The City Council’s Education Committee voted unanimously yesterday to pass two bills that advocates and supporters say will increase transparency from the Department of Education concerning chemicals found in school buildings. The legislation comes at a time when the DOE has faced biting criticism from parents at PS 51, the Bronx News School,  over its handling of the discovery of harmful toxins in its school earlier this year.

One bill requires the DOE to  disclose the presence of the toxin Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in schools to parents within seven days of their discovery. Another would have the DOE provide annual progress reports on its removal of PCB-laden lighting fixtures and caulking in schools.

PCBs are said to exist in hundreds of schools across the city. The DOE has said it will remove PCBs by replacing the dated lighting fixtures and removing caulking over a 10-year period. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest is suing so that the DOE removes the toxic fixtures in two years.

PCBs have been linked to cancer and damage to the reproductive system of women, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. NYPLI says exposure to PCBs during, or even years before, pregnancy can affect newborns or a child’s health. The nonprofit agency says PCBs put both students and school officials’ reproductive health at risk.

That’s not where the school toxins trouble ends for the DOE.

Last week, a group of former parents for kids at the Bronx’s PS 51, formerly housed at a building laden with toxins in Bedford Park, say they are still being shut out of talks with the DOE on how to handle a generation of kids exposed to hazardous chemicals at the school.

Now calling themselves PS 51 Parents United, the group continues to demand a medical registry and medical monitoring for current and former PS 51 students as well as ongoing communication with the DOE.

Adaline Walker-Santiago, vice chair of Community Board 7, said she still has not been informed by the DOE about the contamination despite having three kids graduate from the school, which operated in a toxic building for two decades before contaminants were discovered earlier this year. “I cannot stress how betrayed both myself and my three (now) adult children feel,” she said.

At the City Council’s hearing on the DOE’s Division of Family and Community Engagement, the group never got to present their testimony in front of Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. They’ve tried for months to arrange a meeting with Walcott, one they thought was granted after parents staged a rally at a DOE meeting in October. But the group says Walcott instead met with the current parent association and school officials.

Walcott left the hearing just before testimony from parents began. “The mere fact that the chancellor wasn’t even sitting there indicates their [lack of] interest in parental engagement,” said former PS 51 parent Isaac Kutnowsky, whose daughter attended the school from 1998 to 2004.

PS 51, also known as the Bronx New School, was abruptly moved in August after reports showed the presence of the toxin trichloroethylene, a toxin linked to cancer. The DOE had known about the contamination since January, but only began informing parents in late July.

Since then, many parents have said their kids constantly suffered headaches, nausea, and other symptoms during their time at PS 51.

Kutnowsky said his daughter’s teacher’s aide developed pancreatic and liver cancer. That aide, Rhonda Rivera, is suing the building’s previous owner because she says the exposure to TCE caused the cancer. The building had been a lamp factory before being turned into a school.

“We trusted in government and entrusted environmental safety issues to agencies such as the DOE,” Kutnowsky said. Meanwhile, he added, “The DOE kept us in the dark.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.