A Lesson in Recovery: The ABCs of Cleaning

Discussing a reading assignment. Planning a science experiment. Settling back into a school routine after the long summer vacation.

These were some of the things on the schedule for the fourth day of school at Intermediate School (I.S.) 89, the New York City public school in Battery Park City built in the shadow of the World Trade Center.

Instead, students spent the morning of September 11 on a terrifying field trip.

"About 80 of our middle school students were picked up by parents," recalls Principal Ellen Foote. "The other 200 kids walked with our teachers up West Side Highway to P.S. 3."

The frightening mile-and-a-half evacuation away from the burning buildings was only the first step in the school's journey to recovery.

For the next three months, while the first two floors of the five-story red brick building were occupied by emergency workers involved in the recovery effort at Ground Zero, Foote and her charges relocated to 12 rooms at a district school on West 17th Street.

"The fires (at the World Trade Center) burned until Thanksgiving," says Foote, "so there was no sense of urgency to get back before then."

But by December, students and faculty alike were eager to get back to their home school. "Our older kids especially wanted to come back here," says Foote.

The challenge for Foote and other school administrators in the Ground Zero neighborhood was balancing the desire to return to school quickly with the need to return to a safe school.

"The Board of Education's position was simple," says Matt Sapienza, deputy budget director for the Board of Education for New York City's 1,200 public schools. "We knew we had to do what was best for the students. We didn't wait to get approval from anyone. We just went in and got the schools cleaned."

Of the seven public schools near Ground Zero, two required significant work, ranging from repairing damaged roofs to fixing air-conditioning systems to replacing broken windows. Other schools, like I.S. 89, needed a major cleaning.

Funding for the post-9/11 cleanup effort was provided by FEMA's Public Assistance program, which granted $4.1 million to the New York City Board of Education for environmental cleaning in city schools and $2.9 million for air quality testing inside schools. Another $3.4 million was provided to the New York City Board for school relocation and transportation. More than $716,000 was provided for textbooks.

Foote was impressed with the thoroughness of the job at I.S. 89, which began in December and included power washing the exter- ior of the building, cleaning the ductwork throughout the school, and even replacing the dirt in the playground. Wipe samples were taken and tested to assure parents and faculty that the school environment was safe and ready for students' return.

"Returning to a clean, safe school was important for health reasons, but it was almost as important for our morale," says Foote. "We wanted to be back here and we wanted it to be safe."

With FEMA's help, students and faculty returned to the Warren Street location on January 22, 2002.

Returning students to safe schools as quickly as possible was a goal of the New York City Board of Education. According to budget-watcher Sapienza, the learning curve was steep. "Unfortunately I know more about FEMA's regulations than I ever wanted to know," he says. "Fortunately, it's gone well."

Even more fortunately, students at I.S. 89 will return to school this fall in a sparkling building.

"It's good to be back," says Foote.

Clearing the Air

In addition to cleaning New York City public schools, FEMA's Public Assistance program obligated $10 million to New York City for exterior building cleaning. Another $80 million was granted to New York City to pay for indoor residential cleaning.

The indoor clean-up plan was developed by the multi-agency Task Force of Indoor Air in Lower Manhattan created by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christie Whitman and included representatives from FEMA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and New York City.