Marblehead Coffin School kids return to school after CO leak – News – Marblehead Reporter

Firefighter on site monitoring air quality

“I’m a little nervous,” said Marblehead mom Nesma Sleem as she dropped her child at the Coffin School Monday morning, after a carbon monoxide leak closed the school Friday and sent two men to the hospital.

The CO leak was caused by a broken fan belt in one of the school’s two boilers. Coffin’s hardwired CO detector system failed. Facilities Director Todd Bloodgood discovered the leak when he found a custodian and maintenance worker feeling sick in the boiler room.

The boiler was repaired on Friday and CO levels returned to normal by the end of the day. The two workers were treated and released at a Boston hospital.

However, American Service Company, which repairs the CO detector system, could not come to the school until Monday. As a precaution, Fire Chief Jason Gilliland sent a firefighter with a multi-gas reader to the school, where he’ll remain checking levels until the system is fully operational.

“It’s very high-tech,” Gilliland said. “We have them on all our trucks.”

Interim Superintendent Bill McAlduff stood outside the Coffin School Monday morning, along with Principal Sean Satterfield.

“I’m completely confident that the building is safe from carbon monoxide,” McAlduff said. He met later in the morning with principals from all the schools in town.

Glenn Cook, bringing his child to Coffin on Monday, wasn’t worried at all.

“This is the best option,” he said. “The fire department is here with test equipment. They’re the experts.”

Dangerous Levels

At a meeting with anxious parents Friday evening, McAlduff laid out the timeline of the day’s events at Coffin, which serves 224 students.

At about 7:15 a.m., a fan belt in one of the school’s two boilers broke, causing dangerous levels of CO (300 parts per million) to fill the boiler room. Levels in the rest of the school were about 50 parts per million.

Luckily, the leak happened before students had entered the building. Only one teacher and one student were in the school at the time.

Outside, students and their parents arriving for the school day were sent home, but with little information. Unaccompanied students were loaded onto a bus to keep warm, and ultimately transferred to the Eveleth School. Their parents were contacted and told to pick up their children.

Communication Challenges

“I’m mildly horrified,” mom Kristen Pratt said at the parent meeting.

Many parents were angry about the timing of communication from the school department.

McAlduff sent the first email about the leak around 10 a.m., well after the news had spread across social media.

“You lost a lot of trust today,” Pratt added. “It’s sort of staggering.”

McAlduff admitted that mistakes in communication were made.

“I apologize to those who felt the communication was too slow,” he said. “Our priority is always the safety of our students and staff.”

Parents complained that there aren’t better protocols in place for communicating with families in emergencies.

Dad Steve London asked why the school department didn’t send out an emergency call to families (similar to ones sent on snow days).

“You’re absolutely right,” admitted McAlduff. “We will make sure we do better.” He promised parents that he’d be working on the issue, empowering more school administrators and even teachers to send system-wide alerts during emergencies.

He also said the school department would look into using social media platforms – like Facebook and Twitter – to keep parents up to date on events as they’re happening. Parents also suggested the school department consider apps that send parents text messages about emergencies.

Detectors in the Schools

CO detectors are not required by law in schools in Massachusetts. However, the Coffin, Glover, Village, and Veterans Schools all have hard-wired CO detectors, but not in their boiler rooms.

At Marblehead High and the Eveleth School, there are detectors in boiler rooms, but not in the rest of those buildings.

Gilliland said he’d like to see all schools have hard-wired systems.

Some parents asked if the schools could install back-up, battery-powered detectors.

“People are even joking about putting monitors in our kids’ backpacks,” Pratt said.

Up Next

The School Committee will meet Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m., at Marblehead High School, and Chairman Sarah Gold said she’ll be adding the CO scare and communication challenges to the agenda.

“What we hope will come out of this is better preparedness across the district,” Gold said.