Democrat and Chronicle, September 11, 2009, Friday

Democrat and Chronicle

September 11, 2009, Friday

Democrat and Chronicle

School unions worried about 'not safe' site

Nestor Ramos
Staff writer

Teachers and other Rochester School District employees are challenging the district's decision to make them work in a former factory recently declared a brownfield.

The building at 690 St. Paul St., for decades a Bausch & Lomb facility, was once scheduled to house students. But environmental questions led to those plans being scrapped, and now four employee unions say adults shouldn't work there either.

Last month, the Rochester Teachers Association filed a grievance with the district, the association president, Adam Urbanski, said. The complaint is supported by three other school employee unions, at least one of which also filed a grievance.

District spokesman Tom Petronio was unable to confirm that the school district had received the grievance as of Thursday. But copies of letters sent to the district's labor relations administrator obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle contained requests for a grievance. The letters were dated Aug. 24 and 27.

"If the site is not safe enough for students, it's also not safe enough for adults," Urbanski said in an e-mail "And if (Superintendent Jean-Claude) Brizard insists that it is safe, he and his Central Office bureaucrats should move there themselves."

The district last year leased the property for 15 years for nearly $1 million annually, planning to house the new Dr. Walter Cooper Academy and School 14 there this fall. But those plans were scrapped following revelations the building's owner, Genesee Valley Real Estate Co., had applied to the state brownfield program for tax credits to clean up the site.

Instead, the district moved students to the former School 37 building on Congress Avenue and moved teachers, administrators and other employees in.

Brizard issued a statement saying the building was safe.

"The New York State DEC and Department of Health have repeatedly confirmed that the air quality at 690 St. Paul Street is safe. We have provided our employees information about the air quality testing that's been done and who to contact from the state if they want more information. We have been completely upfront about the building and the fact that it remains safe. We are confident that it is a safe and appropriate place for our employees to work."

The site is now home to several programs, including the Student Placement Center, the Committees on Special Education, the Rochester Teacher Center and the Homeless Students Support Center.

"I'm hoping that they will find an alternative location, the same way they found an alternative location for the school," said Dan DiClemente, president of the Board of Education Non-Teaching Employees union, which DiClemente said also filed a grievance.

"Some of the workers in the building are personally concerned," DiClemente said. Others fear that they could be moved there.

The administrators union, ASAR, and the paraprofessionals union, RAP, also oppose having employees at the site.

Urbanski said he'd asked the state teachers union to look into the possibility of an injunction against the district.

Nellie Brown, a certified industrial hygienist and director of Workplace Health & Safety Programs at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said that her review of the plans and available data for the site raised some questions that she said should be answered by continued monitoring.

"There are some unknowns to be addressed," Brown said. "We're at an early stage here, but we're getting the right information to make good decisions."

Brown said air quality testing revealed "very low" levels of dangerous chemicals, but that the real problems could come later, during site cleanup.

"The data may very well suggest that that's not a good time for occupancy," Brown said. "We just don't know at this point yet, but the sampling should be able to provide a very good picture."

NRAMOS@DemocratandChronicle.com