As part of Shaler Area School District’s commitment to providing a safe and healthy environment for all students, staff and faculty, we have been monitoring the air quality in all of the District buildings and recently completed a number of remediation measures to ensure that goal.

Over winter break, the District contracted with Latosky Inspection & Environmental Services, LLC, of Clearfield County, to complete close to 500 radon tests divided between all eight District buildings. We elected to complete the testing during the winter break because it provided a “worst case scenario” environment for measurements — the buildings were closed, had limited to no staff access and little air circulation

Following the initial air quality tests completed in December and January, the District arranged for several rooms to be retested upon the recommendation of the Allegheny County Health Department and Environmental Protection Agency because the results showed anomalies compared to the surrounding rooms.

To err on the side of caution, administration moved all students and staff out of any rooms being used as classroom space while awaiting the results of the retests, however most of the spaces that were retested are used for storage or are boiler rooms.

Of the five tests, three tests came back with measurements that were significantly lower than the initial measurements and below the EPA’s maximum recommended levels.

Two tests came back with levels that were lower than the initial measurements but still just above the Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum recommended levels of 4.0 picoCuries per liter (pCi/l). The District immediately started the process of remediating those rooms and completed the process early April 2015. Retests verified the remediation was successful, and students and staff are now permitted back into those rooms.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to monitor the air quality in all of our buildings to ensure a safe learning environment.

Summary results of the radon tests after remediation efforts were completed