lifelines

Obituaries

Dorothy Saba

SEPTEMBER 1, 1930MARCH 15, 2023

BURLINGTON, VT.

Dorothy Saba, 92, of Burlington, Vt., passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Dorothy was born on September 1, 1930, in Methuen, Mass., the daughter of Bessie and Ernest Hobica. She grew up in Methuen and graduated from Methuen High School. Dorothy grew up amid the beginnings of the Great Depression and, as a young girl, lost both her mother and only sibling, Edna, to tuberculosis. With the love and guidance of her father, who would later become an adored grandfather, Dorothy rose beyond her childhood tragedies and chose not to let adversity define her.

Following high school, she began work as a bookkeeper at an insurance firm. It was there that Dorothy met her future

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

husband and the love of her life, Herbert, after being introduced by Herb’s best friend and her employer. ey were married for 39 years and operated Saba’s Pharmacy together. She made a life for herself in Vermont for almost 30 years after his passing in 1994, and they are now joined together again.

ough she stood at four feet, 11 inches, her love and devotion for her family made her a giant in our eyes.

Dorothy was an avid golfer and enjoyed going to the library to find new books, solving puzzles and doing a variety of crafts. Her greatest treasures in life, besides her husband, were her children and grandchildren.

Dorothy is survived by her sons, Mark Saba and his wife, Karen Paul, of Burlington, and Keith Saba and his wife, Tricia Saba, of Freedom, N.H. She leaves her beloved grandchildren, Andrew, Adam and Caroline Saba of

Helen Margaret Place

MAY 24, 1941-MARCH 11, 2023

JERICHO, VT.

Helen Margaret Place, 81, of Snowflake Drive in Jericho, Vt., died on March 11, 2023, following a long illness. She was born on May 24, 1941, to Clark and Edith Kocher Patton of Stull, Pa. On February 11, 1967, she married Ronald J. Place in the United Methodist Church in Tunkhannock, Pa.

Helen was a lifelong athlete and excelled at tennis, volleyball, softball and Jazzercise, as well as running and biking. She maintained her fitness throughout her life, and as a young woman, she acquired a deep knowledge of healthy eating and physical labor. Her love of gardening was on full display on their beautiful property.

She is survived by her dear husband, Ron; daughter, Kimberly, and her husband, Brad, of

John Mech

Burlington and Kristopher Saba of Wellington, Fla.

Dorothy’s family is grateful to the dedicated team of doctors and nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center and gives special thanks to Betsy MaGee, Heidi Karic, Tonya Broomfield, Jamie Broomfield, Maureen Kolich and Dalia Elhashami, who were her caregivers in the last few weeks of her life. eir devotion to her care made it possible for Dorothy to be at home surrounded by her family.

Dorothy had a tremendous faith in God. It was a gentle, quiet faith that sustained her throughout her life and, with the compassion of Father Timothy Sullivan, gave her comfort and acceptance in her final days.

At her request, the family will have a private graveside service, where she will be laid to rest at the United Lebanese Cemetery in Lawrence, Mass., beside her beloved husband. In lieu of flowers, gifts in Dorothy’s memory may be sent to the UVM Health Network, Home Health & Hospice, 1110 Prim Rd., Colchester, VT 05446.

Arrangements were made by Kenneth H. Pollard Funeral Home.

FEBRUARY 1, 1942-MARCH 7, 2023 BURLINGTON, VT.

Champagne Johnny took his bottles to the sky on March 7, 2023, after spending the last few months analyzing his illness through the lens of a pathologist — always realistic and forever curious. He died peacefully at home when prostate cancer finally took over.

Dr. John Mech was born on February 1, 1942, son of Frederick and Angela (Nelva Kulikowski) Mech. He grew up in Irvington, N.J., surrounded by a vibrant extended family, the source of many stories John and his brother, Stan, would reminisce about as they grew older.

the party was about to get good when John walked into a room with a bottle of excellent Champagne under each arm. One friend noted, “John was the most generous man I ever met, a great listener, fun, full of life and so willing to just be who he was.”

In 2007, John met Deb Ellis. ey married in 2013, bringing together a diverse set of experiences, interests and friends. Together, they built a warm home, cooked, drank wine, grew more friends and dreamed. ey enjoyed many late summer days and raucous evenings at a camp he rented for years on Starr Farm Beach in Burlington. When that chapter ended, they spent more time in Nantucket walking the beaches.

