Dive summary:
- Complaints about air-quality issues, methane gas leaks and the presence of other contaminants are big concerns for parents in the Richmond, Va. school district as the city approved the temporary move of a preschool to a building on a former landfill site while renovations are being made at the permanent location.
- Kimberly B. Gray of the 2nd District cast the dissenting vote, complaining that the schools administration had not given the board time to properly consider the move, School Board member Donald L. Coleman argued, "It was a crisis solution to a crisis situation."
- The landfill was built in the early 1960s, before the state began regulating landfills or dictating what to do with them when they close, there have been problems in the past with dangerous methane levels but city officials say after being closed for more than 20 years, there is no longer a health risk to students or facility.
From the article:
The reopening today of Richmond's Norrell Elementary School, six years after it was shuttered, is being met with much anticipation — and some anxiety, too.
City school officials, who are using the North Side building as a temporary home for the East End Preschool Center, say they've found a safe place for 260 Head Start and Virginia Preschool Initiative students while construction is under way at the permanent site at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. ...
