Philadelphia teachers union says district’s poor oversight led to Kensington High asbestos closure

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Philadelphia’s teachers union is accusing the school district of poor oversight of an HVAC renovation project at Kensington High School that will force over 400 students to relocate for the first half of the school year.

A contractor not authorized to safely remove asbestos disturbed the cancer-causing fibers in multiple places throughout the Kensington High School building this summer, Arthur Steinberg, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president, and the union’s director of environmental science, Jerry Roseman, told reporters Monday.

The district initially discovered the issue July 13 and planned to bring staff back into the building on Aug. 17, Steinberg said. But it became clear the district would not be able to resolve the issue in time, he said. The district announced to the Kensington High School community last week that students would relocate to the former Austin Meehan Middle School building.

Steinberg said the teachers union thought the reopening timeline was “unrealistic all along,” and said if the district had told students and teachers they’d need to relocate sooner, they would have had more time to plan.

“[Teachers are] angry at what they feel was a lack of proper communication,” he said. “They wouldn’t have to scramble like they do now.”

The district suspects that a third-party contractor improperly removed asbestos-containing material during a demolition phase of an HVAC upgrade project, said district spokesperson Naima DeBrest in a written statement Monday evening. She said the situation was different than past instances of school closures due to asbestos damage.

“The District immediately and transparently prioritized the health and safety of workers and stopped the project to assess the scope of the potential lapses,” DeBrest wrote. “The subcontractor was removed from the job and has no other work with the District.”

Deputy Superintendent of Operations Oz Hill wrote in a letter to the Kensington High School community Thursday that the installation of a new HVAC system at the school was stopped after an asbestos inspector “identified a concern about demolishing the old system.” He said that students would remain at Meehan until January.

“We know this is disappointing news, but the health and safety of our students, staff, and workers is our first priority,” he wrote.

Teachers union says poor oversight from district a ‘systemic problem’

Kensington High School was built in 1917. Roseman, who works for the union as a facilities expert, said he visited the school this summer and spoke with people working onsite. Roseman said he learned the building contains asbestos pipe insulation. He said asbestos-containing material needs to be identified and safely moved out of the way so that contractors can perform other renovation work.

“That kind of dance is not simple, but is straightforward,” he said. “We know how to do that. The district missed something in that.”

Steinberg and Roseman said after the issue was identified and communicated to the union, the union raised concerns about inadequate oversight. They said the union pushed the district to add an additional environmental monitor to oversee remediation and agree to remove all asbestos in the building before allowing students and teachers to return.

“This highlights a systemic problem we’ve talked about with facilities to begin with,” Steinberg said. “This is a repeat of the playbook we’ve had at other schools. Was it the contractor’s fault for breaking into the area first? Or does the responsibility lay with the person who was performing the oversight? I don’t know. But the bottom line is the asbestos was disturbed.”

Steinberg pointed to Benjamin Franklin High School, where the school district’s independent Office of the Inspector General found that an artificially compressed construction timeline led district officials to ignore warning signs in a bungled construction project during the 2018-2019 school year, during which exposed asbestos was found at the school.

Last year, the School District of Philadelphia was the first in the country to be criminally charged over its violation of federal asbestos management law, which federal prosecutors described as “knowing and willful.”

DeBrest said Monday that the district is currently on time with its regular asbestos inspections and related reports in 300 schools.

Critics say relocation will be a ‘hardship’ for students

In a statement Friday, Philadelphia City Councilmember Mike Driscoll, who represents the area where Meehan is located, called the district’s decision to relocate Kensington High School students to the building “rushed” and called on the district to find an alternative “that works for the community.”

“Moving students to the vacant Austin Meehan school would create a substantial hardship for students, families and staff, requiring them to travel eight miles from the Kensington High School community while raising concerns about transportation, congestion and the impact on the surrounding community,” he said.

Steinberg said the relocation to Meehan, a roughly 20-minute drive or hour-long commute by transit from Kensington High School, will be “a disruption for everybody.”

“You have to go further,” he said. “You may get out earlier, get out later. You may have kids that are responsible for getting younger siblings to and from school. This is going to impact that as well.”