Jeffersonville, Vt.; son Brian and his friend, Sandy, of Fletcher Vt.; son Kevin living at home; and grandson, omas, who is a shining light to all. She is also survived by her sister Patricia and her husband, Vincent; sister Peggy; and many kin, all of Noxen, Pa., and the surrounding area; and Ron’s brother, Gary, of Wilmington, Del. ere will be a service and celebration of life on ursday, March 23, 11 a.m., at the United Methodist Church, Route 15, Jericho, VT. e church is handicap-accessible. A social gathering with refreshments will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a memorial donation in Helen’s name to the EJUEM Food Shelf, P.O. Box 65, Jericho, VT 05465.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Cremation Society of Chittenden County, a division of the Ready Family. To read a full obituary and send an online condolence to the family, please visit cremationsocietycc.com.

John graduated as the valedictorian from Archbishop Walsh High School and later attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a year, he transferred to Cornell University, where he earned his BS degree in chemistry. Following graduation from Cornell, John was accepted to the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at omas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he received his MD degree in 1968. He spent a yearlong internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle before completing his residency in pathology at the University of Vermont Medical School in 1975. Dr. John remained in Vermont for the entirety of his career, covering pathology at Copley Hospital in Morrisville, as well as stints in St. Albans and other Vermont hospitals. His work was considered at the highest level of competency by his peers. He retired from practice in 2018.

John knew something about just about everything, especially history. He liked football and was especially knowledgeable about the NFL’s earliest beginnings. As an above-average guitarist in his younger years, his love of music never waned. He was profoundly interested in wine, especially French wine. In addition to reading widely, he traveled to the French wine country to see, experience (taste) and study firsthand the complex processes involved.

John’s first marriage ended in the early 1970s. Subsequently, he practiced a fervent bachelor life. His friends knew

John continued an active life to the end, engaging in deep conversations with old friends and making new connections with members of his care team. He managed to cook (e.g., telling Deb how to make sauces or combine spices), act as a master mixologist titrating medications to suit his needs and creating his own version of the once-ubiquitous “Brompton’s Cocktail.” John never stopped the magic. He possessed an aura of formality and properness but was never stuffy. You just felt good being around him.

He leaves many friends and family, including his wife, Deb Ellis; stepson, Kiah Ellis; brother, Stan Mech; parents-in-law Nancy and Russ Ellis; brother-in-law, David Ellis (Natalie Camus); sister-in-law Betsy EllisKempner (Paul Kempner); sister-inlaw Rebecca Ellis (Mike Rossi); the Copley gang; his Lakewood neighborhood family; Cam Page and family; his “adopted daughters” Jessica and Amanda; his friend and caretaker, Zoltan Keve; and his Wednesday caretaker, Lamiae. We are especially grateful to the University of Vermont Home Health & Hospice team for the extraordinary care with which it surrounded the household.

Although a transplant from Jersey, Dr. John became a true Vermonter. A gathering in memory of John will be planned at a later date. In the meantime, keep your eyes open, and you may see that cute smile and sweet wink peek around a corner, especially at a gathering of friends. What a good egg.

Samuel (Sam) B. Feitelberg

FEBRUARY 1, 1930MARCH 16, 2023

SHELBURNE,

VT.

Samuel B. Feitelberg, 93, of Shelburne, Vt., passed away on the night of March 16, 2023, at the McClure Miller Respite House. The son of Dr. Abraham and Rose Feitelberg, Sam was born in the Bronx, N.Y., in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. His life was shaped by his love for his family and his belief that every human being has the right to strive toward their highest creative potential.

Sam earned a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University in 1952, a certificate of physical therapy from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1953, and a master of arts from Columbia University Teachers College in 1954. Sam holds a certificate of labor administration from the Harvard University graduate School of Business (1980) and an honorary doctorate of science degree from Utica College (2015).

From 1954 to 1956, Sam served in the U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps, assigned to Walter Reed Army Hospital, where he served

Laura Merit

APRIL 7, 1926-JANUARY 15, 2023 BURLINGTON, VT.

as a staff physical therapist. It was there that he was inspired to help move physical therapy into its own professional realm. Discharged in the midst of the polio epidemic, he returned to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center as its chief pediatric physical therapist. He began his academic career in 1959 as an instructor in the physical therapy program at Columbia University. From 1965 to 1970, he was chair of physical therapy at Downstate Medical Center, SUNY Brooklyn. He then went on to establish and direct two schools of physical therapy: the University of Vermont in Burlington (1969 to 1996) and the School of Science, Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. (1997 to 2011). He was awarded the title of professor emeritus at the University of Vermont (1996) and Clarkson University (2011).

Our beloved mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother and wonderful friend, Laura Merit, passed away on January 15, 2023, at the McClure Miller Respite House at the age of 96, with her family at her side.

Laura lived an exceptionally full life with her family and friends. She was a woman of extraordinary vitality and style. She had a keen sense of social justice and was dedicated to social causes all of her adult life.

Laura was born and raised in New York City. She and her late husband, Don Merit, raised their three daughters in the Bronx and Manhattan. She worked as an administrator at Walden School and a hospital administrator at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Laura and Don moved to Vermont in 1996 to be closer to family. They created an active and engaged life.

