National Day of Healthy Schools, PCUE will ask parents and Jersey City residents to participate in our postcard campaign.

If you you cannot sign our postcard, you can call Charles Epps at his office: 201-915-6210.

Please tell him to notify parents when the remaining 39 schools will be tested for lead in the drinking water and ask when he plans to tell parents about the results of the test.

Joursey Journal: Pressure to clean site, build school

Pressure to clean site, build school

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

By KEN THORBOURNE

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Three Hudson County citizens groups asked Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday to light a fire under a long-delayed chromium cleanup job that they say is holding up building a new public school in Jersey City.

The site in question is at the corner of Ocean and Cator avenues in Greenville. The state has plans - that are also stalled due to a lack of funding - to build a new School 20 on the land.

To read the full text please click on the link below:
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1208931920118440.xml&coll=3

Press Release: Clean Up the Chromiun Site for the New School 20

For Immediate Release

April 22, 2008

Jersey City Groups Call on Governor to Break State Logjam on New School

DEP Inaction on Chromium Blocks Badly-Needed New Elementary School

Three Hudson County citizens’ groups asked Governor Corzine today to end years of delay by the state Department of Environmental Protection on a toxic-waste cleanup at a site owned by another state agency, the Schools Development Authority. The Jersey City site has for several years been slated as the new site for Public School 20, but the project remains stalled while DEP grants the corporation responsible for the pollution one extension after another.

The three groups – the Interfaith Community Organization, Parents and Communities United for Education, and the PS 20 Parents’ Council – sent Governor Corzine a letter today asking him to act swiftly to get the cleanup done, and to ensure that the cleanup is permanent and fully protective of public health. The groups pointed to a 1993 cleanup agreement for the site that remains unenforced.

“This project is absolutely vital for the people of Jersey City, especially children and residents of Greenville neighborhood that has yet to see a new school construction in their community,” said PCUE parent leader Louella McFadden. “We can’t afford to wait another year while DEP does nothing.” PCUE is currently engaged in a campaign to improve health and environmental safety of Jersey City public schools.

The site is located on Ocean Avenue, at the corner of Cator Avenue, in the Greenville section of Jersey City, and is planned as the future home of PS 20, a successful but overcrowded school currently operating in an aging building nearby.

“The Greenville section is blessed to have Public School 20, which is one of the real success stories in the Jersey City public schools,” said Mr. Fletcher Walker who is the president of the PTA at school 20. “But we need an adequate building.” The school’s overcrowded classrooms are currently supplemented by adjacent trailers. Mr. Walker has one Grandchild attending the school.

The state’s Schools Development Authority acquired the site in 2004, and with the input of the PS 20 community and neighbors, developed a plan for the new facility. Jersey City school officials consider the PS 20 project a top priority. The SDA’s efforts have been stymied, however, by DEP’s stalled progress in compelling Honeywell International to clean the site.

The site is known by DEP as Chromium Site #155 – one of more than 200 known locations in Hudson County where chemical companies dumped highly toxic waste generated by chromite ore processing at local plants. The residue from this processing contains hexavalent chromium, one of the most potent known carcinogens. In the 1950s or 1960s, an old building foundation at the site was filled in with chromite ore residue. Levels of hexavalent chromium measured at the site are more than 100 times the levels considered safe by the DEP (20 parts per million). The waste is concentrated in the first four feet of soil, and extends up to 14 feet below grade on some parts of the site.

The Interfaith Community Organization, the local citizens’ group that has successfully pushed for chromium cleanups in the county since 1989, recently reviewed some of DEP’s records related to the site.

“We were concerned about the delays at the site,” said Rev. Geoff Curtiss, ICO co-chairperson. “And we were especially concerned by the possibility that DEP might allow Honeywell to cap the site and walk away without a real cleanup, and that the Schools Development Corporation would then proceed with a school construction project on top of a capped chromium site. The SDA has a history of mistakes like this, that result in jeopardizing the health of children.”

Tom McKee, a retired DEP official who led DEP’s chromium cleanup efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, reviewed documents related to the site on behalf of ICO.
“What we found in the files surprised us,” said Mr. McKee. “The SDA has apparently pushed DEP for several years, quite aggressively, to require Honeywell to excavate and remove the chromium waste from the site. The DEP case managers have agreed. The problem has been the lack of will of the political leadership of DEP.”

“We commend Scott Weiner of the Schools Development Authority for recognizing that you can’t safely build a public school on a capped chromium site,” site Rev. Curtiss. “The problem is the same one ICO has confronted for years – the failure of DEP leadership to require polluters to clean up their toxic waste.”

Mr. McKee, who was directly involved in DEP’s efforts to negotiate cleanup agreements with Honeywell and two other chromium-producting companies, said the DEP has all the enforcement tools it needs to get a timely and protective cleanup done.

“A lot of work and taxpayer dollars were spent forging the cleanup agreement with Honeywell in 1993,” McKee said. “Fifteen years later, the terms of that agreement have still not been enforced – at this site and many others. Honeywell’s lobbyists have been able to tie the hands of DEP for decades while urgent cleanups go undone.”

The groups called on Governor Corzine to get the cleanup done within one year. Rev. Curtiss recalled the cleanup of Metro Field in Jersey City, done by Honeywell in 1993, under pressure from the state, ICO and media scrutiny. “The Metro Field cleanup took a few months, and Honeywell got the job done in time for the next Little League season,” Curtiss said. “We’re asking for the same sense of urgency from the Governor for this cleanup.”

