October 11, 2013 Message from the Superintendent Santa Monica Malibu Unified School Contact: Sandra Lyon, (310) 450-8338 Update on the Malibu High School Environmental Testing Action Plan and Timeline The District is taking swift and aggressive steps to implement an environmental testing plan intended to answer the school community’s questions and concerns regarding Malibu High School. The health and safety of all occupants of our facilities is paramount and our action plan will be both through and transparent in resolving the issues identified. Below we have outlined action that has been completed and the immediate next steps. Independent, Experienced Environmental Health and Safety Firm Retained – Because many of the issues identified are outside the expertise of District personnel, we have engaged an independent, experienced environmental health and safety firm to the take the lead role in the investigation. Effective immediately, we have retained Mark Katchen, from the Phylmar Group, to assume the lead role in identification, analysis, implementation and recommendations for all testing required at the facilities. His impressive credentials and experience with private and public organizations, including schools, will help guide the District and ensure all necessary tests are identified and implemented in order to respond to the issues raised by the community. Mark Katchen is an expert in industrial hygiene, toxicology, occupational health, risk communication and e-commerce. He received his B.A. in Psychobiology from UCLA, M.S. in Environmental and Occupational Health from California State University, Northridge, and M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University. Mr. Katchen has more than 25 years of experience in occupational and environmental exposure assessment in such industries as petrochemical, agriculture, mining, utilities and automotive. Additionally, he is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a State of California Registered Environmental Assessor. Mr. Katchen is an instructor at the UCLA School of Public Health-National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Southern California Research Center as well as serving on the California State University, Northridge Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Advisory Board. Mr. Katchen is a frequent lecturer to business and academic groups on environmental risk assessment, management, and communication, and is the author of several published technical and business-related articles. Task Force Created to Ensure Inclusive Process • The District is committed to transparency in the investigation and resolution of the issues identified. To this end, with the assistance of our Community Liaison Elaine Rene-Weissman, we are creating a task force comprised of community leaders, which will facilitate the identification and resolution of community concerns. The task force will meet regularly with Mark Katchen to understand the action plan, bring forth the community’s concerns and help communicate with the school community the details of our timeline. The task force’s overarching goal is to demonstrate the District’s commitment to transparency and to make certain that representatives from key school community groups have an established place to meet, share their concerns, gather information and facts and ensure that the process meets the community’s expectation. We thank all of those who have already agreed to serving on this task force. Representative groups include: teachers: Lisa Lambert and Soniya Perl, Malibu High School Nancy Levy, Juan Cabrillo Elementary School classified staff: to be confirmed student: Michael Jacobson, MHS parents: Seth Jacobson and Heather Anderson city official: to be confirmed community liaison: Elaine Rene-Weissman The first meeting of the task force is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 17, time and location to be announced. • Mark Katchen will prepare the meeting schedule, which will be posted to the District website. The location of these meetings will likely alternate between the District and school site. • On Monday, October 14th, and Tuesday, October 15th, Mark will be on site at Malibu High School and Juan Cabrillo Elementary School to conduct a walkthrough of the campuses and to speak with staff. This will aid in gathering information that will be used to formulate an evaluation plan. We understand this site visit is the first step in developing a comprehensive approach to resolving the issues identified by the community. We are also consulting with the following experts as we develop our assessment and action plan: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health – Dr. Cyrus Rangan, M.D., Director, Toxics Epidemiology Program, Department of Public Health University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine –Dr. Wendy Cozen, MPH, DO, medical epidemiologist for the USC Cancer Surveillance Program with expertise in the areas of cancer surveillance, nosology and cancer cluster analysis. An FAQ is currently being developed and will be posted to the website. Please submit questions to Ms. Elaine Rene-Weissman or to Ms. Sandra Lyon at [email protected]. Test Results • We have received preliminary results for the mold testing that was performed on September 20, 2013, and October 4, 2013, based on teachers’ initial requests regarding concerns about their health and room environment. These results are for classrooms 2, 3, 10, and 14. According to our consultant who performed the sampling, the results are similar to levels found outdoors with no unusual findings. The measured levels coupled with field observations do not suggest a hidden source of mold. The building can continue to be occupied and should not pose a health hazard from a mold standpoint. We expect the final report to be issued by October 18, 2013. The final mold testing report will be posted to the website: fipcontractors.smmusd.org/malIbu-community-outreach.aspx. • On May 19, 2011 the Board of Education authorized the award of the Soil Remediation Project which included the work as prescribed by the Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment 2009, the Preliminary Environmental Assessment 2010, and the Removal Action Workplan 2010 prepared by both the Senior Toxicologist and Principal Hydrogeologist/Registered Environmental Assessor with LRF/Arcadis. The above reports, and the Removal Action Completion report from 2012, are posted on the website. • We encourage members of the community to submit their questions and concerns to Ms. Rene-Weissman and to my office so these points can be considered by the task force when it convenes next week.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 03:22:59 +0000
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