Sam was an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association since 1953 and served as president of the section for education (1986 to 1989), a member of the nominating committee (1986 to 1989) and a member of the board of directors (1990 to 1993). In 1997, he was named as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow by the APTA. He was also the recipient of the Lucy Blair Service Award in 1983, the Vermont Chapter Distinguished Service Award in 1990 and 1997, and the Diversity 2000 Award in 1996.

Sam dedicated himself to strengthening cultural equity, respect and understanding in his work and personal life. He worked tirelessly to suffuse diversity ethics and cultural proficiency into campus life, physical therapy education and patient services as essential to developing a responsive and compassionate society. He created opportunities for young people from marginalized communities to attend schools of physical therapy. His work lives on in the Samuel B. Feitelberg Endowed Scholarship established by Clarkson University to benefit a physical therapy student who shares his commitment for service and advocacy for underserved or culturally diverse populations. Sam’s vision of physical therapy included its application in national and global pursuits. He worked with NASA at the Langley Space Center in Virginia, developing programs to assist astronauts performing tasks in a weightless environment. That research became incorporated into therapy for people with Parkinson’s disease. Sam delighted in bringing teams of people together. He spoke humbly of how much he learned from his patients. He revered his faculty and found tremendous promise in the future in his students. His wisdom came from what others taught him through their experiences together. Some of Sam’s proudest achievements came later in life, when, in conjunction with Rotary’s Hands to Honduras, he helped establish the Oscar Edgardo Pineda Castro Rehabilitation Center for children in Tela, Honduras. For over 16 years, Sam was inspired and forever grateful to the wonderful staff and patients in Tela and to all those who traveled and supported the center and its mission.

In Vermont, she found a community of like-minded friends who provided her with joy and support until the day she died. Always engaged in social causes, Laura was a longtime volunteer worker at Steps to End Domestic Violence.

She will be greatly missed.

Her spirit and energy to make the world a better place continue with her family. She is survived by family on two continents. Here in Vermont, she is survived by her daughter Roberta Soll and son-in-law Roger Soll; grandsons Gregory and Ben; daughter-inlaw, Tara Bubriski; and great-granddaughter, Ramona. In Europe, she is survived by her daughter Beth Merit; grandsons Matthew and Jason of Denmark; and son-in-law Look Hulshof Pol of the Netherlands.

A memorial service will be planned for the summer.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Steps to End Domestic Violence at P.O. Box 1535, Burlington, VT 05402.

In 2007, he was named

Justin Lemay

OCTOBER 11, 1991-JANUARY 24, 2023 COLCHESTER, VT.

a Paul Harris Fellow by the Shelburne-CharlotteHinesburg Rotary Club. Sam was a devoted Rotarian and treasured the many friendships he made within his chapter. Sam also played a pivotal role in the construction of the Shelburne Veterans’ Monument. He was honored to have participated in this project and loved the camaraderie of his fellow veterans. He treasured Saturday morning fundraising for the monument under the veterans’ pop-up tent at the Shelburne Farmers Market. He was extremely grateful to the dedicated committee that helped make the project come to life and to the Town of Shelburne and everyone who contributed to the project. Being a veteran truly touched his heart.

Sam enjoyed restoring old boats, cars, houses and his extraordinary collection of Lionel trains. A day well spent was sitting by the lake with family and friends at the family’s summer cabin on Lake Champlain.

Sam was fortunate to spend almost 70 years with the love of his life, his wife, Gail, and their four children: Cher, Debbie (Poulin) and son-in-law Tony, Lisa (Davison) and son-in-law, Mark, and son Michael and daughter-in-law Dana. Sam’s

At the end of January, the lives of Justin Bradley Lemay’s friends and family changed forever. We must learn to live without him, but we do so with a heavy heart and countless wonderful memories.

Justin was a caring, compassionate person who always stood up for the underdog and did everything in his power to help others. His friends describe him as someone who was brilliant and mastered everything he chose to learn, an amazing friend who stepped up in every way whenever he was needed, an avid lover of Audis and the finer things in life, and someone who was not afraid to tell his friends out loud that he loved them.

To his family, he was funny, smart, sensitive, compassionate and kind. He reminded us of a line in the song “Vincent,” written by Don McLean: We could have told you, Justin, “This grandchildren, Kyle Coulam; Adam, Jordan and Sophie Davison; Daniel Feitelberg; and Lena Biggs, Shane and Shannon Poulin, were an endless source of pride for all they have accomplished and the wonderful people they have become. The family will forever miss his wonderful stories, lessons, sense of humor and unconditional love. world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.” Justin struggled with anxiety and depression from the time he was 8 years old. He was extremely sensitive, in a world that can be cold and uncaring. Cumulatively, he was deeply affected by the many losses he experienced throughout his life. He was a grandson, son, brother, brotherin-law, uncle, nephew and cousin who loved his family and his dog, Farrah, more than life itself.

