By Jarret Liotta

WESTPORT — Hoping to stay ahead of moisture and mold issues at Long Lots School, the Board of Education unanimously approved suspension of its procurement process policy Monday night in order to expedite a building envelope and overall systems study at the school.

Without entertaining other bids, the district will allocate $35,700 to pay Colliers International to do a “holistic assessment” of the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems and the overall building shell before moving forward with replacement of windows and a steam boiler, in order to see if more items or work is necessary to stem air-quality issues.

For years Long Lots, which was originally a junior high school, has been cited as having issues with mold and moisture, particularly near the auditorium on the lower level of the building.

After Coleytown Middle School was closed in September, 2018, for extensive renovations following discoveries of rampant mold and water damage, more focus was put on LLS, with a number of parents publicly expressing concerns.

“Coleytown was way, way worse,” said board member Lee Goldstein, who previously served as the PTA co-president for CMS during the emergency.

She stressed that LLS was not comparable to CMS, “as someone who was in Coleytown at the worst of it.”

Still, in response to concerns from members of the school’s Tools for Schools committee regarding humidity in the building, the board recently conducted “a comprehensive air analysis,” according to Thomas Scarice, superintendent of schools.

The study found that two locations — the auditorium and Room 9 — have “marginally elevated levels” of aspergillus and/or penicillium — two common, nearly interchangeable molds found in air samples.

By comparison, Scarice said studies found that CMS had high levels of “Asp/Pen” in 63 different locations prior to that renovation.

Remediation of these, he said, will be addressed immediately “through a protocol developed by Langan Engineering and Colliers International.”

In October, 2019, the BOE received a commissioned facilities assessment report by consultant Antinozzi Associates, which outlined a $96-million 10-year schedule of repairs to LLS and the six other schools besides CMS.

“It never looked at the school holistically,” Joe Nader, one of the parent representatives to Long Lots’ Tools for Schools committee, said of the report.

He called the high levels of humidity at LLS “really troubling,” expressing concern that the air conditioning system may not adequately be removing moisture in the building.

Scarice said that Colliers would put “fresh eyes” on the Antinozzi Report, explaining that an “immediate full-envelope evaluation” of the building would be done concurrently with a look at the various systems.

“The idea of a more holistic approach to the building, I think, makes a lot of sense,” Chair Candice Savin said.

“Getting to know our building at a very intimate level could be very helpful for the board,” Scarice said, stressing that the decision to waive the procurement process policy — which centers on collecting bids for items over $25,000 — was not to be taken lightly.

“The Board of Finance has been very supportive of expediting this,” board member Elaine Whitney said, calling it a proactive approach.

She said that this new study would enable them to be more clear with the financiers exactly what “soft costs” could be expected at LLS.

“I appreciate that we need to get our arms around it. I appreciate that we need to do it quickly,” Goldstein said, but she stressed that waiving the policy needs to be considered a one-time exception.

Board member Youn Su Chao commended the LLS Tools for Schools committee for flagging the issue, but said the group shouldn’t be the only entity gathering data on such a topic.

Scarice said, however, that the nature of the committee is such that all staff members — as well as parents — are part of it and should be bringing matters to the attention of school administrators and the district facilities department, which are responsible for moving things forward.