Board Weekly Update on Environmental Issues: Week ending Friday, December 20, 2013

Environmental Issues:
Malibu HS vacated classrooms

Priority was placed on arranging for the EPA’s recommended best management practices for cleaning and for air/wipe testing of Blue Building, the Library, the Music Rooms and gym office of Malibu High School, with the goal of returning teachers and students to the vacated rooms as quickly as possible once the rooms have been cleaned using the advised best management practices. The sequence for this process is to be: pre-cleaning sample testing, followed by best management practices cleaning, followed by post-cleaning sample testing in order to be thorough and to build trust. Teachers will be allowed to determine if moving back to their vacated rooms is best for both students and instruction.

District worked closely with the EPA to obtain approval both for the best management practices cleaning and for the air and wipe sampling and testing. Proposal was submitted on December 19 and approved December 20.

With EPA’s approval, this process timeline for the cleaning and testing on MHS is to be as follows:

1. Pre-cleaning air testing of eleven rooms that had either not been tested preliminarily or hadbeen tested and the preliminary results did not indicate excessive levels of PCBs. These rooms are: 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 16, 302, 303, the faculty office adjacent to the girls’ locker room and the storage closet adjacent to Room 1.
   1. Date to be conducted: December 21 and December 22
   2. Date test analysis anticipated to be completed: January 3
2. EPA-approved professional best management practices cleaning of the all rooms in the BlueBuilding, the Library, the Music Rooms and gym office.

a. Date to be conducted : Begins December 23, 2013 and concludes January 5, 2014

3. Verification air/wipe testing of five impacted rooms (tested high for PCBs: rooms 1, 5, 8, 303 and the Library) after best management practices.
   1. Date to be conducted: After best management practices, by January 5, 2014
   2. Date test analysis anticipated to be completed: January 14
4. Post-cleaning air testing of thirteen remaining rooms (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16, 302, 303, thefaculty office adjacent to the girls’ locker room and the storage closet adjacent to Room 1).
   1. Date to be conducted: January 3 through January 5
   2. Date test analysis anticipated to be completed : January 14, 2014
5. Custodial cleaning of vacated rooms

a. Date to be conducted: January 6

6. Teachers given option to move back into vacated classrooms beginning Monday, January 6, 2014.

The companies engaged for this phase are:

•   National Response Corporation of Long Beach – professional environment cleaning service.References checked and approved by EPA.
•   The Phylmar Group – environmental air and wipe testing (same group that conductedpreliminary air testing)
  Constituent communications regarding this plan were sent on Thursday, December 19. You received it in advance of the community and it will be posted on the website.

Environmental Engineering Firm selection

The deadline for submission to the District’s RFQ was December 20, 2013. The RFQ was sent to five potential respondents. The responding companies’ documents are being reviewed and screened in preparation for the interviews that are to take place in January.

Malibu Schools Environmental Task Force

A meeting of the Task Force took place on Thursday morning, December 19. In addition to me, Mark Elliott, the District’s environmental legal counsel, attended. The task force reviewed the elements of the communication prior to me sending it out and discussed the advantages/disadvantages of testing rooms not previously tested in Building E and the Mako building. John Sibert and Lisa Lambert will serve on the Environmental Engineering Firm interview panel.