Visiting hours for Sam will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2023, 4 to 6 p.m., at Ready Funeral Service, South Chapel, 261 Shelburne Rd., Burlington, VT. A celebration of Sam’s life will take place later this spring.

We would like to thank the University of Vermont Medical Center and the McClure Miller Respite House for their love, respect, dignity and excellent medical care. In lieu of flowers, please consider honoring Sam with a donation to either the Samuel B. Feitelberg Physical Therapy Endowment Scholarship, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Ave., Potsdam, NY 13699; or the Shelburne Veterans’ Monument Fund, P.O. Box 88, Shelburne, VT 05482.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Service. To send an online condolence to the family, please visit readyfuneral.com.

With the help of everyone who loved him, Justin fought the good fight for as long as he was able. We are blessed to have had him in our lives for 31 years, and he will be dearly missed by so many.

Justin’s family will hold a celebration of his life on Saturday, April 1, 2023.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to NAMI Vermont, c/o NAMIWalks Vermont (Mudgie’s Minions), 600 Blair Park Rd., Williston, VT 05495; Turning Point CenterChittenden, 179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT 05401; or Humane Society of Chittenden County, 142 Kindness Ct., South Burlington, VT 05403.

BY ALISON NOVAK alison@sevendaysvt.com

Driving all three situations is an ambitious and unprecedented plan, mandated by the legislature, to test more than 300 older schools across the state for airborne PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. The compounds were once commonly used in commercial building materials such as window caulk, paint and tile glue. PCBs were outlawed in 1979 because of the harm they cause to humans and the environment.

Vermont began testing in June, using standards set by the state Department of Health that are much stricter than the federal ones. If deemed at risk, schools must embark on an expensive and time-consuming mission to identify and remove the sources. Of 22 schools tested so far, eight have levels that require further action.

In a league of its own is Burlington High School, where officials discovered PCB levels above the state standards in 2020. The school’s plight is what prompted the legislature to require statewide testing and local voters to approve a $190 million rebuild.

While lawmakers allocated $4.5 million for testing in 2021 and $32 million for remediation the following year, the full cost of addressing the PCBs is unknown. Nor is it clear whether or how much cash-strapped schools would have to contribute. That uncertainty has caused school superintendents to push back, arguing that it would divert funding from educational programs.

With some schools facing large, nonnegotiable expenditures, legislators are asking hard questions about the program — most importantly, whether it should continue. Last Friday, the House Education Committee greenlighted a measure that would pause PCB testing and roll the program into a broader, evolving school construction initiative. That could defuse a potential financial crisis set in motion when the state adopted strict PCB standards and mandated the testing. But it won’t assuage the public health concerns that sparked the testing in the first place.

House Education Committee chair Peter Conlon (D-Cornwall) said he believes pausing the program would allow the legislature to more thoughtfully integrate PCB testing with longerterm goals for Vermont’s aging school facilities. Does it make sense, for example, to prioritize a costly PCB-remediation project in an old school that needs major renovations?

But Conlon’s counterpart in the upper chamber, Senate Education Committee chair Brian Campion (D-Bennington), thinks questions like that miss the point of the testing program.

“When it comes to kids, I’m going to be on the side of caution,” he said. “I want to make sure that kids are safe in these school buildings that they’re going to every day.”

As lawmakers are debating the issue, local school officials are paying close attention. Caledonia Central Supervisory Union superintendent Mark Tucker calls himself a “PCB pioneer” because the new testing program’s first hit was in the gym of Cabot School, in his district. Subsequent tests, taken during the school year while the ventilation system was operating, returned lower PCB levels, and the room was reopened.

Seven months later, Tucker said, he still doesn’t know how to fix the underlying problem. Adding to the challenge, he recently learned that two more Caledonia Central schools have levels in several rooms that will require remediation.

“Our students didn’t put PCBs in the school buildings, and they didn’t tell us to take them out,” Tucker said. “Yet if some communities are forced to solve the problem by taking away funding from our education mission, it will be our kids who are paying the price.”

‘Canary in the Coal Mine’

On March 15, district and city officials, school board members, and construction contractors gathered outside the former Burlington High School for what they described as a “groundbreaking.”

VIPs grinned under ill-fitting commemorative hard hats that were emblazoned with the school’s seahorse mascot. Some supporters held up signs that read “Our Future Is Bright” as superintendent Tom Flanagan, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and others marked the beginning of a new chapter in the school’s history.

In fall 2020, environmental testing undertaken in advance of a $70 million renovation project detected elevated levels of airborne PCBs in some of the high school’s classrooms, including especially high concentrations in a building that housed the technical center’s welding, construction and automotive classes.

