SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — Borough council members informed the Slippery Rock Area School District that they have received various complaints surrounding the district’s high school renovation project, including from 34 students who have been in and around the school’s band room.

Council members Alex Franco-Tuten and Jennifer Ravert were at the school board’s meeting Monday, Nov. 11, to express concerns over several issues with the building, as well as numerous health symptoms students have dealt with.

The big problem, according to Franco-Tuten, was that there has not been any air-quality testing done at the building.

Franco-Tuten told the Butler Eagle that she had parents come to her out of concern about asbestos in different parts of the school, and construction going on around it could cause it to spread in the absence of air-quality testing. Parents were worried about the air students were breathing, she said.

“I’m just looking for what the plan is moving forward,” Ravert said at the board meeting, with concern over safety for faculty, staff and students who may have respiratory issues.

Franco-Tuten, who also works as a substitute teacher, said she later came to find out that students in the band room were constantly going to the nurse’s office with different symptoms and having asthma attacks.

She showed confirmation from 34 students, as well as their parents, who have been in or around the band room and an English room just above it who have experienced symptoms, including headaches, nausea, allergies, dizziness and feeling light-headed.

She said ongoing issues within the building include lack of air-quality testing during the renovations, falling drywall in front of students’ lockers, bundles of exposed wires within students’ reach, unusual smells, lack of heating throughout parts of the building and large accumulations of dust. These are exacerbated by asbestos found in the school, she said.

Over the summer, hallway ceiling panels throughout the school were removed, and much of it remains that way.

Jeff Campbell, borough council president, works for the Moniteau School District. Franco-Tuten said Campbell noted at a borough council meeting that when past construction happened at Moniteau, they had air-quality testing every day.

“We are excited about the renovations being done to the school, and the time and effort the members of the school board have put in to make them possible. And ultimately, we all hope that there is nothing to be concerned about,” Franco-Tuten said at the board meeting Monday. “We also all understand that with the construction, there will be some inconveniences, but the health and safety of our students, teachers and staff cannot be one of them.”

Franco-Tuten said parents who were in the dark were gradually discovering the issues over Facebook.

“That’s where we are and where I am, because individual families that have been reaching out to the administration, to the superintendent, were not really getting any movement,” Franco-Tuten told the Butler Eagle. “And they came to us. And our borough president said ‘you need to go to the school board,’ and if they don’t listen, you need to go to the media.”

Superintendent Alfonso Angelucci’s office and district administration could not be reached for comment Tuesday. On Wednesday, Angelucci told the Butler Eagle that the district did get a parent compliant about the possibility of air quality being compromised due to the renovation, and that upon that he had several interactions with that particular parent, and the board was aware.

The board then made the decision to put the issue on the school board agenda. Air quality testing will take place over the next couple weeks, and Angelucci added the school district has a contract with a company to do that.

Angelucci emphasized that the school offices and nurses did not receive reports of any pattern of symptoms reported by students other than regular cold and flu season symptoms, and did not see a pattern of symptoms that may have related to poor air quality.

“Our school community has been extremely supportive and patient as we undergo this project. They understand there will be inconveniences, and we are doing our best to minimize inconveniences moving forward,” Angelucci said.

Franco-Tuten expressed that school board member Mark Taylor, clerk of works, and the rest of the school board were unaware of any ongoing issues. She said Taylor told her he would look into any ongoing issues regarding the air and smell in and around the band room.

“We just want to make sure that everything is up to code, that everything is safe, and that the quality is good. There’s a lot of dust, we want to make sure the quality of the air is not going to exacerbate any respiratory issues,” Franco-Tuten said.

The school board did approve just over $6,000 for necessary monitoring equipment at its Monday evening meeting to do air-quality testing. Taylor told Franco-Tuten after the meeting that there would be weekly tests made public moving forward, and that he would think about putting weekly reports on the school website to inform families where construction is happening and any important updates.

This story was updated at 1 p.m.Nov. 13 to reflect a comment and quote from the school district superintendent Alfonso Angelucci. A previous version of this story ran prior to Angelucci having the opportunity to comment on the story.