Dear Parents and the Community,

As a follow up to earlier emails this week from middle school principal Dr. Adam Bronstein and myself, I'd like to assure parents, students and staff that together, the administration, members of the middle school custodial team and teacher representatives are working to ensure a safe and secure learning environment for everyone at our Westlake campus.

Rodent sightings in our middle school Tuesday prompted a quick response from the middle school and district. Here are some of the actions we take on a daily basis, continue to maintain, and have increased since Tuesday's event:

• In addition to thoroughly sanitizing all surfaces in the kitchen and cafeteria after the daily lunch periods, we have added another cafeteria cleaning at the end of the school day.

• Students' forgotten lunches will be disposed of at the end of each day and students are reminded to dispose of garbage at the end of the lunch periods.

• The middle school cafeteria vending machines have been cleaned out and will be removed. The air handling units in the cafeteria have been opened and thoroughly cleaned of debris.

• The school district exterminating service continues to visit the campus and we have increased the number of traps both inside and outside of our building. These traps are monitored closely for activity as NYS regulations prohibit a school district from using pesticides and fumigating.

We are aware that wildlife, including small rodents and pests, come into a building looking for warmth, shelter and a food source. The Cornell University Extension Center in Westchester County has been contacted to work with the district in assessing the campus and to provide additional insight into this situation as the middle school backs up to a beautiful stretch of woods.

Inhibiting access
Our protocol has been to prevent pests from entering the facility by keeping doors and openings closed. Our facilities director and maintenance crew have been vigilant patching any breaches in our building's exterior and continue to seek out locations especially around doors and around the outside masonry. Some areas are short term fixes, while others require major work and may be included in a larger facilities project (for example, renovating the middle school tech room and removing the garage door that remains). These measures have helped, but as you may or may not know, rodents can enter a building through an opening just one half inch in diameter.

Refusing to create a place called 'home'
Since last summer, the district has cleaned out multiple areas at the Westlake campus where old paper and materials could be a shelter for pests. Several containers of material have been removed from the campus. In addition, the downstairs area of the middle school, affectionately called "the dungeon" was cleaned, painted and refurbished with new lockers, equipment cages, benches and storage areas during the fall.

Restricting food sources
In the cafeteria, Chartwell's, our food service provider, stores food safely and securely each day in appropriate containers and refrigerators that pests cannot penetrate. Our school policy for the past few years includes asking our staff to secure any foods, snacks and even candy in metal containers that pests are not able to access. Students are reminded not to leave leftover food in their lockers or bags at the end of the day.

Healthy and safe conditions
The Board of Health was at the Westlake campus on Wednesday and found no evidence of infestation. During the 2014-15 school year, the Board of Health visited the district on three distinct occasions to investigate rodent complaints in addition to regularly scheduled visits. The NYS Department of Labor was contacted by staff and visited the district in the spring of 2015 as well. In all cases, no rodent infestations were found.

After its visit this Wednesday, the Board of Health suggested the removal of old green house materials behind the middle school as well as the removal of old bird feeders. Both of these items attract rodents and are being removed.

In addition, we are investigating the purchase of a sanitizing machine for the district to help with the work of keeping the schools clean.

Rodents are not unique to any community, but as I stated in my conversations with the media, one rodent in our schools is one too many. Our ongoing efforts to maintain learning spaces that are safe, clean, and welcoming to students and staff are critical to achieve our instructional goals and will not end as the media quiets.

Maintaining our school facilities is part of our daily work and with our increased vigilance, we are cautiously hopeful that no additional "guests" will be visiting our school.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Regards,

   

Sue

Dr. Susan Guiney
Superintendent of Schools