That led to a cascade of decisions. Administrators, following health officials’ guidance, shuttered the school. The district rented and revamped a former Macy’s department store in downtown Burlington to serve as a temporary high school — albeit one with no kitchen, gym or auditorium, and with an annual rent of more than $1 million. Tech center programs were scattered in temporary spaces throughout the city.

At a March 2021 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the makeshift high school, Sen. Philip Baruth (D/P-ChittendenCentral) suggested that other schools could also be contaminated with PCBs, calling Burlington “a canary in the coal mine for the state of Vermont.”

After additional testing revealed that PCBs had spread into the old high school’s building materials, the district decided to demolish it and build a replacement.

Last fall, Queen City voters approved a $165 million bond to pay for a new school. It includes roughly $16 million for remediation and removal of the PCB-laden materials in the defunct building; Burlington administrators and elected officials are hoping to offset some of those expenses with money from the state and, possibly, PCB manufacturer Monsanto.

In December, the school district sued the chemical company, alleging that Monsanto encouraged customers to use PCB mixtures in construction materials despite knowing they would leach into the air and interior surfaces. Another lawsuit against Monsanto, filed by two former Burlington High School educators last fall, claims that workplace exposure to PCBs caused them to suffer serious health problems, including reproductive issues and hyperthyroidism.

At the Burlington High School event last week, Weinberger addressed a crowd of around 50 people.

“We’re in the midst of a critical legislative session, where the district, the city, our local legislators are all working very hard to ensure that the cost of this facility, which is going to be a regional asset, is not entirely borne by the people of Burlington,” he said.

Teachers’ union president Beth FialkoCasey struck a warmer note. She recalled the formative moments — first bells, first solos and first loves — that have unfolded inside the building for generations of students and teachers.

“We are here to remember that while this building may be toxic, our achievements and our memories are not,” Fialko-Casey said.

When that toxicity was discovered in August 2020, the state’s only numerical guidance for regulating airborne PCBs was its “screening level” of 15 nanograms per cubic meter. (A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.) The level was set by the Vermont Department of Health a decade ago in preparation for a small PCB pilot study in four schools. The health department defined the level as “the chemical concentration below which no additional actions are recommended.”

Vermont’s screening level — the only of its kind in the country — was significantly lower than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s

HOW’D

WE GET HERE?

A PCB timeline guidance for airborne PCBs. The EPA’s acceptable “exposure levels” range from 100 nanograms per cubic meter for 1- to 3-year-olds to 600 nanograms per cubic meter for 15- to 19-year-olds. The EPA cautions that its levels “should not be interpreted nor applied as ‘bright line’ or ‘not to exceed’ criteria, but may be used to guide thoughtful evaluation of indoor air quality in schools.” Using EPA guidance, only seven of the 49 rooms with elevated PCB levels at Burlington High

School would have been flagged. All were in the tech center, known as Building F.

A group of Burlington parents questioned why Vermont’s PCB guidance was so much stricter than the EPA’s. But state health officials stood by their guidance, explaining at a school board meeting in late September 2020 that Vermont has historically set the “gold standard” for environmental regulation of toxic chemicals.

“This is a tradition at the Department of Health over many, many years,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said during a presentation at the meeting.

Levine and state toxicologist Sarah Owen, formerly known as Sarah Vose, also outlined the risks from PCB exposure, including breast, liver and skin cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and negative effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. Owen explained that

Fall 2020

In advance of a planned $70 million renovation of Burlington High School, environmental tests detect airborne PCBs. The findings exceed Vermont’s very low “screening level.” Students are already attending classes remotely due to the pandemic.

2020

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Burlington school commissioners vote to lease the former downtown Macy’s department store as a temporary school for three and a half years while the district decides what to do.

SPRING 2021

Vermont legislators approve spending $4.5 million to test for PCBs statewide in schools that were constructed before 1980.

2021

MAY 4, 2021

The Burlington School Board votes to abandon the PCBcontaminated high school.

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

After considering various sites, the Burlington School Board votes to build a new high school on the old campus off North Avenue

NOVEMBER 2021 the state’s screening levels di ered from the EPA’s for two reasons.

The Vermont Department of Health establishes “school action levels” that, when discovered, require steps to identify the source of PCBs and remediate.

First, state health o cials decided it was unacceptable to allow levels that increased cancer diagnoses by an estimated one case per million people exposed. (The EPA accepts a greater cancer risk.) Second, the state’s screening values were based on maximum exposure to the chemicals — which o cials estimated for teachers at 11 due to COVID,” Cunningham recalled. “When Mark Levine dropped the word ‘cancer,’ it incited panic, but the reality is, so many medical issues are questions of scale and dosage.”

