Newtown Resident Among IAQ Heroes Honored For Promoting Environmentally Safe Schools.

HARTFORD — The Connecticut Foundation for Environmentally Safe Schools (ConnFESS) in partnership with the Connecticut Parent Teacher Association (CTPTA) presented a press conference on October 20 in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

 Connecticut PTA President Kevin Daly introduced a new Parent Advocacy Checklist.

“Connecticut PTA has endorsed this checklist and posted it on our website [www.ctpta.org] because it helps parents to evaluate the indoor air quality [IAQ] of their children’s schools,” Mr Daly said. “It also suggests steps they can take to improve the environmental health conditions in a school facility.”

Newtown resident Joellen Lawson, president of ConnFESS, said, “The Parent Advocacy Checklist provides a roadmap to activism for future IAQ Heroes.”

At the press conference Sheila Ozalis, an attorney who lives in Newtown, was awarded the 2004 Indoor Quality Air Hero Award along with Ed Czernik and Beverlee Dacey of Easton’s 2003 School Building Committee; Fairfield Board of Education member Brenda Kupchick; Attorneys Gwen McDonald and Paulette Annon of the State Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities; State Rep Pat Widlitz; State Sen Joe Crisco as well as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

 Attorney General Blumenthal received his award for the release of the February 2004 investigative report entitled: “Investigation Concerning the Actions of the Connecticut Department of Public Health in Response to the Detection of Elevated Levels of Asbestos in Schools in Brookfield, Connecticut.” This report is available on the website: attorney.general@po.state.ct.us.  In addition to the 2004 IAQ Awards, Joellen Lawson presented two Distinguished Service Awards on behalf of ConnFESS. State Sen John McKinney of Fairfield and Rep Bob Godfrey of Danbury were selected for having established an outstanding working relationship with the board of directors and members of ConnFESS.

“Both of these legislators are exemplary role models who demonstrate how our representatives in the CT General Assembly really can make a difference in their constituents’ lives,” said Ms Lawson.

Sheila Ozalis was chosen as an IAQ Hero for her work at the Samuel Staples Elementary School in Easton that resulted in the discovery and cleanup of a variety of molds as well as the exposure and arrest of Ronald Shongar, a convicted felon and president of Microb Phase. Microb Phase was a New York mold remediation company the Easton school board hired to improve air quality at the school. He also performed work in the Newtown schools.

Mr Shongar faces federal fraud and environmental charges and was arrested this summer for spraying a mystery agent in Staples School multiple times. Federal agencies and the Easton Police are investigating together to determine whether there was criminal negligence in the maintenance of Staples, which will be replaced by a new elementary school on Morehouse Road by 2005. Teachers and students have been complaining about mold related illnesses at Staples since the mid-90s; parents have taken their children out of the school while teachers have fallen ill.

Attorney Ozalis is a partner in Smith & Ozalis, LLP. She graduated from Drew University in 1984 with a degree in chemistry and Pace University School of Law in 1987 with a law degree. In a statement responding to her award’s announcement she noted, “We made Samuel Staples Elementary School [SSES] a safer environment for the children and teachers to go to school. The majority of our committee refused to accept less than the best alternatives for making the building as safe as can be for the children and teachers. Ed Czernik, Beverlee Dacey, Peg Macaluso, Bob Moffitt, and Charlene Ashby of the School Building Committee 2003 worked tirelessly to make SSES the healthiest environment possible.”

Her comments upon receiving this award included the following: “What was right for our committee was to really examine why teachers and children were sick in Samuel Staples Elementary School and take whatever steps were right and best for the school to remediate the problems we found…We had open enemies we could see and detect such as mold, bird excrement, and carbon dioxide, but as our committee saw, there were also hidden enemies such as mold abatement companies that not only produced fabricated test data, but failed to disclose the true chemicals they were using to address the mold, both of which can had dire consequences for the children and teachers. If we have accomplished anything with our work I hope we have highlighted the necessity for all companies who abate, test, or deal in any way with mold or indoor air quality issues to be licensed and regulated by the state and federal government. Our children deserve nothing less.”