BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

Story updated on June 26 at 12:27p.m. for context and to correct quote attribution

CANTON –  Canton school officials took heat from parents of Banford Elementary students who called for an  investigation into the response to an electrical fire June 6.

Around a dozen parents were in attendance at the Canton Central School District’s board of education meeting June 20, including Jeremy Cragnolin, whose children are enrolled at the school. 

In his address to the board, Cragnolin said parents want transparency and honesty with the investigation, something he said the administration lacked in their initial emails to parents.

Emails don’t tell the whole story

In an email to parents that was sent around 1:38 p.m., Banford Elementary Principal Viola Schmid-Doyle described that students had “an unusual day.”

“When we came into school this morning, we discovered an odor in the fourth-grade hallway, which was caused by an overheated relay in an exhaust fan early this morning. Fortunately, we had an assembly in the high school at 8:00, so we began the day in the auditorium. We were informed by the fire inspector that the odor, while unpleasant, is not dangerous. Nevertheless, we used alternate spaces in the gym, cafeteria and HS auditorium for our instruction and activities today as we aired out the classrooms until the odor had dissipated,” the email read.

In the email, Schmid-Doyle said she was “very grateful” for students, faculty and staff for their flexibility and cooperation as the district worked through the issues.

A second email was later sent to parents, expanding on the situation. According to Cragnolin, the email claimed there was no flame from an overheated exhaust fan relay.

Cragnolin brought large physical photos of the relay in question, saying the soot and charring are clearly indicative of an electrical fire.

“There was melted plastic and wires. Soot and black carbon, all signs that are indicative of a fire,” he said.

He said that parents were told via email that Alltech was called to come to the school for an assessment, with a call being made to a state fire inspector to ensure the district could remain open and in compliance.

According to Cragnolin, district officials assured parents that the district could remain open and that the odor was not a safety concern.

In an interview with NCTW, Canton Central School District Superintendent Susan Todd pushed back on the timeline that was presented during the school board meeting, saying administrators had already located the issue as kids were arriving at the school.

A solution was being implemented at that time, however it was necessary to move fourth-grade students to the high school auditorium at the start of the school day.

"We found the issue before 9 a.m., as was said during the public comment period of the board meeting," she said.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning

For Ashley Di Matteo, the odor proved to be a safety concern though.

Just 24 hours after the incident, DiMatteo said her daughter was in the emergency room receiving a 100% oxygen treatment, the standard course of treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.

According to DiMatteo, an emergency room docotor said blood work showed that her daughter had an elevated level of carbon monoxide, consistent with exposure like that which many students may have experienced from the electrical issues at Banford Elementary.

Dimatteo said her daughter’s pediatrician confirmed there was no possibility of another source of the poisoning after assessing her daughter.

“Her pediatrician deemed that it was not possible as no one in the house smokes, we have working carbon monoxide detectors and the clinker is that she was the only child in my home to get sick or have any symptoms that day,” she said.

“That is key in determining carbon monoxide poisoning,” she continued.

According to DiMatteo, she was told a normal level is 2.0, with 3.0, which her daughter had,  being a sure sign of carbon monoxide poisoning.

According to the emergency room physician who saw her daughter, Dimatteo said she was told that her daughter's levels 32 hours after exposure, though mild, were like that of someone being in an “enclosed space with someone who is smoking for a duration of time.”

That criteria is why she has no doubts her daughter received exposure at the elementary school, she said.

“The doctor said if her level was 3.1, the State Department would have been involved,” she said.

But those figures reported in relation to a student diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning "do not show levels of concern," Todd said.

In consultation and through research, Todd said district officials were told that levels of 15% concentration in blood are where medical concerns typically arise, though the one student tested was at 3%, she said.

No students were reported to have visited the school nurse for the potential effects of carbon monoxide poisoning the day of or any day after the event, Todd said.

Detector failures?

