Update Memo of  May 22nd 

First, we all want to thank those parents that attended and participated in the May 20 Town Hall meeting. We hope we were successful in openly and directly addressing the concerns and questions that were raised. 

We assembled a team of experts to be on hand to answer the questions from the floor. They were Catherine Paplin, AIA (architect), Henry Sztabinski, (contractor), Michael Parpounas (environmental engineer) and Rick Weisfeld (our newly-hired project manager). Congregation president David Kasakove opened the meeting and introduced the participants. Congregation Beth Elohim’s new executive director, Paul Basista, presented a brief slide show indicating the history of the project, the scope of work and how we’ve addressed parent concerns to date. Feedback from the audience was positive – parents expressed they felt the Congregation was taking their concerns seriously and that it was making good faith efforts to address them during the construction phase. We’ve updated the Frequently Asked Questions to capture these questions. 

Considering the deadline for school registration is June 1, the question about what work will be done in September was an important one. While we still don’t have a specific schedule, we do have a general understanding of what the contractor plans for September and October. This is reflected in the updated Construction Schedule. 

As part of our efforts to contain construction dust from infiltrating the building, the construction crews have completed a temporary wall and door at the top of the staircase to the roof and have also tarped over the two skylights. Our project manager has met with our air conditioning service company, and learned that our system does not intake outside air, but re-circulates interior air. The only air conditioning equipment on the roof is a cooling tower, which circulates water through the building in enclosed pipes. Even though the interior air has been testing well, this morning our air conditioning service company inspected and replaced the filters to the air handling unit, which is located on the second floor. This should put to rest any further concerns about the air conditioning system. 

We have been ventilating the third and fourth floor by opening the windows for four hours in the evening, and then resealing the window interiors before construction work begins the next day. Air testing since these procedures have been followed already shows a marked improvement in carbon dioxide levels. For those rooms that don’t have air conditioners, we expect that windows will be able to be opened during the day. 

In the near term, to minimize the time our scaffolding remains erected over our neighbor’s property, the contractor plans to remove the parapet wall on the east side of the building on Friday, May 30 and on Monday and Tuesday, June 2 and 3. This may create moderate noise and dust on those days and we will do what we can to contain the dust and noise to the roof area. Also during the week of June 2 the mobilization (scaffold erection) for the library will take place on Thursday, not Friday of that week. Finally, on June 16 through June 20 work on the lightwell will require scaffolding to be erected in the Ballroom, which will take it out of use during that time. The After School program will make other arrangements on those days. 

Thank you for your consideration.