But in a written statement on Monday, Levine defended his advice, saying it was “based on the information available” at the time. One test in a tech center classroom measured 6,300 nanograms per cubic meter, Levine created more prescriptive regulations for airborne PCBs. In November, the health department quietly released new “school action levels” — measurements that, should a room test above, would require a school to identify and remove the source of PCBs. Those levels, ranging from 30 to 100 nanograms per cubic meter depending on grade level, are still more stringent than the EPA’s exposure levels but slightly relaxed from what Vermont had before.

A health department memo describing the new calculations acknowledged that its original 15 nanogram screening level “is close to the background PCB concentrations in air.” By that standard, the memo continued, “the testing of several hundred schools in Vermont may result in frequent exceedances due to the prevalence of low levels of PCBs in the indoor environment.”

What Are PCBs?

hours per day, 250 days per year for 30 years — while the EPA based its levels on the average amount of exposure. (The Vermont school year typically runs 175 days; the extra 75 days in the state’s calculation accounted for summer camp and any other additional time spent in the school.)

Dan Cunningham, a Burlington parent who called for the high school to stay open, is angry about how the health department handled the situation. Levine and Owen’s presentation gave little context about the risks of airborne PCBs, he said, and the state did not consider the consequences for students of closing the building.

There was “a tremendous amount of medical fear in the air at that point said, “one of the highest levels of PCBs in indoor air anywhere in the U.S.”

“Since BHS was tested before our current framework was in place, there was no assurance that the untested rooms were suitable for occupancy,” Levine said.

News of the PCB problem in Burlington spread quickly to the Statehouse. In spring 2021, the legislature passed Act 74, which included $4.5 million for PCB testing.

The provision was tacked on at the very end of the legislative session — with little deliberation about the program’s details or how it might a ect school operations, according to Vermont Superintendents Association executive director Je Francis.

Later that year, state o cials

Several months later, the health department released additional guidance, dubbed “immediate action levels.” Those new regulations stated that if rooms had airborne PCB concentrations of more than 90 nanograms for prekindergarten students; more than 180 nanograms for K-6 students; and more than 300 nanograms for seventh graders through adults, they could not be used until the PCBs were removed.

At the close of the 2022 legislative session, the general assembly passed Act 178, which set aside $32 million for the investigation, testing, assessment, remediation and removal of PCBs from schools. It also called for three state departments — education, natural resources and health — to

PCBs are polychlorinated biphenyls, chemicals that were manufactured starting in 1929 for use in products such as electrical equipment, televisions and refrigerators. ey were common in window caulk, tile glue, paint and fluorescent light ballasts in buildings constructed in that era. After concerns about the environment and public health emerged, the United States banned importing and manufacturing PCBs in 1979. PCBs are considered toxic and are probable human carcinogens.

People can be exposed to PCBs by eating foods such as meat or fish that contain the chemicals, by skin contact, or by breathing indoor air in older buildings constructed with materials that contain the chemicals.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

FEBRUARY 2022

Shortly before statewide testing is to begin, the health department releases new "immediate school action levels" for PCBs that indicate when a room is not usable. e standards are more restrictive than federal guidelines.

SPRING 2022 e legislature allocates $32 million from the education fund surplus to pay for PCB remediation in schools.

JUNE 2022

Statewide PCB testing commences.

AUGUST 2022 e first actionable PCB results come back from Cabot School and Brattleboro’s Oak Grove.

OCTOBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 e Burlington School District sues Monsanto, alleging that the company encouraged customers to use PCB mixtures in construction materials, despite known health risks. e Vermont Emergency Board approves $2.5 million in funds to be released for PCB mitigation in schools — with the state paying 80 percent and schools paying 20 percent. To date, no funds have been released to schools.

MARCH 2023

A bill to pause the state testing program is introduced in the Vermont House.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OCTOBER 2022 submit a plan for distributing the money by January 15 of this year.

Two former Burlington High School educators sue PCB-maker Monsanto, saying exposure to the chemicals led to serious health problems.

Testing has begun, and data has been returned for 22 schools. Eight of them had at least one sample that exceeded school action levels. In all, approximately 320 schools must be tested by July 2025, though officials have indicated that they may ask for more time — and more money — for testing.

Ultimately, though, lawmakers must decide who qualifies for the cash. After weeks of debate, they face a bigger dilemma: how to start fixing the problem without knowing the extent of it — or how much it will cost.

How Dangerous Are PCBs?

In the past decade, PCB contamination has been found in schools from Hartford, Conn., to Malibu, Calif. But Vermont is unique in both its stringent regulatory standards for the chemicals and its program to test for and remediate them in schools.

Keri Hornbuckle, director of the University of Iowa’s Superfund Research Program, has been studying airborne PCBs for decades and consulted with Vermont o cials. She considers Vermont a trailblazer in addressing the risks of the chemicals in schools, which she characterizes as a nationwide problem.

