Cleanup, Safety Worries Persist Months After Ceiling Collapse At New Rochelle School
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A heavy plaster ceiling fell earlier this year in a classroom in New Rochelle – in the exact spot where dozens of children normally sit.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported, the school district was scrambling to eliminate the problem months later, as a fight continued over who would foot the bill.
Daniel Webster Elementary School in New Rochelle is a tangle of open ceilings and construction clutter. It has been a work zone ever since inspectors made an awful discovery this past August.
"We averted a tragedy -- to think that our babies could've been in the room," said school PTA president Su Yen Taylor.
Staffers at the school back in August were looking for problems, but nobody expected what they found when they took a look inside in Room 204.
"It was shocking," said architect Peter Wintermantel. "It took kind of a couple of seconds to understand what we were looking at."
The lathe and plaster ceiling had peeled away from the concrete above, and slammed hard onto the desks where third graders would have been sitting on a school day.
Years of water leaks had aggravated a small design error made 85 years ago.
"They didn't use the right size fasteners. The fasteners were not in any consistent pattern," said New Rochelle Schools Assistant Supt. Jeff White. "Nobody knew it. It was in the plaster."
The new school superintendent was still shell-shocked Monday night.
"We find it totally appalling," said New Rochelle Schools Supt. Brian Osborne. "It could have been disastrous -- especially if students had been in the building."
Now, voters have been asked to approve a $50 million bond issue to catch up on systemwide deferred maintenance.
Some, though, think the system that allowed the near-disaster needs to be addressed before the district gets more money.
"I'm sure they want the money, and we'd like to see them have the money," said anti-bond issue activist Robert Cox. "But we'd like to see the reforms first."
The vote on the bond issue takes place Tuesday, and the district warned that if it did not get the money, surprises could lie ahead.
Students, meanwhile, will be back under renovated ceilings at Daniel Webster School in January after the holiday break.