TIONESTA, Pa. (EYT) — As a result of an unidentified odor at West Forest School, it will remain closed on Thursday, March 9, and Friday, March 10.
Elementary classes will be cancelled on Thursday and Friday. High school students will be educated at East Forest High School the remainder of the week.
The staff at West Forest Elementary School has been trying to identify the source of an unusual odor since Monday, March 6.
On Monday, the source of the odor was thought to be in the boiler room.
On Tuesday, the administration planned a two-hour delay to allow ample time for the boiler repairs to be made.
School was closed at the elementary on Wednesday as there continued to be an odor in the building.
West Forest School will be cancelled for the remainder of the week pending the results of air quality testing.
Elementary students will stay home, and high school students will be transported to East Forest High School on Thursday and Friday.
Forest Area School District Superintendent Amanda Hetrick issued the following statement on Wednesday, March 8, regarding the West Forest Elementary School:
West Forest Elementary Staff have been working for the past couple of days to identify an unusual odor. On Monday, when staff arrived at school, the pumps that feed the boilers were switched off. This problem was resolved quickly and the heat came back on. Mid-morning an odor was reported as coming from the boiler room. When the issue was first reported, we confirmed that the alarm in the boiler room, which alerts for carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, propane and natural gas was working properly and none of those gasses were present. We contacted the furnace repairmen. We opened the external door and the smell dissipated almost immediately. The initial investigation led us to believe that the odor was a result of an issue with the pumps over the weekend and that the restarting of equipment was the source of the smell.
It was around 2:00 when the odor was reported again in the area around and above the boiler room. The furnace repairmen were on-site by then and checked the classrooms throughout the building for the presence of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, natural gas and other contaminants. No presence of any of these substances was detectable even in the boiler room where the odor originated.
Because of our concerns about student safety, we planned for a two hour delay on Tuesday to allow time for boiler repairs with the option to cancel school if the repairmen were not able to fix the furnace. Since the ambient air was fairly warm on Tuesday, we also knew that we would be able to simply shut down the boilers while students were in the building if the boilers could not be repaired in time for school to start.
On Tuesday morning, during the school delay, the repairman replaced the regulators on two of the boilers. The repairmen were confident that the issue had been resolved as the furnaces were running, there were no odors, and all equipment checks indicated proper functioning. About an hour after the boilers were reactivated, the odor was reported again. At this time, the boilers were immediately shut down and were off for the rest of the day. The repairmen returned and continued to work, but were unable to find an explanation for the odor.
At this time, we are uncertain of what else might be causing the odor. We are trying to come at the problem from multiple angles and have several experts on-site today to consider multiple factors that could be the source of an unexplained odor.
Since the state requires only 900 hours of instruction for elementary students as opposed to the 990 hours for secondary students, we were able to cancel elementary classes for today and utilize Act 80 (professional development) time for the elementary teaching staff. West Forest High school students are being educated at East Forest for today.