Most studies that show adverse health e ects from PCBs involve feeding or injecting lab animals with the chemicals. “They’re carcinogens, they’re endocrine disruptors, they’re neurotoxins, and they mess with how our bodies metabolize and manage fat,” Hornbuckle said. However, “these chemicals don’t a ect you immediately. It’s subtle, and it’s over a long period of time, and because they a ect everybody di erently, it’s impossible to predict who could be harmed and who won’t be harmed,” she said.

In other states, wealthy school districts typically have the resources to deal with airborne PCBs while poorer ones do not, Hornbuckle said, calling that “hugely unjust.” Vermont’s approach has created the opportunity to address the problem equitably, Hornbuckle said.

Vermont’s decision to set its own action levels for PCBs is appropriate, she said. She believes that the EPA has been reluctant to do the same in part because of the magnitude of the cost.

Nationally, 100,000 schools likely have significant PCB contamination, she said: “If EPA sets a level for which remediation needs to occur … the dollar amount that they’re putting on the table is so large. So there is an incentive for EPA not to do it, because someone’s going to have to pay for it.”

Environmental toxicologist Jim Okun has a di erent interpretation. Since 2016, he’s worked with public schools in Worcester, Mass., to remediate airborne PCBs in several schools that exceeded the

EPA’s exposure levels. The fixes have cost tens of millions of dollars.

Okun believes that airborne PCBs present a far lower risk than other toxins in schools, such as asbestos, lead and radon. (Last year, Vermont completed a lead remediation program for schools and childcare centers, and all Vermont schools are required to test for radon by June 30 of this year).

“To my knowledge, there are still no human studies that unambiguously link known PCB exposures to severe human health e ects, except in the case of occupational exposures involving PCBs in paint on heated surfaces,” Okun said.

“I’m not saying PCBs are harmless, and I’m not saying they are nontoxic, but compared to these other materials, they are significantly less harmful.”

Removing contaminated building materials is di cult and expensive, he noted. Okun believes that improving a school’s air-handling, or HVAC, system, is a better, easier and cheaper method for lowering airborne PCB levels. It also helps protect against airborne viruses such as COVID-19.

That’s not been the approach in Cabot, where upgrades to the school’s HVAC system, funded by a $316,000 federal grant, are on hold until the scope of the PCB work is determined. Tests that cost $32,000 have found the chemicals in the gym’s ceiling paint; a second round, to cost $17,000, will reveal whether PCBs have leached into ceiling components. Remediation could cost several hundred thousand dollars. Okun suspects that replacing the HVAC system would be a more e ective and cost-e cient solution for addressing the contamination.

Okun said he believes that Vermont

“has opened Pandora’s box” by testing hundreds of schools for airborne PCBs without devising su cient plans to address what those tests reveal. Unlike Hornbuckle, he doesn’t understand why Vermont has set its PCB action levels so much lower than the EPA’s, which he believes are already “very protective.”

“By setting the action levels as low as they did, the o cials set themselves up for a more di cult path to finding solutions,” Okun wrote in an email. For some, the going is already getting expensive.

In Windham Southeast Supervisory Union’s K-8 Oak Grove School, testing found that PCBs are o -gassing from classroom windows. This spring, the district will install plexiglass over the windows to temporarily contain the PCBs, a $13,000 Band-Aid. And in the summer, the district will replace the windows, which will likely cost more than $300,000.

Nine other schools in the district must be tested for PCBs.

“It is unclear to us how the origins of this legislative mandate (scientific basis, rationale, capacity of various sectors to assess and remediate) were contemplated without considering how precarious this is for public schools,” the district’s business administrator, Frank Rucker, wrote in an email. It seems, he added, that there’s a disconnect between the Agency of Education’s need to provide public education and the very real potential that a classroom or school could be shuttered if it exceeds the state-created PCB levels.

Some legislators applaud Vermont’s unique and aggressive approach. Senate Education Committee chair Campion noted that Vermont led the nation with its aggressive PFAS levels for drinking water. Other states have adopted the standards, he said, and the EPA just last week recommended new federal standards that would be even tougher than Vermont’s.

“It is long past time to test for this environmental poison in our schools and address where the problems exist,” Campion said of PCBs.

This Old School

The majority of Vermont’s schools were built decades ago, and many are in poor condition. Woodstock Union High School & Middle School, for example, was constructed in 1959, and its sewage, water and heating systems are failing, according to Windsor Central Supervisory Union superintendent Sherry Sousa. In testimony last month, she told lawmakers that her district “is one toilet flush away from closing a school of 450 students” and backed it up with a slideshow featuring a photo of the decrepit sewage pipes.

