School District Completes Air Quality Project at Nassakeag

After receiving complaints of a unpleasant smell in two classrooms at , maintenance workers in the Three Village Central School District utilized in-house resources to help remediate the situation and save the district thousands of dollars.

Ken Gray, director of maintenance and operations, described the smell in rooms 26 and 28 as a stale odor, though not a "make-your-eyes-water kind of bad."

School maintenance workers eliminated the odor by demolishing old wooden shelving, countertops, and cubbies, then building new ones and repainting the rooms. Crews also replaced a sink and water fountain that was found to have extensive damage underneath.

The renovations came with a total price tag of $9,012.04 for both classrooms.

During the 2011-12 school year, similar renovations were made in one classroom at Nassakeag by an outside contractor, whom the district paid $9,482 for the work.

Gray said the in-house work saved the district thousands of dollars and praised his crew for showing versatility and skill in solving the problem.

"It’s a win-win," he said. "You get to save money, they get to showcase what they can do. They’re very proud of what they did."

While the crew worked to refurbish the classrooms, extensive termite damage in the wooden structures was revealed, though no active colony was found.

Students were relocated to different classrooms while the work was performed with no disruption to instruction.

"It looks fantastic," Gray said. "It's fresh, it's crisp, it's nice."

School board vice president Jonathan Kornreich lauded Gray's crew at the Feb. 14 school board meeting.

"You showed some creativity and initiative doing this in-house," Kornreich said.