CONTACTS:

Louella McFadden, Parents and Communities United for Education, 201-780-1933 or 201-918-2918

Fletcher Walker, PTA President, 201-432-1808 and cell 201-344-5768

Rev. Geoff Curtiss, Interfaith Community Organization, 201-792-3563

Tom McKee, ICO consultant & former DEP official, 856-506-0625

Letter To Governor Corzine Regarding to the New Site for School 20

April 22, 2008

Governor Corzine

Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000

Dear Governor Corzine:

We are writing to ask you to resolve a dispute between two state entities that has delayed – and might derail – the construction of a desperately needed new school in the Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City.

Greenville is a predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhood, with thousands of low- and moderate-income working families who struggle to find safe, decent public schools for their children. They are fortunate to have one of the city’s more successful schools in the neighborhood, Public School 20. But the school is located in a small, aging building, with overcrowded classrooms supplemented by adjacent “temporary” trailers.

More than a decade ago, school officials and community leaders identified an ideal vacant site for a new facility for PS 20, at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Cator Avenue. The state’s Schools Development Authority acquired the site, and with the input of the PS 20 community, developed a first-rate plan for a modern facility. This proposed new school would be the first SDA construction project in the Greenville section. The vision for this school is embraced by school officials, parents, neighbors and adjacent property owners. This project would help revitalize and anchor a long-neglected area, and is a top priority of Jersey City school officials. By all measures, it would appear to be exactly the kind of project for which the state created the SDA.

There is one obstacle, however. The property contains high levels of toxic waste which the state Department of Environmental Protection has failed to get cleaned up, despite nearly two decades of agency attention. The waste is hexavalent chromium, one of the worst known carcinogens, and is present at more than 100 times safe levels. Fortunately, the state long ago identified the party responsible for the contamination as Honeywell International – a company with the ability to pay for the cleanup. And, under the terms of the cleanup agreement negotiated in 1993, Honeywell has a clear obligation to conduct the cleanup; DEP, under this agreement, has the clear authority to set deadlines, standards and methods for the cleanup. Indeed, under the 1993 agreement, the cleanup should have been completed more than a decade ago.

Instead, as has been the case in so many other similar sites, DEP has failed to carry out its mission of protecting public health and the environment, even where the most difficult part of the work – winning a hard-fought cleanup agreement – has been done.

We recently reviewed some of DEP’s files on this case, to try to find out the status of the cleanup and the reason for the long delays. What we found was surprising. We had read about the SDA’s previous failures to ensure that some contaminated sites in urban areas were permanently and adequately cleaned up prior to school construction, and we feared that SDA might have taken a similarly sloppy approach here. We also feared that SDA might have been too willing to use taxpayer dollars to pay for a cleanup that should be fully financed by Honeywell.

Instead, the files show that SDA is taking its mission seriously, at least at this site. For several years, SDA has been asking DEP to enforce the 1993 agreement with Honeywell and to require a timely and permanent cleanup of the site, so that construction can proceed. And, at least as indicated by the correspondence we reviewed, SDA is insisting that the polluter pay 100% of cleanup costs. We commend Mr. Scott Weiner, the Chief Executive Officer of SDA, and Mr. Thomas Ahern, who has been leading SDA’s efforts on this project.

The problem is that DEP has failed to insist, from the outset, that Honeywell conduct a permanent and fully protective cleanup. Until SDA objected, DEP appeared willing to let Honeywell consider an untested experimental cleanup method at this site, rather than excavation and removal of hexavalent chromium. (We agree with the SDA on this: while we strongly support experimentation to develop alternative cleanup remedies, a public elementary school is not the place to start.) Over strenuous objections from SDA, DEP has granted Honeywell one extension after another.

While SDA appears to have learned from its well-publicized failures, DEP seems intent on repeating its mistakes over and over again.

The result of DEP’s dysfunction has been that schoolchildren in the Greenville neighborhood remain overcrowded in PS 20, or forced to attend substandard schools elsewhere. A prime parcel in the heart of the neighborhood remains toxic, and the chromium waste there continues to leach into groundwater and to make its way to surfaces, where it jeopardizes the health of those who live and work nearby. Neighbors of the site have never been informed by the DEP or state Department of Health that the vacant site contains hexavalent chromium; many of them heard of this for the first time when members of the Interfaith Community Organization knocked on their doors.

We ask that you act on behalf of the children and families of Jersey City, and insist that DEP immediately order Honeywell to excavate and remove all chromium-contaminated soil from the new PS 20 property. The project should be completed within one year. (We point you to Honeywell’s 1993 cleanup of Metro Field in Jersey City as a model. This site was cleaned up in a matter of months, under state oversight and media scrutiny, in time for the opening day of Little League baseball. Certainly the prospect of breaking ground for a new public school should carry the same sense of urgency.)

Our organizations plan to gather, along with members of the PS 20 community, on May 21. We would appreciate a response by that time.

Sincerely,

Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE)

Interfaith Community Organization (ICO)

PS 20 Parents’ Council

PCUE at Earth Day Fair 2008: Healthy Schools and Healthy Planet

Healthy Schools and Healthy Planet

On April 19, 2008 PCUE members and friends spread the word about health and safety hazards in Jersey City public schools at the Hudson County Improvement Authority's 2008 Earth Day Fair. Over 100 Jersey City parents, grandparents, teachers, and concerned citizens wrote postcards to Superintendent Dr. Charles Epps demanding safe and healthy schools for our children. PCUE spoke with hundreds of parents about health and safety hazards in our schools and shared PCUE's four-point proposal for reform. Additionally, PCUE distributed flyers about Jersey City Parent Rights, the Special Education system, and SEOC membership. See some of the pictures below.

Please write a postcard to Dr. Epps and tell him that you care about Jersey City children having healthy schools. You can send your postcard to:

Dr. Epps

Jersey City Board Of Education
346 Claremont Avenue
Jersey City NJ, 07305

Pictures from PCUE Participation at Earth Day 2008