With the electrical fire came a failure of the smoke detectors, which could also be tied into the carbon monoxide detectors.

Students arrived the morning of June 6 to a strong odor in the fourth grade hallway, Cragnolin said.

According to Cragnolin, the fire alarm issues were known during a morning fire drill on June 5 with fire alarms not working in the elementary.

According to Cragnolin, school officials say they spoke to the fire inspector and were assured the odor was not a safety concern.

“Children were walking the hallways with their shirts over their noses because the odor was so bad. Many complained of headaches and dizziness,” he said.

In conversation with numerous faculty and staff members who did not come forward out of what was described as "fear of retribution," Cragnolin said he was told that the issue was known before students came to school.

In an effort to ensure the school was safe, Cragnolin said a parent had called Canton police who sent an officer to the school but fire trucks were called off after the officer spoke with school officials.

Contact with the fire inspector?

While Alltech technicians assessed the situation, Cragnolin said he was told no fire inspectors were ever on scene to properly assess the situation.

In conversation with the fire inspector, Cragnolin said he was told that the district never informed the inspector of the odor and merely asked if it was safe to occupy the building with faltering smoke alarms.

He said based on that conversation, fire inspectors were not asked to visit the school.

Another parent in attendance, Benjamin Dent, said it was that inaction that led to a loss of trust in the administration.

A parent with two children at Canton Central, Dent said the issue would not disappear anytime soon.

“I know you expect this to calm down this summer but this won’t disappear, it won’t calm down. Our trust in this school to protect our children is gone,” he said.

Dent said he also spoke with faculty and staff members, many of whom were aware of the situation but did not speak out of fear of  retribution.

“You had all of the facts. There’s something wrong here. This is a coverup and we want to know why,” he said.

Faculty fear retribution?

The message that faculty and staff feared retribution was a common theme during the public comment period, with the notion mentioned by three different parents.

Cragnolin said he was coming forward because they felt they were unable to.

“We spoke to many educators here who knew what happened, each telling us they didn’t feel they could say anything. Our hearts broke as our educators told us they felt their careers would be in jeopardy if they did,” he said.

No teachers were in attendance at the meeting.

He called into question the administrations’ “elusive and misleading emails” that showed a lack of honesty and integrity.

“The right choice would have been to plan to delay or close the school,” he told NCTW.

He said parents should have been given the choice, like the educators who opted to send their own children home for the day.

“These children are four to 10-years-old. They can’t make the choice for themselves. This situation has eroded any trust in this leadership,” Dimatteo told NCTW.

Cragnolin said he was calling on the board to look into the lack of transparency and called for a leadership and cultural change at the school.

Superintendent’s response

In a statement shared with NCTW, Todd said school officials acted quickly when they discovered the issue, however she did say she had one regret in the handling of the situation.

"Due to the timing of the discovery, there wasn’t time to notify parents and caregivers of a possible closure to school prior to the start of the day, and upon the quick investigation and findings, it was determined that it would not be necessary to send students home since the 4th grade students affected by the smell were quickly sent to the High School Auditorium upon arrival, and the 4th grade hallway had been properly ventilated prior to them returning to their classrooms," Todd said in a letter sent to parents on June 24.

"On June 6th, I relied on input from the District’s Director of Operations, an electrician from Watson Electric, the District’s Fire Safety Inspector and a System Engineer from Alltech who all indicated it would be safe for the school to remain open," she continued.

Todd said she hopes to have open lines of communication between administration, faculty, staff and parents in the future, regardless of the situation.

"In my thirty-plus years as an educator as a classroom teacher, principal, and superintendent I have always felt that open lines of communication between school and home are critical.  June 6th proved to be a challenging day and my only regret concerning how the situation was handled is that the communication to parents/caregivers should have happened earlier in the day, and the district could have offered the option of parents/caregivers coming to school to pick up their child(ren) if they wanted to take them home.  For that, I apologize," she said.