Like many schools in the state, Woodstock has deferred maintenance, renovation and construction projects in large part because of their costs. Vermont imposed a moratorium on state aid for school facilities 16 years ago due to a backlog of projects. While nearby states such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island provide robust aid for local school buildings, Vermont does not.

That has led to unsafe and unhealthy learning environments for many and disparities between wealthier and poorer districts. In 2021, the legislature passed Act 72, which called for a school facilities inventory report, in which districts selfreported the deficiencies in their buildings, and a statewide school facilities assessment, done by an outside contractor.

Released last April, the inventory report found “an aging portfolio of key systems” in schools across the state. The facilities assessment, which will look more closely at the condition of school buildings, is due in October.

Senate Education Committee vice chair Martine Gulick (D-Chittenden-Central), who also sits on the Burlington School Board, recently introduced a bill that would take another step: the creation of a school facilities task force. If passed, the panel would meet this summer to “examine, evaluate and report on issues relating to school construction aid” and submit a report with its findings and recommendations next legislative session.

“What we don’t want to happen is for schools to start sinking money into their buildings only to have to tear them down or do a massive renovation in a few years,” Gulick said earlier this month. “That seems a really irresponsible way of handling taxpayer money.” allow any PCB testing currently under way to continue, and the state would cover expenses stemming from PCB mitigation or remediation thus far. The bill would also earmark as much as $16 million to defray the costs of PCB abatement at Burlington High School.

Conlon noted in an interview that, when PCBs are found today, remediation plans are whipped up without considering the long-term needs of a building.

“It continually hampers long-term planning as people sit by and say, ‘Oh, my God, what if they find PCBs?’ before we move ahead with whatever bigger construction plan they have,” Conlon said.

“I think there’s a strong argument to be made that this $190 million rebuild of Burlington isn’t 100 percent of their own making,” Conlon said, suggesting that state-set PCB levels are partly to blame for the situation.

Gulick declined to comment on the House bill. But, like Conlon, she wants the state to take responsibility for what happened in the Queen City.

“It was so disheartening when the level was at 15 nanograms per cubic meter back when Burlington was first examined. That number was so incredibly low,” Gulick said. “Sadly, there has been no acknowledgment of wrongdoing or mistakes made, and there’s been no attempt to try to speak to the harm caused.”

If enough House members vote for Conlon’s bill, it would go to the Senate.

Senate Education Committee chair Campion acknowledges that there are still important questions to hash out this legislative session when it comes to the specifics of funding the PCB program. But, he said, that doesn’t mean the program should be put on hold.

“I mean, what if the next school has a dangerous level and kids are literally going to school every day?” he said.

Sen. Baruth said he agreed that a pause doesn’t make sense, noting that the testing program was designed to root out toxins that impact kids’ health.

“We need that data,” he said. “Are there other schools like Burlington that have extremely elevated counts?”

How Much Is Too Much? PCB standards in Vt.

Federal and Vermont officials provide guidance for exposure to airborne PCBs in schools. Because they consider the potential effects over time, figures are set by grade level or age. Here’s a look at how they compare.

For a decade, Vermont has had a screening level of 15 nanograms per cubic meter, which the Vermont Department of Health says is “the chemical concentration below which no additional actions are recommended.” (A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.)

e figure is so low, state officials acknowledge, that it is comparable to the background level of PCBs in the air.

ese U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exposure levels for evaluating PCBs in schools are not “bright line” or “not-to-exceed” criteria, the agency cautions, but are instead meant to guide thoughtful evaluations.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Some questions should be answered before testing proceeds, he said. For example, should aging schools be required to test for and remediate PCBs when they only have a few years of use remaining? His proposed legislation, to pause the testing, would use the task force in Gulick’s Senate bill to examine the program and determine whether it should be redesigned — or shelved for good.

“This PCB testing program essentially was created without a clear path forward,” Conlon said. “And at the same time, we’re trying to have a much more strategic look at our school construction in general, and the two, I feel, can’t go on in their own silos.”

The House Education Committee voted last Friday to move Conlon’s legislation forward. The measure would

Baruth said the state should “very substantially” help communities that are dealing with PCB contamination but declined to specify whether school districts should be required to cover some percentage of the cost.

O cials in the Agency of Education and Department of Health are also against a testing pause.

“PCBs are a health concern for students, teachers, and other school community members, and pausing testing does not reduce or remove the risk,” Health Commissioner Levine said in his statement. “We plan to continue our work with schools — and the legislature — to address this complex situation, however delaying testing seems counterintuitive to our shared goal.” ➆

Derek Brouwer contributed reporting.

In November 2021, the Vermont Department of Health established “school action levels.” When reached, the state requires that the source of the PCBs be identified and remediated.

In February 2022, the Vermont Department of Health released “immediate action levels” for airborne PCBs that are triple the school action levels. Students and staff cannot occupy spaces with these amounts of PCBs: