Exploding School Set to Reopen in Time for Class

Exploding School Set to Reopen in Time for Class 

Parents are concerned

By Robert Press

Despite the fact that 15 classrooms have been destroyed in a gas explosion, JFK high and the schools that make up the education campus are expected to open on time for class.

Two weeks ago a gas explosion ripped through the high school gutting 15 classrooms. It was later learned that a worker using a match to check for gas leaks caused the explosion. The injured workers are said to still be under going skin grafts at Jacobi Medical Center.

At a town hall meeting on the incident, education officials said that 15 classes on three separate floors were destroyed in the explosion. However, the officials insist that the school is structurally sound. Walls have been put up in the devastated areas to keep students out.

The 6th story science labs in addition to classrooms on the 5th and 7th floors are to be reconstructed sometime early next year when the work to be done is bid out and contractors are found. 

A panel of experts who were sent to reassure the parents and others at the poorly attended Town Hall meeting announced that the 7 schools that make up the Kennedy Campus will open on the first day of school. This despite the gas explosion two weeks prior that has closed off 15 classrooms on 3 different floors of the building. 

Mr. Welde of the Department of Buildings assured everyone that the building was structurally sound, and that the students would be in no danger in the building that would be open. Various member of the panel tried to assure everyone that students would not be able to enter the closed off rooms to be reconstructed, and that all other entrances to the building and all stairwells would be open. Also mentioned was that any construction work would take place after school hours, and that air quality testing would take place on a regular basis.

Some of the very few parents in attendance complained about the lack of notification process, and that the auditorium should have been overfilled with other parents, but that they were mot notified of the meeting. After hearing that the Department of Education was working with the United Federation of Teachers Union on the opening of the Kennedy Campus, one can only wonder why parents were not involved in that process. 

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