Slated to reopen Thursday after county health department mandated Wednesday closure
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
EAST FALLOWFIELD — East Fallowfield Elementary School is scheduled to reopen Thursday morning, after a failed water pump closed the school Wednesday — but a number of the school’s parents expressed anger over the district’s handling of the matter.
The pump broke at about 12:45 p.m. Monday, the first day of the new school year, cutting off the water supply to the school, which was built in 1939. Water service was restored to the building Tuesday evening, but too late to allow the school to open, Wednesday.
Some school parents expressed both concern and frustration that the school was allowed to remain open Tuesday with no water and limited bathroom facilities and complained to the Chester County Department of Health.
“Upon contacting the administration, they brushed me off and refused to answer questions,” said Erica Risser, whose children attend the school. “Today (Tuesday), they still opened while there was no running water, and only opened one set of restrooms for 400+ faculty and students to use. They also continued to serve hot lunch while food handlers and preparers clearly did not have the opportunity to wash their hands before serving.”
Both the county Health Department and the state Department of Environmental Protection have approved the building’s reopening for Thursday, but as a precaution, water will be boiled, until full water quality test results are back, expected before the building reopens after the holiday, next Tuesday. All Coatesville Area School District schools are closed Friday and Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
District officials said Wednesday that appropriate precautions had been taken to ensure the health and safety of students and staff in the building. Assistant Superintendent of Schools Dr. Angelo Romaniello Jr. said that potable water had been brought in, and bottled water and disposable plates and utensils for food service were used Tuesday. Food service personnel did have the ability to wash their hands before serving food, he said.
County Health inspectors set a 5 p.m. deadline for water service to be reestablished to the building or they would not allow it to reopen Wednesday. Romaniello said water service was restored at about 7:30 p.m.
A number of parents — who contacted The Times directly Tuesday — expressed frustration at what they termed poor communication from the district, noting that no communication about the events of Monday were communicated to parents. They cited the fact that more than 400 students and staff were left in the building for a number of hours Monday with no toilet facilities.
Romaniello said that the district’s messaging system was used to alert parents and that all students were sent home with written notices Tuesday outlining the situation.
Echoing many of the other complaints of parents, another parent, Kelly A. Kelly, said she found it difficult to believe that a building would suffer such a failure on the first day of school and questioned whether the summer-long building maintenance work was as thorough as it should have been.
“What I want to know is why infrastructure issues were not addressed during the 11-week summer vacation,” Kelly said.
If only The Coatesville Times had contacted the Board of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection for quotes; they would have told a VERY different story than Mr. Romaniello.
Well, we actually did contact the Chester County Department of Health and got very little information beyond confirming the timeline. While we certainly had numerous parent reports of a more contentious encounter between school and county health officials, the district denied it and county health would not confirm it (and largely did not respond). As a parent myself, I understand the frustration, but we cannot report what we cannot confirm.
I understand that you can’t report what cannot be confirmed, but shouldn’t the article state that the Chester County Board of Health declined to comment? As it stands, it appears as though you never contacted them at all, and in turn, makes it seem as though you weren’t being thorough.
Well, again, they didn’t decline to comment, but merely confirmed the basic facts — that they insisted on the school closing on Wednesday and that they did inspect after complaints.
Alright, well thank you for your time.