To Our Fellow Families at Crestview Heights,

Lincoln County School District (LCSD) has offered to partner with a small group of parents to conduct research and encourage further discussion about the recent concerns about air quality at Crestview Heights School (CVH). This is an opportunity for LCSD and parents to connect and work together. We anticipate great things to come from this collaboration, including education, understanding, and plans for the future. Several parents have volunteered their time to this project, we are excited to begin our work to help ensure a safe and happy environment for our children and community.

On Wednesday, April 24th this group of parents gathered to get started! Our set of tasks is constantly growing at this early point in our organization, at this point, our action items from the last meeting were:

Choose and contact an outside environmental testing agency to study our school’s air quality. LCSD suggested that another outside environmental testing agency be selected to conduct an independent study of the air quality at CVH. After discussion, we all felt strongly that this selection should be made by the parent group. Our selection has been made, and we will be contacting G2 Consultants from Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Observe the OSHA inspection of the boilers at Crestview Heights and Waldport High School. On Thursday, April 25, 2019 and Friday, April 26, 2019, representatives from our group were present for the inspection process by OSHA, at their request. Our representatives reported that the process was extremely transparent and informative, and that the inspection itself was thorough. We want to share with you that both OSHA and LCSD welcomed our presence.

Communicate our purpose and introduce ourselves to our community. We are a group of CVH families. Our purpose is to work in collaboration with LCSD and CVH staff to research and study reliable information in order to establish facts regarding the concerns surrounding CVH, and communicate that information to the community. By working together with LCSD and CVH we feel that we can help gather and share information, assist in finding solutions, and ultimately help ensure that CVH is a safe and happy environment for the children in our community. We are pleased to be thought of and supported by all involved.

Conduct research to establish a baseline carboxyhemoglobin level for this area. One of our goals is to help define what a realistic baseline carboxyhemoglobin level might be given the many variables we encounter in our daily lives (e.g. car exhaust fumes, campfires, lawnmowers, poorly running vehicles in parking lots we walk across, etc.) This task will require the collaboration of many agencies and hours of research. So far our understanding is that to come up with a baseline is very difficult, as our bodies are constantly fighting to keep oxygen saturation at a healthy level and we encounter several sources of carbon monoxide and other toxins each day. We will keep you updated about our efforts and what we are able to discover.

Communicate with Crestview Heights School regarding various “smells” in the building. Students and staff are extra sensitive to smells in the building right now, reporting everything to the Office. We are asking for a log to be kept, or continued, with the investigated cause noted. For example: “Smell reported in Hall A by student at [time]. Investigation concluded it was burned popcorn in the staff room. Signed [staff member].” By understanding the smells that are reported we can help address concerns and better educate the community on what is happening at CVH.

Request results from the mold testing conducted since April 16th. This request has been made and we are happy to share that  LCSD was open and willing to disclose the results as soon as they become available.

If you would like to contact us, please send an email to cvhparentgroup@gmail.com. Thank you for your support as we move forward.

Sincerely,
CVH Parent Group
Chris Carlson, Chair